Until recently almost all of our geocaching (Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site) has been with one of our motorcycles. The typical fuel mileage during this often stop, park, and go activity with the bikes is around 38 mpg. Yesterday we invited a friend to geocache with us so we used the Prius. We had a plug-in electric cooler running and the AC. Our fuel indication display hovered around 54 to 55 mpg. The actual mileage for the tank (450 miles of city driving, highway driving, and geocaching driving) was 51.67 mpg. Still, the excitement of riding a motorcycle is worth the extra cost of getting there.
I have done quite a bit of geocaching in my prius. Its great for the constant stops and keeping the mpg's up.
Heck, the nav unit can even display the continuous GPS readout if you want to drive right up and onto the cache.
'My' 10-G3, at 55 MPG, gets better gas mileage than either of my motorcycles.... '06 Harley V-Rod: 35 MPG '09 Kawasaki Vulcan 900LT: 45 MPG Although I've heard some grumblings from the frozen North that sub freezing temps will drop a Prius' MPG down close to my Vulcan's. If you're looking to get from place "a" to place "b", it's hard to beat a Prius for efficiency---at least where personal transportation is concerned. However (comma!) I think that 99.44% of motorcycle riders out there will tell you that riding is always preferable to driving, barring things like inclimate weather or having to lug crumb-crunchers along. It's like music or art. If you have to ask "why", you'd never understand the answer...
I had a 250 Virago that got mileage in the 60s. But it made me nervous on the freeway. Now the K75 and the 650 Burgman are good highway machines, but they don't come particularly close to 50. (Then, if I amortize the $$ for the Aerostitch and the helmet over the miles I actually ride . . . .) The only things that have been worse than the bikes dollar-wise have been the planes and the boats. But I wouldn't have swapped any of them for a car, even a TR2, much less a Prius. Geocaching seems like a good excuse to throw a leg over. As mundane transportation, the Prius is adequate, comfort-and safety-wise, and is exceptional at passing gas stations.
