CRF300L Index page

Updated December 2023

Average after >10,000km: 30kpl / 85mpg / 70.8US

Getting to grips with the CRF 300L’s fuel consumption I’ve learned this: while assuming GPS distances and petrol pump volumes are accurate. taking in instrument errors, it took >2000 miles to exceed a true 90mpg.
The best true mileage figure I’ve achieved is 96.5mpg or 34.2 kpl riding slowly with a group.

• The digital speedo is the usual 8% over, like all vehicles, but with the AX41 17-er on the back the error is now 14%. So I’m only doing 100kph when the speedo shows 114. That’s quite a lot and, although it won’t make my bike any faster, I’ve ordered one of those speedo correction black boxes for 80 quid.
• The trip odometer on stock 14/40 gearing with a stock IRC tyre read 2.5% over against a GPS over 200 miles. Around 3000 miles, in Morocco I re-verified with the smaller AX41s tyres and in kilometres and the error is currently 4%. So when the bike shows 104km on the trip, it’s actually done 100 (according to GPS). This affects true mpg figures.
• The ‘average mpg’ readout is always optimistic up to 15%. Typically it shows upper 90s or just over 100mpg, but which can work out at 88mpg true once odo error is corrected.
• When you optionally switch the mpg read-out to show ‘fuel used since last fill up‘, this figure is also inaccurate and not a reliable indicator of what’s left in the tank. When I tried it in the UK it showed 2.6 gal used (so 0.4 gal left in the 3-gallon tank). But at the pump, calculations proved there was only 0.16gal (0.73L) left. That’s a pint and a half in old money. Switched to metric, I tried it again in Morocco and both times on a ~12-litre fill up there was litre less left in the tank than indicated. In other words read-out suggested it had used 11 litres but the tank took 12 to fill, so there is less left than indicated.

And trying old style 99 octane E5 fuel did not seem to improve mpg or anything else. Mpg was the same as greener E10, but E5 cost nearly 10% more in the UK. I’ll try another tank then revert to regular E10 or whatever I get in Morocco which is E5.
I’ve been told CRFs ‘loosen up’ once over 2000 miles and, following a fast ride from Dorset via London to Sussex, this seemed to be true. Or should I say, the E5 fuel I picked up in Poole seemed to improve the bike and the mpg suddenly jumped, though it had a new chain and tyres at this point too. It belted along comfortably at and indicated 70 much of the way, but perhaps it was just the unnoticed southwesterly at my back.

I’ve tried to get a true 100mpg in Morocco. After all, some 310GSs have managed that (usually with light riders) and I got close on my 250L once too. But I don’t think I’ll manage it riding relatively normally. One day I tried an unrushed 5-hour ride over the Atlas to Marrakech. The average kpl went up and up, topping out at ‘36.3’ or about 103 mpg (the highest reading I ever saw was ‘38.4’ or nearly 109mpg). I knew it wouldn’t be anywhere near that and the corrected figure was a merely 94mpg. But I did get over 400km to the 13.9 litre tank with 1.2 litres left, so that’s a max potential range of about 440km indicated (about 420 true).

It took me over six months to work out how to convert the speedo read-out to kilometres. Turns out all I had to do was R T fekin M carefully and implement the instructions therein (left).

Online fuel converter

Trip reading	Tru trip	Fill Lit	‘Readout’	True mpg/kpl	Notes
109	107	5.6	’90’	86.7 / 30.7	Mitas, 45T rear, E10
226	221	11.8	‘102’	85.1 / 30.1	IRC, 14/40, E10
222	217	11	’91’	89.5 / 31.7	Near accurate avg mpg read out, E10
232	227	11.7	‘97.3’	88.1 / 31.2	E10
262	255	13.1	‘100.4’	89.2 / 31.6	E5, Dorset trails
222	216	10.3	‘95‘	95.6 / 33.8	E5, Accurate average mpg read out
138		7.7	–	81.6 / 28.9	New chain, tyres, loaded. Fast M3, slow costa, windy Morocco
167		10.8	’76’	68 / 24.1	Windy motorway, Moroccan E5
191		12.7	’77’	68.5 / 24.2	Windy motorway
238		11.9	‘97.2’	91 / 32.2	Pistes, roads to 2500m. Fuel light at 238 ml
216	216	7.16	‘32.6’	81.5 / 28.9	Southern Atlas pistes and road
384	368	12.7	‘31.5’	82 / 29	Over J Timouka, slow oued to Tata
277	266	9.2	‘32.9’	81.5 / 28.9	ABY, Mansoor, Wside
404	388	11.7	‘36.3’	94 / 33.2	Slow over Atlas, > 90kph
326	312	9.9	’32’	89 / 31.6	Tali. Over Atlas, group
272	261	9.4	‘30.5’	78.5 / 27.8	Slow piste Timouka
320	307	11	‘31.3’	79 / 27.9	Skoura. Fast road, Saro piste
272	261	8.3	‘35.7’	88.3 / 31.4	RAK over Atlas
346	332	9.7	38.1	96.5 / 34.2	Tali, slow mtn roads
321	308	9.8	‘33.9’	88.3 / 31.4	FZ, piste/road with group
261	251	8.6	‘32.3’	82.2 / 29.1	Nekob, trans Atlas road, slow mtn piste
374	360	12.8	’33’	79.5 / 28.1	Slow mountain pistes