Post 4,000 Mile Service Question.

[NLJ]

Thisis kind of a stab in the dark since you didn't mention exactly what was serviced, but...



Perhaps an improper air filter, to small, or different material allowing less air flow, hense the lower mileage.



But then again I'm an idiot with motorcycle mechanics so this is purely a vague idea.

[jhinton]

It would help if you told us what a 4000K mile service involves. But just a few ideas that don't involve the dealer screwing something up.



· First, gas guages on motorcycles are about useless so I would disregard that.

· Second, on you first tank after the service did you top off the tank? If not, you may have had a fuel pump that shut off a bit early. If you are going to keep track of mileage you need to top of to the same place every tank.

· Did you have any accessories installed during the service, saddle bags, windshield, etc? When I put my windshield on my mileage drops from low forties to about the mid thirties.

[Buzglyd]

Maybe they stuffed a few gypsies in the saddlebags of your nomad and the extra weight is killing your mileage.

[iamz]

Did they put a higher weight oil in than came out?

[mscuddy]

Sounds like big oil is plotting with the bike dealerships to rake in even more obscene profits. Don't take it back, or soon you'll be getting the gas mileage of a '58 Buick Roadmaster. With air.



VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

[Mike_L]

I don't own a Nomad, but getting 31mpg out of a tank on a bike that normally gets 37mpg doesn't seem like that big of a jump. My bike normally gets ~50mpg, but it's not unusual to see a tank only return 40mpg depending on riding conditions. Also, unless your fuel guage is remarkably accurate I don't think you can use it to determine when an exact gallon is burned. I'd run through another tank or two and check the mileage again before returning to the dealer.

[johnnyb]

Sorry, Sigerson, but at 4000 miles your kawasaki is way long in the tooth. Rings loose, pistons rattling round like rusty cans. I would offload this and get one of the beautiful new Star cruisers, a Stratoliner is far superior. Does your Nomad have carburetors? How archaic!!



Actually, if the valves clearances tightened up and the mechanic brought them back to spec, you got more cam timing, more power, and decreased mileage. In another 4000 miles you will be back to slow and 37mpg maybe.

[Tigercub]

If you are going to worry about gas mileage on a regular basis, then you have to check spark plugs on a regular basis.



You can't put 16% more gas through the motor, which is the difference between 37 and 31mpg, without the plugs getting a little darker. If you don't look at them regularly you won't know what they looked like at 37mpg, so start now.



The post above may be spot on with the suggestion that you haven't carefully measured your fuel mileage.



Finally, if you can't check your own spark plugs on this machine - dump it and buy a real bike. If you can't measure things carefully and keep track of plug condition, fluid levels, fuel mileage, valve gap, etc. then fer crise-sakes stop worrying about it!!

[xlr8r]

Another stab in the dark, but does the Nomad have fuel injection? If so, there may be a plug-in module somewhere (under the seat?) which gives the system its map. If that module has been disconnected by the dealer - to plug in diagnostic software, say - and not put back, then the system will default to it's 'no-map' values, which are usually much richer than the mapped values, and that leads to more fuel being used. This happened to me with my R1100R: with module in place, it does 48mpg; without it, it did 40. Maybe something similar is happening to your Nomad?

[03zx12r]

Maybe they just ran the hell out of it on a test drive. A heavy throttle hand goes a long way when it comes to bad fuel mileage.