MPL (?) -> MPG unit conversion

shands

shands

Stuart
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
21
Location
Warrington, UK
Bike
XVS1300 Sidecar comb
Sorry guys if this subject has been done to death - but I've Google'd around finding nothing and this is just driving me nutty now!!

Recently switched to a 2005 ST1300, from the 11 - and all is well and good... apart from the units used for the fuel consumption.

Now, I'm in the UK and the odometer reads in miles (all well and good). However, the fuel consumption is measured in miles per litre (!?) - whereas I'm after it in mpg. Does anyone have any ideas how to do this?

The owners manual (a US version, obtained online) simply says to hold the FCD/H whilst in the 'No indication' mode for >2 seconds. This only seems to toggle between shifting the odometer between km & miles and the fuel consumption into miles per litre & km per litre (neither of these mean anything to me)

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Damn those pesky Europeans and their km/litre systems!!!

(again, sorry if this has been covered before)
 
The miles per gallon indication is available only on STs sold in the North American market. Multiplying the miles per liter figure by 3.785 will get you miles per gallon.

I've always bought petrol in the UK by the liter. Are there parts of the country where it's sold by the gallon?

--Mark
 
According to a 2007 Pan Am "E" version manual, I find the following:

An excerpt from Pg 23:
"The E type uses mile/l or km/l, the ED, F, and U type in km/l or l/100km"

An exact quote from Pg 27:
"Mileage and Fuel Consumption Unit Change
The odometer/tripmeter displays either "km" or "mile". (E type only)
The current/average fuel consumption meter displays either "km/l" or "mile/l" (E type) / "km/l" or "l/100km" (ED, F and U type).
Press the FCD/H button to get the fuel consumption meter display shown below.
Press and hold the FCD/H button for more than 2 seconds to select."

[Baker's comment: the sketches provided on pg 27 to accompany the above quote are basically useless.]

Regarding conversion factors, here's a descent one:
http://www.mpgtokpl.com/mpgtompl.htm
 
Blrfl said:
I've always bought petrol in the UK by the liter. Are there parts of the country where it's sold by the gallon?
Click to expand...

Once upon a time, we did used to buy fuel by the gallon. Since the metric change - yes, it is now purchased by the litre - but fuel consumption is typically measured in miles per the gallon.

All the car's I've owned with trip computers have all measured in mpg (Fords, Vauxhall, etc). Even modern advertisements for cars over here tout slogans like "Does xxx mpg", etc. Driving into work this morning (my first real ride aboard the ST13) - I don't know if the figure it's quoting is a particularly good or not - mpl is foreign to me! (Any other brits have any views on this subject?)

On the continent, however, they have litres/km's as commonplace units of measure - so I can see how this way of working would apply over there for them.

Has anyone ever attempted modification of European clocks to kick out mpg instead of mpl? Or is my best bet to purchase a set of US clocks?
 
Last edited:
Actually, I've just realised a flaw in the swapping-of-the-clocks plan. There are 3.785 l in 1 US gallon, but 4.546 l in an imperial gallon.

The bike currently reads 7.5 mpl. By UK terms, that'd equate to ~34mpg. Using the US gallon, that'd be ~28mpg.

Forget the MPG for now, I know it's not comparable to the 40++ people have been getting on here (Traffic, blah, blah, brakes binding, blah). I'm guessing, imperial will be the chosen 'mpg' format of other vehicles over here. Maybe this is why Honda opted to railroad us down the mpl - to rule out any confusion of economy figures between the versions? Who knows.

Not to worry though, time to put this to rest I think. An annoyance, but looks to be one to live with - thanks for your input all!!
 
shands said:
Once upon a time, we did used to buy fuel by the gallon. Since the metric change - yes, it is now purchased by the litre - but fuel consumption is typically measured in miles per the gallon.
Click to expand...

I wonder if they keep doing that because the numbers are larger and there's less need to abandon whole numbers to express meaningful differences.

As engines started to shrink during the 1970s and 1980s, American manufacturers switched to liters from cubic inches. I can only assume they did so because it was a lot easier to sell a 2.2 liter engine whose 134 cubic inches wouldn't have played well in a market that was accustomed to driving cars with 318s, 383s and 440s.

--mark
 
Blrfl said:
I can only assume they did so because it was a lot easier to sell a 2.2 liter engine whose 134 cubic inches wouldn't have played well in a market that was accustomed to driving cars with 318s, 383s and 440s.

--mark
Click to expand...

Careful Mark, your Mopar is showing... :D
 
shands said:
Actually, I've just realised a flaw in the swapping-of-the-clocks plan. There are 3.785 l in 1 US gallon, but 4.546 l in an imperial gallon.

The bike currently reads 7.5 mpl. By UK terms, that'd equate to ~34mpg. Using the US gallon, that'd be ~28mpg.

Forget the MPG for now, I know it's not comparable to the 40++ people have been getting on here (Traffic, blah, blah, brakes binding, blah). I'm guessing, imperial will be the chosen 'mpg' format of other vehicles over here. Maybe this is why Honda opted to railroad us down the mpl - to rule out any confusion of economy figures between the versions? Who knows.

Not to worry though, time to put this to rest I think. An annoyance, but looks to be one to live with - thanks for your input all!!
Click to expand...

In (mainland) Europe and over here in Oz, they use litres/100km. Now that's totally meaningless to me! I like proper UK mpg, or km/l.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom