The only problem with bringing along a gas can is that, once you add your gallon back, you have made it difficult to calculate the refill amount because you will burn that gas getting to the station. That’s why I suggested running it dry in close proximity of a gas station. If I were to try this, I still might carry an extar can in case I conk out further from the station than I’d care to push my bike (1000 feet fir me. Lol), but I’d still run it dry once I got to (or very close to) the station.
Well, if I had exactly one gallon with me and knew my average fuel consumption rate, I could come pretty close. I don't know how I could run it dry in close proximity to a gas station unless I knew just how close I was to running dry, which brings us back to the house that Jack built . . .
My concern with all of this is that I don't want to run dry in any situation where there's much traffic or a difficult place to park the bike and temporarily refuel.
The other alternative, of course, may be to acquire a partner in crime with a car, 5 gallons of gas and a measuring vessel and take the bike somewhere (preferably flat) to let it run out and then carefully measure how much you put in. Indeed, you may not even need the accomplice. I reckon that, with a bit of thought, I could carry 5 gallons in a couple of containers on my bike.
Well, if we’re being honest, I never tested the capacity of my tank (2013). Instead, I just read enough posts here and rode enough times to come up with a range of between 130 and 150 miles. Yes, the real range is longer, but I live or ride where I don’t need to push that limit. Besides, I usually have to pee at about 120.
Fuel range depends on so many things. Speed, terrain, direction of prevailing wind, rpms, weight of rider, passenger and gear, windshield or no windshield. If you are riding locally, you should be able to figure it out pretty closely. Fill up. Set trip B to zero. Go as far as you feel comfortable, fill up, pull out the cell phone with calculator divide miles ridden ( from trip B) and gallons used (from fuel pump at gas station) which gives you mpg and multiply that by reported tank capacity, and it should be close to giving you range to empty. If you didn't ride that far, next time ride further and repeat procedure. I knew I could locally riding solo +_ 10 on the speed limit, run over 180 miles on my 13, and over 225 on my 14 dlx and still have fuel left over. Running back from Arkansas rally, on the freeway 75-85 mph with luggage I would guess 50 miles less per tank, because I know I get about 15 mpg less running over 70 mph than I do running my local roads at 45-60. If you are nervous about riding to empty, strap 1/2 gallon or gallon gas can to the rear seat while testing. YOu'll soon have it figured out.
Like I said though if you want to know what's your maximum range is for a trip, realize that there are factors on a trip that make naming a certain absolute number difficult.
I ride 2-lane highways and back road on my day rides. I use the odometer and gas receipts to calculate my gas consumption. Over the summer it has consistently been 21 kilometers per liter. So I know I can ride a maximum of 300 kilometers with a 14.6 liter tank.
The telling tale will be the distance ridden when the last fuel gauge segment starts to flash. If it flashes at 231 kilometers, there is 3.6 liters left in a 14.6 liter tank.
If it flashes at 275 kilometers, there is 3.6 liters left in a 16.8 liter tank.
If the last fuel gauge segment goes blank at 285 kilometers, there is 1 liter left in a 14.6 liter tank. If it goes blank at 330 kilometers, there is 1 liter left in a 16.8 liter tank.
Or the Owner's Manual information and gas gauge are incorrect and this all a waste of time. Which is what Penny always says about the time I spend tapping away on my computer anyway.
Have you found your tank capacity??
pb
I ran my '13 out totally dry once. Unfortunately, I didn't carefully measure how much fuel I put in to get it to the gas station, so nothing gained.
I very nearly ran out of fuel twice back in the fall, when I'd carefully planned my fuel stops near the end of the bike's range. In both cases, the gas stations were not where I expected them to be. Both times I rode on, arriving at the next fuel stop on what must have been fumes. The first time, the tank was empty enough that I could not hear any significant sloshing when moving the bike from side to side. The second time I could hear nothing at all when wiggling the bike. First fill up was 3.65 gallons (13.8L), the other was 3.72 gallons (14.1L).
Thanks Flyn. It's good to know that you can run the thing so far that you can put 14+ Litres in the tank. Do you remember how far you had gone on that occasion?