Gold on the Wing

alf the commuting distance at 48 miles per gallon, the other half at 24 miles per gallon? That's easy. You just add 48 + 24 and divide by 2 and get an average mileage of 36 miles per gallon. Is there supposed to be some kind of catch in this puzzle?

Not for solvers of the Train Speed puzzle.

Let's suppose that the commute covers a distance of 16 miles each way. Every morning, the Goldwing uses 1/3^rd of a gallon (16 miles @ 48 miles per gallon), and every evening, 2/3^rds of a gallon (16 miles @ 24 miles per gallon). That's a total of 1 gallon per day. Not shabby.

Oh right, but that means an overall mileage of only...

32 miles per gallon.

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