2018 300RR/Xtrainer fuel mileage?

[mferring1]

Hey folks. I know you have discussed gas mileage for the 2 strokes on occasion. I currently have a 2017 500 RR-S and put the 4g IMS tank on it just to make sure I have the range for trips. I rarely fill it all the way, but I can if I need to.

I am now considering getting either a 2018 300RR or a Xtrainer more for my local rides in the Cloudcroft area of NM (most rides from 7000-9500 ft). I know that I can get the 4g for the 300RR, but it looks like there is only a 3g IMS tank for the Xtrainer.

My understanding is that fuel mpg for these carburated 2 strokes can be on the order of the low 20's. I am 61 and have reasonable skills. But often ride alone and therefore ride very cautiously in these rocky  trails to minimize chances of a fall where I get stranded (do carry an  inreach just in case).

Do any of you know whether the 2018 versions have any improvements in gas mileage and what mpg I might expect for my riding style and conditions? There are some rides here where I need to get around 60-70 mi round trip from a gas station. half of that would be on a paved road with potentially better mileage. I know I can add the 4g to the 300 and should be able to make it, but it looks like there is no option for the Xtrainer.

I have read many reviews of the new FI 2 strokes and know there are many opinions that the carburated bikes are better. But I have to admit that I am tempted simply for the 30-40% improvement in fuel mileage.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

[mtdirtbag]

While I do not ride at those elevations most of the time, I can do 70 miles with my 3.2 gallon tank on my 2014 300 RR during a spirited trail ride of 90% or more single track. While not climbing all the time these are rides consisting of numerous elevation changes. You may want to consider a Lectron as wwguy has reported good mileage and he seeks out rough rock crawling trails on an Xtrainer, I don't remember if he has a larger tank or not.

[wwguy]

Generally speaking I think you'd be fine with the RR and near the limits of the Xtrainer's stock tank.  Personally I don't like riding my Xtrainer on roads any farther than necessary to link trails.  With the two stroke engine characteristics I feel like I'm riding a chainsaw down the road.  It's significantly buzzier and less pleasant for road riding than my WR250R four stroke.

But fuel economy and range on these bikes is difficult to normalize for sake of discussions like this.  It depends on a lot of variable factors that differ from bike to bike, rider to rider, and sometimes day to day.  Speed, gearing, terrain, riding style, carb jetting, fuel quality, elevation, ambient weather etc. all come in to play.  On my 2016 Xtrainer with stock 2.2 gallon tank I've ridden as few as 40 miles on tight steep singletrack and as far as 80 miles on mixed singletrack and forest roads before hitting the reserve fuel level in my tank. 

A typical elevation profile for me is shown in the image below, but it doesn't really capture the variations in speed, gears, and RPM etc.



The 2.9 gallon IMS tank only buys you an extra 0.7 gallons over the stock 2.2 gallon tank, which isn't much additional capacity for $290.  A lot of what you're paying for is just the convenience of carrying a bit more fuel in the tank.  For about the same price you can buy a rear fender rack, 1 gallon Rotopax fuel canister, and mounting hardware.  It's not as convenient as the larger gas tank, but capacity is greater.  Just another option to consider.  My setup for this is below:


 

When not carrying extra fuel the fender rack comes in handy for carrying other items too.  

Edited May 30, 2018 by wwguy

[mferring1]

Thanks guys. wwguy, appreciate the detailed info and the nice graph. Are you using the Lectron to get these numbers, or the stock carb?

[wwguy]

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that I'm running a 36mm Lectron with 50:1 premix.  In the summertime I sometimes ride as high as 10,000' with as much as 5,000' elevation gain in one ride. My primary justification for the Lectron was to mitigate the need to make jetting changes (because I'm no good at that) but the additional fuel economy helped me to justify the cost.

I do get better fuel economy with the Lectron than I did with the stock carb.  I probably couldn't have done that 80 mile ride on the stock carb without hitting reserve and/or adding a bit of gas towards the end.  I usually also coast with the bike in neutral and the engine off on extended downhill sections to save fuel.  Looking at my ride elevation profile in the image above I probably did that at least 5 times on that ride, and maybe as many as 10.

If you're possibly considering a Lectron it's worth noting that it's not compatible with Beta's oil injection (which I'm not a fan of anyway.)  It's also a super-tight fit for the Lectron in the Xtrainer's more compact chassis without rubbing the air intake boot against the shock spring.  I'm running a Fox RC2 shock that has a smaller diameter spring than the stock Xtrainer shock, which buys me the space I need for the Lectron.  I don't think would be an issue on the 300 RR though, as it has a bigger frame in most all dimensions.

[mferring1]

OK, thanks much. Interesting info.

[shrubitup]

3 hours ago, wwguy said:

  For about the same price you can buy a rear fender rack, 1 gallon Rotopax fuel canister, and mounting hardware.  It's not as convenient as the larger gas tank, but capacity is greater.  Just another option to consider. 

Great post! Who makes the rack and the chain saw mount?

[weantright]

We get 30-35mpg out our XTrainer WITH the float adjusted and using the Suzuki needle. We have the 3gal tank and it's bigger but maybe .5 useable gallons. Another .2gal is in there but the bike will need to be lifted to get into the fuel line, no cross over line. Personally I have used a dromedary water bag to carry fuel and after use roll up and strap outside of backpack. This gives me the extra gallon needed for the long trips while keeping the tank stock which is nice.

https://www.msrgear.com/water/dromedary-bags

[ervinrif]

I get between 25 and 30 mpg on my 2016 Xtrainer with standard carburetor. Over 5000' I need to drop the low speed, the needle, and the main. 

[mferring1]

30-35 is not bad weantright. Thanks for the info and how you achieved it.

I have the Beta rear rack and rotopax hardware. I have a WR250R also and have regularly loaded that bad boy up with weight, including the Rotopax. WIth the 3g IMS tank I can go forever.

However, for the Beta, I have kinda gone from loading up the bike to keeping everything extraneous in my Klim backpack. I ride pretty gnarly trails sometimes and I feel that the bike works much better on the hard stuff "unencumbered" by weighting it at non design points. But certainly something I could do for more dual sport type riding.

I guess I could just go for the 300RR with the 4g tank (I am used to it as I have the same basic one on my 500RR and the extra width does not really bother me.) and only fill it up full when required.

I guess I have to learn how to adjust carbs too. Wow, talk about an old/new science for me!

Or wait, probably forever, for FI Beta 2 stroke models.

[wwguy]

 

2 hours ago, shrubitup said:

Great post! Who makes the rack and the chain saw mount?

Thanks!  The rack is made in the USA for Beta by Nomadic Cycle Racks.  I bought mine from Beta but the same rack appears to be available for less $$ directly from Nomadic.  I bought the Rotopax fuel canister adapter for the rack directly from Nomadic.  Rotopax canisters and pack mounts are available from Nomadic and a variety of other internet sources.

The chain saw carrier is made here in Idaho by Pro Moto Billet (a.k.a. Fastway) and is also available from RMATV.  It's intended to fit PMB's billet fender racks, but I've easily adapted mine to fit a couple of other rack brands too.  For the Nomadic Beta rack I cut down a small UHMW cutting board to serve as a spacer to lift the carrier away from the rack a bit to accommodate the two different tubing sizes Nomadic used in their rack design. 

Edited May 30, 2018 by wwguy

[shrubitup]

1 hour ago, weantright said:

We get 30-35mpg out our XTrainer WITH the float adjusted and using the Suzuki needle.

Do you have the spec for 15 300rr float height? I don't have a manual. 

[weantright]

Save you time looking in the manual!

First pic is Beta salesmen

Second is Beta engineers

Third is how to measure from a race team

Forth is float spec by Keihin, Beta's need to use the PWM setting. Adjust height +/- for fine tuning for your conditions.

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by weantright

[shrubitup]

1 hour ago, weantright said:

Save you time looking in the manual!

First pic is Beta salesmen

Second is Beta engineers

Third is how to measure from a race team

Forth is float spec by Keihin, Beta's need to use the PWM setting. Adjust height +/- for fine tuning for your conditions.

 

Nice, 6.5mm it is then. I bet I'm way off now and will save whole lotta fuel!

[nocturnal]

I have a 2018 Xtrainer. So far, my mpg has varied from 21 to 30. At the recommendation of a friend, I purchased this fuel container. LINK It does not leak or seep fumes. As an initial test, I filled it with gasoline, shook it vigorously, then left it upside down for a week. It fits in in a backpack and in one side of my Giant Loop Mojavi saddle bag. It fits in the Mojavi like is was part of the set. I could easily carry one in each side. 

[Guest]

On 5/30/2018 at 4:00 PM, wwguy said:

 

Thanks!  The rack is made in the USA for Beta by Nomadic Cycle Racks.  I bought mine from Beta but the same rack appears to be available for less $$ directly from Nomadic.  I bought the Rotopax fuel canister adapter for the rack directly from Nomadic.  Rotopax canisters and pack mounts are available from Nomadic and a variety of other internet sources.

The chain saw carrier is made here in Idaho by Pro Moto Billet (a.k.a. Fastway) and is also available from RMATV.  It's intended to fit PMB's billet fender racks, but I've easily adapted mine to fit a couple of other rack brands too.  For the Nomadic Beta rack I cut down a small UHMW cutting board to serve as a spacer to lift the carrier away from the rack a bit to accommodate the two different tubing sizes Nomadic used in their rack design. 

To the OP I rode a Beta Xtrainer on a 67 mile single track ride with elevations of 4000-10000 and I did have to use reserve but didn’t run out of gas. I was on the pipe occasionally too. The bike was jetted for elevation but Stock otherwise.

Wwguy, Interesting rack thanks for sharing. How does the bike ride with the chain saw on the back rack? Is there a reason you chose back rack versus front for chain saw? Thanks

Edited June 1, 2018 by Guest

[wwguy]

14 hours ago, Montanahusky said:

Wwguy, Interesting rack thanks for sharing. How does the bike ride with the chain saw on the back rack? Is there a reason you chose back rack versus front for chain saw? Thanks

My saw weighs 10.5 lbs. and the carrier adds another 3 lbs.  I can definitely feel extra weight back there when I'm working the suspension hard, especially in steep uphill climbs where I occasionally have to loft the front end over rocks or roots etc.  In those situations it's challenging to get the front wheel back down on the ground.  Twice I've looped the bike in really gnarly stuff.  I've since learned to recognize those potential situations and now dismount and walk the saw past them when I can.

My primary reason for choosing the rear mount was that I already had the fender rack, which I also use to carry extra fuel on longer rides as mentioned above.  Fork mount would probably be preferable on my bike, since I've replaced the Xtrainer's weak stock forks with 48mm CC Zokes, but I haven't been able to source or build a rack that matches my Echo saw to my Boano triples and the Beta fender.  (I've looked at several though.)

My least favorite place to carry it is on my back, even though that means I don't need the 3 lb carrier plate.  Having that extra weight along with my 2L hydro bladder makes it exhausting when riding over rough terrain all day.

IMHO there's not really a good place to carry a saw on a bike.  Every location has a performance trade-off, so there's a price to pay no matter where I carry it.  But having the saw when I really need it is priceless.

Edited June 1, 2018 by wwguy

[mferring1]

Thanks for the info guys. Nocturnal, the link for the fuel container you used did not seem to work for me. Can you give more info on this container please?

Edited June 2, 2018 by mferring1
Mispelled.

[nocturnal]

On 6/2/2018 at 4:30 PM, mferring1 said:

Thanks for the info guys. Nocturnal, the link for the fuel container you used did not seem to work for me. Can you give more info on this container please?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001OPHHCY/ref=sxr_rr_xsim_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=4518303533042278392&pd_rd_wg=q8p4a&pf_rd_r=3Q0ZZ3ANBD1T0G38T2MY&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B001OPHHCY&pd_rd_w=09YQQ&pf_rd_i=nalgene+bottle&pd_rd_r=4411cb01-bd1c-474a-9920-8be3c8699bd0&ie=UTF8&qid=1528124816&sr=1

 

[weantright]

When you're done using that .5gal now you have a bulky item holding air. Seriously this https://www.msrgear.com/water/dromedary-bags is well worth the money for carrying gas for those that need extra gas occasionally.