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fuel gauge - how low do you go?


enderokc

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Gas Light Chicken is my favorite game. It's exciting.

My record for my biggest win rolled into a gas station at 75 miles past flashing.

...The other records all ended with an auxillary gas can.

 

But it's still exciting!

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Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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firstyammerha

I had a stick shift 2000 v6 Mustang that I would run down to fumes regularly and a couple of times coasted into the neighborhood gas station with a dead engine. I learned that when you could hear the fuel pump thumping around in the tank, you better get gas. I had that car ten years and 200,ooo miles and replaced the fuel pump only once. 

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21 hours ago, peteinpa said:

Unless you enjoy paying for and replacing fuel pumps in all your vehicles stop stretching your range.

Fuel pumps are cooled and lubed by the gas. Running them low and dry will kill them.

Funny story- I've heard this many times, but I still abuse my gas range. Then, ironically, I went to a MotoAmerica round in Utah last year with 67,000~ miles on my bike, everything still stock, save the normal chain/sprocket type consumables. When I got there, two teams racing FZ-07s in the twins class were having issues with their bikes, both of which had less than 5,000 miles on them. One of them had a dead fuel pump, so they took mine for the races, as my pump that had been abused with range stretching for the entire 67,000 miles and 3 years of its life was still working great. 

Then the guy who borrowed it crashed out of first place because he got overambitious in the last turn, but that's neither here nor there, haha.  

But he bought me a brand new pump and kept mine, so I can't say when or if a failure point would have finally come to pass. I won't say there couldn't be any truth to that, but I feel like the risks are overstated with today's engineering, and I'm not sure how anyone can truly quantify what their fuel pump life span could have otherwise been, when his pump failed so quick, but mine was still thriving. 

tldr: I like to live dangerously, haha

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Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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firstyammerha

I drove a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix manual trans 2.8 v6 in the same manner as its its Ford replacement but replaced two pumps in the same time and distance. THIS is not a Ford commercial!

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imherefortheride

After riding a bike with no gas gauge or even trip meter (Suzuki LS650), the wife hasn't ran out of gas yet 😂 With her FZ, she'll fill up before the last bar even though I told her she has at least 15 miles once flashing (the furthest I've pushed it).

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7 hours ago, imherefortheride said:

After riding a bike with no gas gauge or even trip meter (Suzuki LS650), the wife hasn't ran out of gas yet <img src="> With her FZ, she'll fill up before the last bar even though I told her she has at least 15 miles once flashing (the furthest I've pushed it).

The bike has about a gallon and a half left, give or take, once it hits flashing, if that helps. So figure if you're getting 50-ish miles to the gallon, you're good for 50ish miles

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Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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  • 2 weeks later...
firstyammerha

I had mine stumble on me the other day when 43 miles into the reserve. Just passed a gas station so did a quick U turn and rode back to put 3 gallons in the tank. I didn't feel that it would go the 10 miles or so to my usual gas station. I think three gallons is the actual capacity of this tank regardless what the brochures and manuals say.

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On 4/28/2019 at 11:13 AM, firstyammerha said:

I had mine stumble on me the other day when 43 miles into the reserve. Just passed a gas station so did a quick U turn and rode back to put 3 gallons in the tank. I didn't feel that it would go the 10 miles or so to my usual gas station. I think three gallons is the actual capacity of this tank regardless what the brochures and manuals say.

I've been able to use 3.4-ish gallons, based on a fill up that followed running out of gas 10 feet from a pump. Not sure there's any way to use the remaining, alleged 0.3 though

Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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13 hours ago, zombiphone said:

I've been able to use 3.4-ish gallons, based on a fill up that followed running out of gas 10 feet from a pump. Not sure there's any way to use the remaining, alleged 0.3 though

What are you guys getting for total mileage on a tank? Just did 500 miles this weekend and never really pushed it past 175 miles to a tank (just based on where the gas stations were).

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Ultimately, I think the point is really that your tank range is determined by where the fuel stations are (certainly in UK).

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Just do it! 

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zombiphone
13 hours ago, keiver12 said:

What are you guys getting for total mileage on a tank? Just did 500 miles this weekend and never really pushed it past 175 miles to a tank (just based on where the gas stations were).

I think the most I ever got was maybe 185, riding really conservatively, and trying to get a high score on the MPG calculator (not including my 2 liters of spare fuel for help). The worst was something like ~130, riding way too fast for too long

But that was with 110 pounds of luggage and all the aerodynamic failure that comes with it. Before I installed hard cases, I used to get slightly better mileage.

But I don't usually chance it for over 120 if I don't know where the next station is. 

Published 'Chronicles of a Motorcycle Gypsy' a book about my travels on the FZ, and a writer for Motorcyclist Magazine

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I got 192 the other day, last 5 miles coming downhill in Palomar Mountain.

Was a little nervous, but reserve said I had 10.2 more miles. I normally get 60 to 62.4 mpg.

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  • 2 weeks later...
firstyammerha

Zombiphone, I didn't make note of the mileage when the reserve started its count but it is usually 135 miles for me when this happens. So going a further 43 miles means that the engine stumbled with 178 miles on that tank. I can't recall ever putting much more than three gallons in the tank,ever. My style of riding has the ECO message displayed permanently on my dash. Out of curiousity, I'd like to know how much fuel the fuel pump displaces in the tank. Surely not 3/4 of a gallon. Update,I found my gas receipt for this fill up and I put 3.523 gallons in at that time. That's a record run for me on a tank of gas.

Edited by firstyammerha
update
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Wintersdark

I get pretty reliably around 250km before the gauge starts flashing.  From there, I've gone 20-25kms, but never run it right out of gas so I don't know how far it can go once flashing.

Because I ride like an asshole, I just use 250km as my "per tank limit" when trip planning.  I could definitely do 300+kms if I didn't ride the way I do.

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 4/30/2019 at 8:12 PM, keiver12 said:

What are you guys getting for total mileage on a tank? Just did 500 miles this weekend and never really pushed it past 175 miles to a tank (just based on where the gas stations were).

Most ive got to a full tank was 450km. The most dull and boring 450km i have ridden in my entire life (including the 49cc scooter) so it can do a bit, i generally get 350-360km regularly without riding too much like a 86yr old grandma

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