Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I realize that all you have really great MPGs but honestly you arn't comparing apples to apples. The regular dirver drives 80+ (at least in ATL where I live) all the time. Does anyone drive that speed and have effency restults for it.

I drive a VW Diesel, no the hybrids didn't match the efficeny and size and availability that I needed. I only get 40ish MPG, but I have horrible bikes on the roof, and drive 80-90 MPH. And I do love windows down but use the AC whenever I feel the need. I was just wondering if anyone here drove about 75ish instead of the joke speed limit of 55 inside large cities.

Also does anyone have hybrid (preferably civic, or prius) efficency with a bike or 4 on the roof. I bought the Diesel in thoughts that the massive torque, and lack of aerodynamic MPG assistance, to cart around my bikes. I want a little comparison. I get about 32MPG@85MPH and two bikes on the roof.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I read this and wondered if you were serious (maybe your are...):

• Windows down
• Sometimes use A/C
• Bikes on top
• Going 80mph

I'd guess your Cd might be 0.40 - about what a Dodge Ram gets.

I drive a 5-speed Insight in the Dallas area. The first 2-3 years I'd do 80mph or more often than I do these days. Low 40s is the mpg I got going that speed. Doing 80 must be important to you if you realize you probably could be doing 60-70mpg at 60mph.

Dallas has a lot of NASCAR wannbes too. I cope with them staying in the rightmost lane, sometimes avoiding the freeway, driving at non-peak hours. To be candid, I think you could do the same and not feel in danger.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

No I don't do windows down and AC. It is either or. But yes I do drive 80+ all the time. I did drive some around 60ish but I have a hard time going 600miles without a single 80+ MPH trip. I got a max of about 48. But again I did slip a few times during the 650miles.

I have always driven fast, and well fall into old habits. But I think that i would max at about 50-52 mpg going hole hog gas savings, but with bikes on the roof almost everyweekend my mpg is always going to be killed, not to mention the rack that is always up there.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Is it possible to get a bumper-mount bike rack to reduce the drag?

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Sorta, you can get a rack that straps to your trunk. Tends to mark up the paint and doesn't really keep the bikes from knockng together. Max 3 bikes this way. I actually have a 2 bike verison, but when your bikes cost ~$2000 you don't really want them hanging off the back rubbing each other.

You can get better hitch mount bike racks, some of which are really nice, but you have to get a hitch, and get the rack that sticks of the back of your car. Most of these types also have the problem of bikes knocking/rubbing one another.

Lastly I can put 5 bikes on top of my car, all very secure. Cant't do that any other way without a trailer. And although I don't carry 4 or 5 bikes all that often it happens on a regular enough basis to warrent the roof rack. Half of my cars work is to bring people to bike races.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

You do have a point on the bikes. I'm going to have to take a VERY CLOSE look at racks if I ever get a bike and consider the Triathalon training....

I'm afraid 40mpg is about as good as it gets for what you are doing - at least in 2005.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

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Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

DF are you suggesting that a TDI could get 60-70mpg? You can hit that kind of mileage in your Insight but there is no way a TDI is gonna get 60-70mpg at 60 mph.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

lakedude, I was wrong on the TDI mpg estimates at 60mpg - sorry.

They have to be considerably better at 60mph than 80mph however.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I do have a bike rack on my HCH. It is a hitch mount Yakima that is supposed to be able to carry 4 bikes. I have noticed that with 1 hybrid style bike, going around 60 - 65, I was getting in the upper 40's. Of course this is starting from the upper 40's anyway, but the mileage did drop noticeably with the bike at these speeds. Around town with 2 or 3 bikes I don't notice a drop in mileage.

Billy

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

ElSupreme, I'm getting 61mpg average out of my Civic but to get that my average speed is around 40mph. The fastest I've gone for any lenght of time is around 70mph. At 70mph the mileage drops to the mid to high 40ies. At 70mph AC use will drop the mileage in the mid to low 40ies. You can guess that the mileage at 80-85mph with AC and roof racks is going to be in the thirties.

I honestly would not suggest a hybrid for your application.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

If you want to drive fast (within reason, of course), that's your perogative. Just like if someone else wants to drive slow (again, within reason), that's their perogative. Don't let anyone chastise you for doing 80 mph in a 70 mph zone.

The interstate between Phoenix and Tucson is four lane divided and marked for 75 mph. I set my cruise at 80 mph and hardly touch the brakes for over 100 miles. I averaged 37.5 mpg on that stretch. But, that's when I had less than 2,000 miles on my car. I've been reading on this forum that the mpg should improve slightly now that I have over 4,000 miles on it. Although, I've never driven with bikes mounted to the roof! But also, if I ever take my bikes out, I throw them into the back of my truck.

This is Sort Of What the Question Sounds Like
 

While the reasons for driving at 80 with bikes, etc may sound rational, doing it while expecting better fuel economy than 40mpg is not. It's kind of like eating fast food daily and expecting to have six-pack abs. You seldom have your cake and eat it.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

lol in canada our max speed limit on hwy 1 is like 90km/h,(50) but most people like to go 100k/h(60), **** im glad i don't live in teh speedy states. I like 80km/h since my honda purrs at 2000 RPMs.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I drive pretty regularly in ATL. I realize that, at least on all the major interstates represented in Spaghetti Junction (the ones I am familiar with), the 55 mph speed limit really just encourages everyone to go 75+. It is hard to travel at economical speeds when so many people around you are whizzing by.

I, too, used to be an incredible speed demon before I got my hybrid. I would do 85 mph easily in Atlanta. Then I got my hybrid, and the instantanous fuel economy feedback changed the way I drive, such that going over 60 is now a painful experience for me. When I go to Atlanta now, I drive 55-60 mph, and sure most people whizz right by me. There are, however, some people in the slow lane that will do my preferred speed, and I can stick with them. I know old habits die hard, but to be honest, I don't think there really is a "preferred car" for the speeds you want to go. They all suck down the gas going so fast. You're probably better off just getting the car with the lowest coefficient of drag - which happen to be the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius at .25 and .26, respectively. The Prius is pretty bike-rack friendly, too.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Same here. I did the Phoenix, AZ to Boulder, CO stretch and back for Thanksgiving weekend. The highway is 75mph limit for at least 80-85% of the mileage with my GPS showing an average speed of about 68mph for the whole trip, which includes stops at stoplights and stuff; not just the moving average. The moving average was only another half mph or so higher.

Anyway, it's 965 miles each way which means you're looking at about a 15 hour trip. Although I'd loved to have slowed down another 5mph or so and driven with load (slow on uphills) to improve FE, it simply would not be possible to do the drive in a single day if I had done so. As such, my HX could only manage 37.4mpg. That in the form of 1925.5 miles and 51.45 gallons consumed for the whole trip.

I had been hoping for better since 85% of the trip is above 4500 feet elevation (elevation helps FE) but driving into 20mph headwinds at 5000rpm floored in 3rd gear just to hold 75mph on an uphill doesn't do good things for FE. Like I said though, sometimes a trip simply is not possible if you can't hold that high velocity. I'd be curious to see how I would have done in a diesel, but I'm not convinced it would have been appreciably better. No vehicle gets excellent FE if you have to be floored all the time.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Oops! Seeing my quote in your thread made me realize I did a typo in my original post. It's supposed to read 37.5 MPG! Not, mph... :confused: My average speed was 68.5 mph.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...5.10.23_FE.jpg

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Same stretch of road this past weekend, I got an average of 41-43 mpg. So yeah, it did improve with mileage. I didn't get a pic, but the FCD read 39.8 mpg at fuel-up. It read higher, but I stopped off at a mall (I forgot it was going to be a mad rush because of the Thanksgiving Day weekend shopping crowd) and watched as the display decremented during all that parking lot stop and go driving.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...5.11.28002.jpg

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Yeah I think my engine is getting tired and worn out. I've never gotten much better than 39mpg for the Phx-Tuc-Phx roundtrip, and that's with my HX being rated at 44mpg highway. The Accord really does have an impressive motor!

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Okay, now I think I've got my pics mixed up! :confused:

The first pic is of my trip back from Vegas, the long way. South, by Laughlin, through CA, down to I-10, and east to Phoenix.

The second pic is of my trip from just south of Tucson to the west valley of Phoenix.

But anyways, The point was, I got 37 mpg the last time I went from Tucson to Phoenix. This time, I got 42 mpg. (but the FCD only shows 39 mpg because I stopped off at a busy shopping mall parking lot :( on the way back) And, the first time I did the drive, it was about 100 degrees! This last time, it was about 70.

All these posts and cross-posts are confusing me! :P

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I just wanna throw out there that there are some cities (I'm just begging for a crucifixion from Hot_Georgia) - Atlanta is one of them - where it actually is hazardous to drive the speed limit or anywhere near. Atlanta in particular I drive about 4 times a year, including this past week. The I-75 / I-85 merger through downtown is awful; it's 6 lanes one way and each time you want to continue either straight north or straight south, you're forced into the 3 leftmost lanes. It's a 55 MPH limit and doing 60, I got passed by EVERY last car I saw, most of which were so hyperaggressive that they'd fly wildly by on my right and then pop back into the northbound/southbound lane just in time not to turn off to Alabama or SC. I'd do 80 if that was my everyday commute, too.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I drive 80+ mph whenever possible with my new 2006 Civic Hybrid, though usually I've been maintaining 80 mph exactly, not using cruise control. I drive with the windows up and have rarely been using A/C though... and right now I seem to be getting 41 mpg on the highway. Since the gas engine alone is used on the highway 90% of the time with the HCH, a diesel will obviously get better mileage, even though the '06 HCH is much more aerodynamic than any Volkswagen.

And I'm sure your diesel suffers less from having bikes on the roof than the hybrids will.

The TDIs definitely have their benefits, but they have their drawbacks too -- namely, they're VWs, so their reliability is poor. Also I like the new Civics better than Jettas, and I've owned (and liked) both.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Well, I'm definitely going to come off as a "Johnny Law" type but here goes. As a former 80+ plus mph driver I can sure agree with a lot of previous posts. It's easy to rationalize speeding because everyone else is doing it. I sure did. But a funny thing happened when I bought my 05 Prius. I decided it was not in my best interest to spend money for a fuel conserving auto and then continue my deliberate fuel wasting driving habits. The disadvantage is I have to leave a few minutes (3-5) earlier to get where I'm going. But now I am calm when I arrive at my destination and don't need to spend 10 minutes relaxing :). I still look out my rear view mirror and now its to look out for the "old" me instead of trying to see if there is a cop entering the roadway behind me. Looking forward to your replies. :)

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I don't do it because everyone else is doing it. I do it because I enjoy speeding. I like driving fast. I don't race cars, but I like to race motorcycles. But even so, I like going fast in cars, as well. By buying the hybrid, I help conserve a bit more fuel than if I were driving a non hybrid. So, no disadvantage. Even after buying the HAH, I still speed. But! Now I have a few more dollars left in my wallet at the end of the week. :)

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

My sentiments exactly. I was averaging 21 mpg with my previous car; now, on my latest tank, I'm getting 40.5. So my money was well spent even though I still speed. (Plus I just like the car alot, too.)

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Oh, and that is in addition to all the other benefits of driving a hybrid:
-environmental
-socioeconomical
-less middle east oil dependency
-(albeit, small) tax breaks

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I used to drive 75-85 MPH,but then I only got 40-41 MPG. I get 44-46 doing 65 MPH.

Also, I'm giving the engine a break since I am curious to see if I can get 200,000 miles out of this car. I've got 90k now.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

:shade: 200K?? Sheesh, with it's eyes closed AND one arm tied behind it's back.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I'm pretty much coming from a similar background. I had had a rash of tickets in the late 90s. Need to repeat one point of a Defensive Driving class:
In other words, cutting off, speeding, weaving, "racing", etc. tends to be done by a lot of drivers that would not otherwise do it, except it was initiated by a few. I have noticed when I was driving faster that I'd go slower when traffic was light.

In other words, speeding is not only a traffic violation and wasting fuel, it seduces others to do the same.

While some speeding is stress-related, it's apparanent a lot of it is one-upsmanship and the like. I frequently see some one blast by that I pass later on. The urban speeding is partially a result of congestion, not necessiarily stress.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

That's pretty interesting. I bet that is because a lot of people rationalize they're less liekly to be ticketed if so many other people are doing it. That was usually my approach when I used to speed more -- watch how fast the fastest guys are going, and stay a few MPH below that, staying clear of the far left lane except for passing.

For the last few months, with an attempt to improve mileage, I've normally been driving around ~60-65. However, now I'm dong an experiment to see what I can average driving 70-75mph, yet still using other mileage saving techniques (DWL etc) for my regular drive. I actually find this somewhat less stressful than driving at or below the speed limit. As a result, this is probably what I will settle for in the long run. When driving in the rightmost lanes, I have to constantly be alert for slow trucks getting on the road (forcing me to decelerate than re-accelerate), and faster-than-average drivers trying to get over to exit (making changing to avoid slower drivers etc. very difficult). In the middle to left lanes, I can simply go with the flow and arrive a couple minutes sooner as well.

Also, based on average FCD readings, I calculated that the price of the time saved by driving 75 instead of 60 in the Civic Hybrid is only about $3.75/hour. (This figure would be much higher in a car with lower MPGs). I suspect that because fuel is so cheap as is, we will only see the general public slowing down if fuel goes over $5. The relatively small cost difference also explains why truckers like to drive so fast as well, if it means fitting in an extra shipment, I bet that more than pays for the extra fuel cost.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Driving 80mph on the freeways I get about 43-44 mpg.

If you drive a car rated 30 mpg highway 80 on the freeway it will probably get 25 mpg or so. EPA tests are calculated around 60mph I believe.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

Actually the EPA tests highway mileage at 48 mph, believe it or not. City is at 24 mph, with some stops. There's very little FE difference between 48 and 60 mph, though.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

That's slightly misleading, in that the EPA highway test is an average of 48mph. They still hit 60mph for the EPA highway test, it's just not for very long. It's mainly a series of accelleration and decelleration in the 40-55mph range. In order to get an average of 60mph from the same type of test, they would be hitting peak speeds of 72mph, which is obviously a whole different story in terms of fuel efficiency.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

EISupreme,

Could you please explain how you are getting the milage you are getting with a bike on your roof. I'm having a hard time believing that you are getting 40ish and driving 80+mph. I would believe a figure in the high 30s. Explain how you came to these numbers.

Thanks

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I get in the low to mid 40's with a Prius II going 60mpg with an 18' sea kayak on top.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

I drove to Texas, set the cruise at 85 mph managed to only stop 2 1/2 times for gas.. My inlaws drove thier dodge 1500 V-8 and stopped 7 times for gas..



No, I did not rub it in to much..:P

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

We tested 2 05's for street duty drove them to Miami Fl. and back traveled 512 miles refueled in titusville Fl. with 2 bars left showing on the gauge.

Thats some mileage, and they passed the test.. Unmarked Prius's are cool..

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

A friend of mine just drove (the scenic way) from FL to AZ in his Dodge 2500 turbo diesel. Averaged 9 mpg the whole way. Of course, he was pulling a boat. But still! That's a lot of gas.

Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

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Re: Does anyone drive 80 MPH? or with bikes?
 

you guys have really long commutes (over 200*km?). No wonder you all love your 120 km/h (80mph) speeds... godda save those 10 minutes... for how much! =P
Most of my commutes averages from 20-30 km (10-15*miles) a drive & I'm always in the city. Besides going 120 km/h (80*mph) here in B.C anyways... your looking at a ticket so no point ever exceeding 100 km/h unless you have a really nice car whom you want to show off to.

other than that what a completely waste of money, the 5 minutes saved you just sit on your *** when you get home from work anyway. I prefer the couple of bucks because one day its going to be a difference of a regular Macdonalds meal... or one that is super sized!

Then again most of you guys that own a hybrid of their own is well off anyway:)


Phil