Mopeds...and why I should buy one!

Does your oil mix with and get ignited with the gasoline? That’s what happens with a 2-stroke moped engine. Some unburned fuel and oil also leak out with every cycle of the engine.

My car, if i had one, might be said to “burn oil,” but the oil isn’t part of the combustible fuel. I suspect that when one says a car “burns oil” it means that the car loses oil via other means: oil breaks down, leaks, perhaps evaporates…

In any case, the linked Wired article states Vespa engineered a 4-stroke moped engine that solves that problem.

Also, you’ll note that newer lawnmowers are frequently if not entirely equipped with four-stroke engines for environmental reasons.

You get 40mpg with the R1 ? :eek: The best I’ve got with the R6 is 30-35 mpg. It drops to 25 when I am pushing it really hard. My R6 is a 2000 model (carburated). Is your R1 fuel injected?

Almost 40. In L.A. traffic, where I can’t ride too fast With the lane-splitting and the open sections and the carpool lanes, I averaged up to 40 mpg. I’ll have to check it again when I just go out riding. (Which I just did, but there are old people and slow speed limits here.) I’ve just assumed it has carburettors. I think the new ones have fuel injection. Mine’s a 2003, so I think it has four Mikunis.

Correction: It’s a 2002. I bought it in 2003.