Knowing your bikes fuel range can come in awful handy. Especially if you get off the beaten track.

Last weekend, my bro on his Heritage, and other buddy on a Heritage went for a long run ... over 400 miles, all of us riding 2 up... we made sure we all started topped up and at one point we went almost 60 miles between gas stations...

Knowing how close we were to bone dry saves sweaty butt cheeks...

Mark7 wrote:
Get yourself one of those quart sized stainless steel or aluminum bottles and fill it with gas. Next time your light comes on measure the miles before your bike quits. Then just pour in the extra gas from the bottle and head for the nearest gas station. It's the only way to know for sure.

-M7

I can never seem to get the last couple giggers of Jonny Walker (Red) out of the quart sized flask I keep in my saddle bag... (Strickly for medicianl purposes, of course...)

OMG! I completely missed the boat on the '08 reference in the begining of the thread... and I did read an article here about how much less fuel the FI Roadie carries... Maya culpa...

StarCruiser06,
I love your signature ... but you forgot to add,
"don't read anything funny if you haven't pissed for a while!"

Kurt

You could have a gauge like mine and it hits reserve light at 110 miles and then makes me go into reserve about 10-15 miles later even though I have 2 gal left in the tank.I use my trip odometer every time I fill the tank.Good luck. Ken

Troybuilt wrote:
when my 08 rs tank is showing empty and the light comes on how many miles can I go? When I fill up the most I have ever filled up is just over 3 gal. I thought these tanks were closer to 5 gal. My last tank gave me 38 MPG mostly in town ridding.

Here is the math.

The 08 has FI which takes up room in your tank so you only have 4.7 gallons at best. If your low fuel light is coming on at 3 gallons (normal fill up according to you) you should be able to figure you have 1+ gallon remaining. If you are getting 38mpg (typically) I wouldn't go more than 40 miles without filling up.

So who ever answered "How far can you go? To the next gas station" was probably the most correct. I think if you opened up the filler neck (tank mod), filled your tank to the top and started to ride, you should be able to get 38mpg X 4 gallons = 152 miles fairly safe leaving room for the .7 gallon that should be in your tank, or you could push it to 178.8miles, then again, you might just end up pushing. You might want to keep a bottle of emergency gas in a saddle bag

The gauge and light are useless, use the odometer. Whether you have 5.3 or 4.7 gallons we all get 40MPG or better so go 150 miles and fill up. Getting off and stretching for a minute or two is good for your butt and legs and mental health, keeps you sharper on the road too. Plus I have found a lot of cool places while looking for fuel and it's much more fun looking for fuel when you aren't out.

I never could figure out why we had a reserve function anyway. Cars don't. And lets face it how much more sure does it get than to take the cap off and look in to see if you have fuel?

My reserve came on and I filled up with 25% of tank capacity still there....I think 40-50 miles left on reserve

You probably have enough to go on here, but my 06 gauge is pretty good. It comes on when the needle hits E and I have found that I can pump in about 1.2 gallons. Reserve is .9 gallons on the 06. If I am cruising at 70mph my mileage averages 45 so I have 54 miles from the light coming on and 40.5 from when I hit reserve. I never trust either and watch my odometer. Old habits die hard, for most of my life the scoot did not have a gauge and the only indicator of fuel left was reserve. As the FI does not have a reserve position as, I think, you need to watch your odometer. Pushing isn't much fun and not many people will stop to help anymore. The ones that do may not be trustworthy

I agree with takehikes!

I never could figure out why we had a reserve function anyway. Cars don't. And lets face it how much more sure does it get than to take the cap off and look in to see if you have fuel?


Guess it different for me..I depend on the reserve Takehikes. I got into the habit a long time ago as I never had a bike with a fuel gauge on it, I just run them until they start spitting, switch to reserve, and find a station.... If I was out in the desert, then I would be in trouble, but around here you can always find gas..Although it does bring to mind a trip last year where a few of us were counting on getting gas at our destination, but when we arrived the station was closed..we were sweating that one..