F Trip

[bigity]

Hi all,
 
Starting a thread hoping to figure out how far we can go on the f trip fuel reserve meter. I can't stand how vague this fuel meter is. My previous bike would light the fuel light low and then flash when very low and, factoring in the fill-up amount, it was easy to figure out max range. I will update this post with info from subsequent posts. Please indicate if highway or city and if you can include how much it took to fill, that'd be awesome. With this info, it will be easy to determine fuel range. Today I did:
 
21.1 on the f trip all highway, fill amount was exactly 3.00 gallons to the bottom of the fuel fuller ring.

[aeisan]

I thought I saw somewhere that the reserve warning came on with one gallon left in the tank. I'm not sure about this, but I thought I read that somewhere.
 
Applying some math, that seems to jive with what you are reporting... If you put 3 gallons in, then there was ~0.7 left in the tank (or a tad less if you maybe didn't fill the tank 100% which is common). If the reserve warning came on with 1 gallon left, then that means you went 21.1 miles on about 0.3 to 0.35 gallons. If that's true, then you averaged between 60-70 MPG for that 21.1 miles... Were you taking it pretty easy? If so, with all highway I'd say that's nearly spot on.
 
Thoughts?

[Tark]

I've never seen the F trip, does it come on when the gas indicator loses all its bars?

[TwistedTorque]

Yup and it will blink. Happened to me once but because I had no idea how far the reserve was I pulled right over. Wish I remembered how much I filled up.

[Cruizin]

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer test drives a car and talk's the salesman into seeing how far they can go on empty an then leaving him an the car on the expressway.

[Guest unknown]

Ive gone about 38 miles on the low fuel odometer. It was starting to hesitate a little too much for my liking so I got gas immediately.

[aeisan]

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer test drives a car and talk's the salesman into seeing how far they can go on empty an then leaving him an the car on the expressway.

Hilarious!   
To answer the other question by tark, yes I believe (hearsay, not first hand yet like bigity and TwistedTorque!) that when you "hit E" so to speak, a special trip meter comes on that tracks mileage on this assumed 1 gallon you have left.  It's a nice feature, because it's essentially an automated way of doing exactly what I do in my car when the empty light comes on (set a trip counter).  It automatically goes away once you fill back up.    
 
Is this correct?  Can one of you gusy that have had the privilege of experiencing this confirm?  

[aeisan]

Ive gone about 38 miles on the low fuel odometer. It was starting to hesitate a little too much for my liking so I got gas immediately.

That sounds about right... It's one gallon, so whatever you MPG would be under that type of riding is how far you would expect to go before running dry.  

[TwistedTorque]

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer test drives a car and talk's the salesman into seeing how far they can go on empty an then leaving him an the car on the expressway.

Hilarious!   
To answer the other question by tark, yes I believe (hearsay, not first hand yet like bigity and TwistedTorque!) that when you "hit E" so to speak, a special trip meter comes on that tracks mileage on this assumed 1 gallon you have left.  It's a nice feature, because it's essentially an automated way of doing exactly what I do in my car when the empty light comes on (set a trip counter).  It automatically goes away once you fill back up.    
 
Is this correct?  Can one of you gusy that have had the privilege of experiencing this confirm?  

This is indeed what started to happen to me. I only got to 1 or 2 miles though before I pulled over and filled up.

[steviede]

It will go away after 3km/1.5 miles I think it said, or just scroll through the different trips and it goes right away. I've only gone about 20km/12 miles on mine so far.

[Cruizin]

On my FZ-09, I can usually get 32 miles on ftrip before it dies. Now, I get must worse mileage than you guys, so keep that in mind.
 
Seriously, if ya really want to know, go buy a backpackers MSR stove fuel can an fill it with gas, put it in your small backpack an be sure to be somewhat close to town when you start to hit ftrip. Ride normal and see how far ya go until ya die. Then, pour that fuel can's contents into the tank an go find a gas station, go hme and report back to us!
 
Those MSR fuel cans are a dirtbikers best freind, and also come in handy on long trips. They don't leak and can take a beating.

[bigity]

I thought I saw somewhere that the reserve warning came on with one gallon left in the tank. I'm not sure about this, but I thought I read that somewhere.  
Applying some math, that seems to jive with what you are reporting... If you put 3 gallons in, then there was ~0.7 left in the tank (or a tad less if you maybe didn't fill the tank 100% which is common). If the reserve warning came on with 1 gallon left, then that means you went 21.1 miles on about 0.3 to 0.35 gallons. If that's true, then you averaged between 60-70 MPG for that 21.1 miles... Were you taking it pretty easy? If so, with all highway I'd say that's nearly spot on.
 
Thoughts?

 
 
Thanks for doing all the dirty work, aka, math I was taking it moderately easy. And this kinda matches up with Unknown's mileage.

[aeisan]

Ha... Any time! Math, I mean... Dirty work is what I do. I'm an engineer haha!

[hobbs]

On my FZ-09, I can usually get 32 miles on ftrip before it dies. Now, I get must worse mileage than you guys, so keep that in mind. 
Seriously, if ya really want to know, go buy a backpackers MSR stove fuel can an fill it with gas, put it in your small backpack an be sure to be somewhat close to town when you start to hit ftrip. Ride normal and see how far ya go until ya die. Then, pour that fuel can's contents into the tank an go find a gas station, go hme and report back to us!
 
Those MSR fuel cans are a dirtbikers best freind, and also come in handy on long trips. They don't leak and can take a beating.

 
 
I'll give this a shot when I get some time, unless someone beats me to it. It is kind of important to know what you're working with as far as fuel reserves go.
 
I have to fill up every 2 days cause the reserve flashes on my way home by the end of day 2. Not brave enough to push it and subsequently push the bike in 90*, 85%+ humidity weather.

[bigity]

This bike is so weird! At least as far as fuel gauge info. I had about 24 miles on the f trip. Went to leave the movie last night. Start up the bike and let it run for a minute while putting my gloves on and it dies. Get on it and stand it upright and it can get some fuel again. Head right to the gas station a few blocks away and fill up. Got 3.3 gallons in it. But its a 3.7 gallon tank. So is there about .3 or so that is unusable?

[aeisan]

I suppose it's possible there is some amount that is not usable based on the location of the fuel pump intake tube.

[Soundbear]

I made it about 120-130 miles, blinking starts, ~10 miles on F Trip (140ish total) and still put in 2.5 gallons. That seems quite alarmist to me. What kind of figures are people seeing for total amount of miles on a tank?

[aeisan]

140 miles on 2.5 gallons puts you at 56 MPG. I'd say that sounds normal. A little odd your warning came on so soon, but other than that I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

[fechner]

I've only hit F trip once and it had me concerned.. I thought I was about to run out of gas. From the sounds of it, I still had an additional gallon (or 40-50 miles) of gas left? Why does the fuel light begin flashing when you still have 33% of your fuel left?

[aeisan]

Yep and not sure, but asking around, I know a few other guys who's bikes' fuel gauges do the same. (E light comes on at ~30% remaining).

[lonerider]

In an another thread i wrote this:
 
I have to correct my estimate. Today, in my search for the long range,  i discover that there are around 12,6 L (3.3 gus) that are available in the fuel tank of the 07. I reach the point where the bike was starting to bug when i was accelerating hard. I guess the shape of the fuel tank and the location of the fuel pump explain the 1,4 liter that isn't available. So the 200 miles target isn't for me. I got 289,2 km (180 miles). Of course, on highway with gentle right wrist, it could be possible. But it wouldn't be fun. I estimated 93 km (58 miles) since the last segment of fuel was flashing. I got 69 km (43 miles) instead.
 
From now on, i'll fuel it up before reaching 50 km (31 miles) while riding on the reserve.
 
Read more: http://fz07.org/thread/172/kind-mpg-guys-get?page=1#ixzz3D8pJeISP
 
 

[nmucat]

I tried seeing how long I could go, but I gave up at 60 miles.

[howworkclutch]

the first few tanks of gas gave not-good economy. however, with the engine thoroughly broken in, fuel economy is 53mpg. i mostly ignore the blinky fuel guage. i think i went 40 miles before filling up last time.

[aeisan]

I've yet to see the F trip counter on mine ha. I just stop and get gas when I see the fuel gauge is on the last bar.

[Exodus]

I've hit f trip a few times but only driven a few miles with it on. I get worse has mileage than lots it seems. I get about 110 miles then hit f trip. Almost all Highway 68-70 mph. Says I'm averaging 45.6 mpg.