Miles To Empty?

I reckon it must be a bit nervy taking a bike with a small fuel tank around e.g. the North Coast 500. My sons old MT09 had good fuel consumption, but a very small fuel tank, now he has a V4 Tuono,identical to mine, but they are thirsty beasts, even though the fuel tank is bigger than the MT09's. I think we will have to plan the fuel stops very carefully on that trip. As for me I'll probably go on the VFR, 200 mile range no problem.

 

I've taken the Street Scrambler down to "Zero miles left" after a "lets take the scenic route" detour and thankfully made it to a fuel stop. No idea how much was left but I could still hear it sloshing about in the tank when moving the bike. I've done the same on the ZZR on a couple of occasions in the wilds of Scotland with the low fuel indicator flashing (4.2L left in the tank) which necessitated 20+ miles of the most boring limp wristed riding you could imagine to reach fuel. I've actually run out of fuel while out on the Berg after forgetting to reconnect the low fuel warning lamp after a service and had to push the thing for almost a mile to a filling station. It's comparatively light at around 112kg but in full riding gear it was hot sweaty PITA! Doing the same on a 200+kg road bike doesn't bear thinking about. I carry spare fuel in one of these now when out dirt riding or touring in remote areas......https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/37125273...231016&hash=item5670632d8b:g:oukAAOSw-W5U1M5Z

 

It’s simple to work out. When your bike goes onto reserve, fill it up. Take the amount you put in from the capacity of the tank and that will tell you how much fuel you have when it drops to reserve.

You should know your average fuel consumption and therefore you will then know how far you can travel on reserve.

 

Fine in theory, but that relies on manufacturer's quoted tank size being 'usable capacity' which I can't remember ever seeing explicitly mentioned. If it's the amount to fill tank from empty then you have less than that available to use as presumably fuel pump can't suck everything out.

On my 2018 Speedmaster with a quoted 12L tank, the miles-to-empty reading hits zero after using 11.0L. I once did 12 miles past that point without problem and filled up with 11.7L, so it may really have 12L usable fuel capacity.

 

I regret that day. Mainly because there was some short arsed weird bloke staring at me for hours.

Thanks for reminding me about it. Not my best day.

Hey - was that you?!?