Hypermiling - Part 1 - uphills and downhills

Hypermiling is a way of getting the most out of your tank of gas.

I don't know all of the rules myself, but I am learning on my own.

Some you probably know about keeping your engine tuned and keeping your tires inflated. But here is something which you may not know.

I learned this on my own from simply riding my bike.

Going uphill:
Uphills are hard. You know you are on one, because you have to work hard to get up the hill. Usually you find yourself slowing down. Sometime you may find yourself getting off the bike and walking it.

Now, imagine driving a car and not only maintaining your speed going up the hill, but actually accelerating up it. You can hear your engine having a tough time going up the hill can't you? Yeah, that is called wasting gas. Try maintaining your speed or even slowing down a bit to try to get to the top of the hill. Don't accelerate if you can help it.

Going downhill:
On a bike, it is wonderful to get to the top of the hill because you can coast downhill. Coasting is the key word here. It means out of gear. If you are going downhill and driving a stickshift, you can find that putting it in neutral, you can accelerate as you down hill. If you have it in gear and let go of the gas, you will not accelerate as rapidly or even at all. Have the car in gear actually slows you down.

Now, this all depends on the car you drive. My wife has a Scion XB with triptronic transmission that makes it easy to shift into neutral going down the hill and then as soon as I level off, I can slap it back into drive and continue on. Your transmission may vary and some cars you should not do this at all. A hybrid that has regenerative braking actually charges the batteies when you step off the gas. So, it is a wash if you do this one way versus another.

Be careful and practice at slow speeds first.

Have a green day!!