I recently took a 1,500 miles five day trip to Sacramento Delta, Woodside (Alice's Restaurant), Soquel, Watsonville, Gilroy, Monterey, Carmel Valley, Greenfield, Morro Bay, Arroyo Grande, Ventura, Oxnard, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Malibu, Cambria, Ragged Point, Big Sur, Mt Hamilton, and The Junction, Patterson... 160, 4, 580, 92, 35, Soquel San Jose Rd, Soquel Dr, Freedom Blvd, 152, Mt Madonna, Elkhorn Rd, 156, 1, Carmel Valley Rd, Robinson Canyon Rd, 101, 41, Los Osos Valley Rd, Turri Rd, Foxen Canyon Rd, Tepusquet Rd, 154, 405, PCH, Old Creek Rd, Santa Rosa Creek Rd, Quimby Rd, Mt Hamilton Rd, San Antonio Valley Rd, Del Puerto Canyon Rd, I-5. All asphalt.
I say this to show the diverse locations and roads I traveled... I cruised some of the roads, rode to piss out of the twisties, WFO on the back road one laners, freeway'd the freeways, grid lock in LA traffic, fell in love with Big Sur Hwy (again), scared to crap out of myself on Mt Hamilton, and paced 75 mph traffic on I-5...
I am the guy who recently was whining about getting 40 MPG around home. This trip I got as high as 50 MPG (2.2 gal @ 111 miles) and as low as 42 MPG but probably averaged 44-45 MPG for the trip. I contribute the difference in MPG to cold weather (not good) and the number of cold start ups per tank (not good). Many of the tanks on the trip were no cold start ups and all of the tanks had warmer weather.
I am running the stock windshield in the low position, OEM side cases, 220 lbs rider, seat in the low position... Also learning to run the engine 4,000-6,000 RPMs.