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By a horribly miss-calibrated air compressor, I once had 80 PSI in my rear tire on my motorcycle. I didn't know it was a problem (it didn't look bad and I've never heard of a badly calibrated air compressor) so I drove home at 80-90 MPH for 25 miles. Who knows how long I could have kept that up before some sort of catastrophic failure?
I think Mythbusters did a segment on drafting behind big trucks to get better MPG. It worked for them. I've heard from other sources that I trust that it helps. In the past I was never patient enough to try, and I've been behind too many big rigs that have kicked back crap into my helmet or windshield, or God forbid blow a tire.
I have no problem driving 60 MPH on the right hand lane. I get a respectable 50 MPG doing so. If I were to drop it down to 50 MPH I would get about 60 MPG, but I wouldn't feel safe at all in doing so. On the backroads, I have and do go 50 all the time, and constantly get about 250 miles to a 5 gallon tank. At 70-80 MPH, that figure drops down to about 160-180, so the difference is significant.
But the extremes that these hypermilers suggest, I don't like the trade offs. It seems like you could get into too many dangerous situations to save a little money.
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