OK, time for some dreaming…

Once The Duke gets through his MOT, I’m going to run out of things to do, which is a bad thing. He’s been the best hobby a chubby software engineer could ever wish for and I don’t want the fun to end!

So, I need to find new reasons to tinker with The Duke. I’ve decided that attacking the thorny issue of fuel economy is a good place to start. With no overdrive and a poorly tuned petrol engine I suspect I’ll struggle to beat 12MPG, even on a run.

The first thing to do is work out a way to measure fuel economy. Not sure how to do this, but it could involve anything from wiring up a DIY rev counter, temperature sensors and GPS or it could just involve carefully filling a tank with a known quantity of fuel and running it dry.

Once I can measure how much fuel is being used, I can start to fit some of the popular fuel saving devices which seem to be available. Things like…

  • An overdrive - claimed to Turners - who claim a 10 to 30% improvement
  • Free wheeling hubs - though opinion is divided and I'm not convinced they do much good. Then again, there's only one way to find out!
  • A better carb - I have a very cheap and nasty Zenith 36IV replacement; could a real Zenith or save up to 33%!
So there's plenty of cool stuff to think about over the winter, ready for some more happy hours on the drive next summer... though that's tempting fate of course, I should be concentrating on the MOT!