Pushing the envelope of fuel consumption

The past two times out, I've ridden duruing peak rush hour, around 4pm. This was partly unintentional, and normally I would avoid rush hour at all costs, but I figured it might be a good way to sharpen my awareness skills.

As it turned out, I also learned what riding hard is all about. Accelerating around cars, and through traffic to avoid heavy zones meant hammering the throttle pretty hard at times. In fact, I pushed the rev limiter on a number of occassions to it's peak in each of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears (on the V-twin Buell, this is around 7500 rpm).

I also noticed that my miles per gallon fuel consumption dropped significantly. With about 3 gallons of gas, I can normally go around 150 miles - this doesn't include the reserve tank, which I believe would push me another 30 miles. This time, however, my 3 gallons only took my 70 miles total over two rides, or about 23 miles per gallon. This is what I used to get with my old Acura almost 10 years ago now - wow!

So I guess that means rush hour takes a bit more out of your gas mileage than your typical day in NYC.