Gearheads commonly assume that motorcycles sip fuel at lower rates than their four-wheeled counterparts. Based on manufacturer estimates alone, filling up your bike easily provides more bang for buck. Do those claimed figures actually hold up on the open road, though? To answer that age-old question, our Deutschland colleagues at Motorrad put those optimistic mpg approximations to the test with a series of on-road trials.
Leveling the playing field, the German media outlet split the tests into three practical categories: Sport, Economy, Utility. Those classifications pitted the Yamaha YZF-R1 against the Porsche 718 Cayman (Sport), the Honda NC 750 versus the Ford Focus (Economy), and the BMW R 1250 GS in opposition to the Audi Q5 Sport Back 45 TFSI Quattro (Utility). The publication also instituted strict operational parameters, forcing each similarly-sized driver/rider to adhere to posted speed limits.
