Howdy from San Antonio

Howdy,
I'm Howard in San Antonio, Texas. I recently purchased a 2002 Silverwing with 14,500 miles on her.  I am 60 years old and have been riding motorcycles my entire life although I'm fairly new to scooters.  I bought a 2014 Burgman 400 in January 2016 and instantly enjoyed scootering.  However, most of my riding is on the freeway - I commute 30 miles each way 5 days a week.  The Burgy 400 is a great machine but it was just adequate for the freeway.  So I was considering stepping up to a Burgman 650 but the expense and complexity of the 650 gave me pause.  I found a  fairly inexpensive 2002 Silverwing on Craigslist. After about two weeks of commuting and one all day Texas hill country ride, I'm sold.  The Silverwing is just right for my commute, cruises actual 70-75 MPH easily on the freeway with plenty of top end left if I need to get out the way in a hurry (that was my primary complaint with my Burgy 400).  The only real complaint I have is the gas mileage or more correctly the range. I get about 42 MPG and usually fill up at about 150 miles.  A bigger tank would have been great.  Also, I have had issues filling up the tank either splashing or overflowing. Is there some trick to filling up?

I look forward to learning a lot from the forum as I really know nothing about the Silverwing.  Two things I know I need to do soon is replace the final drive belt (coming up on 16,000 miles) and replace the seat strut because it won't hold the seat up.  Any other suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Howard

Welcome to the forum from the Pacific Northwet.

Your 43 mpg might have something to do with your experimenting with that throttle response.  I had similar experiences with the new to me Silverwing.  Now I am getting over 50 mpg as I have used less throttle to get up to speed.  A ride a few weeks ago, I got 55 mpg.

Welcome Howard! Enjoy your SWing, they ARE good on the super slab. The newer ones; 2008 and up get better MPG due to an addition of an oxygen sensor.

Lots of good info on here. Especially for changing belts. Do a search, there is a great video that makes the job way easier. Use OEM belt and all should be good. My scoot did not need rollers at 16K but some do. You will need a variator clutch tool. Good luck and enjoy the ride!!!

Howard,
If you want 50MPG, you need to slow down to about 60MPH. The Swing get very thirsty at and above 5k RPM. As for filling the tank, back off of the pump handle when you hear the gas approaching the top of the filler neck. I never had that problem with over filling the tank. Sometimes the gas would drip when removing the spout from the fill neck. Hope this helps. Oh yea welcome to the forum.

I bought a 2002 Swing with 14,700 miles on it.  Now, 17,700 after a recent round trip from Illinois to Missouri.  On the first leg of the trip, I got 50 miles per gallon, but ran 55 to 60 mph.  On the way back, I did interstates at 70 or 75 mph.  My fuel economy dropped to about 40 miles per gallon.  The older Swings apparently don't get the mileage the newer ones do, but speed has a significant impact on fuel economy!

Welcome to the best SWing site on the net Howard!

I have an 08 SWing and love it. I get around 50 mpg with it, give or take a couple either way depending on how I ride it.

There's lots of information on this site with lots of people ready and willing to help.

Welcome aboard from o-HI-o. I surprised myself on the mpg when I filled up at a metered pump, as said over 5K RPM mileage goes downhill.

Welcome WHPeel and I hope you continue to enjoy your Silverwing. You'll get all the help you need on here.
It's weird how you can ride bikes for decades and not give scooters a thought. Then you ride one and feel at home almost straight away. I know that's what happened to me.