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How well does your fuel guage work? Mine goes into red flashing mode when there's still almost half a tank left. I don't expect the guage to be perfect, but this is too much.
In a recent review on Motorycle.com they had a very similar issue; on their bike the guage would show Full for 3/4 or more of the tank, then suddenly drop all the way down into "reserve" mode.
This may be a production defect that Honda needs to address for everyone. If you feel your fuel guage doesn't work like it should, please post here and perhaps we [/b]can take it to Honda US as a group.
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Mine also acts wierd at times....had a sudden dropping experience too to flashing..from 3 bars..once
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Okay I am at work and not by my manual but don't our bikes have a 3.9 gallon capacity? At what point does the thing start flashing?! I have ridden my bike down to the one bar and rode for almost 40 miles at that then said I better fill up and then only ended up putting 2.5 gallons in, to the bottom of the filler neck that is.
So at what point does the reserve kick in and the gauge flash at you to fill up?! Would like to know so I don't end up pushing the bike somewhere...
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The fuel gauge has 5 led bars. One would think that each 1/5 th of a tank of gas used would cause 1 bar to go out, but it's not like that.( doesn't work like that on my car either). The bars on the CB's fuel gauge drop pretty quick down to 2 bars ( on mine it used to be at 80 miles) down to 1 bar (at 105 miles) and the last bar starts flashing at about 126 miles. As my mileage has improved with miles so has my mileage and the distance between bars has lengthened. See results of my last tank below.
http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=570
On my last tank I went nearly 175 miles before filling up and I still wasn't empty. These days I run the regular odometer until Im down to 1 bar, then hit the button that I zeroed at the last fill up, and feel confident about going 160 miles on it before needing gas.So, no, its not linear, but you don't have to panic that it quickly goes down to 2 bars.
The most Ive put in, and that was at 171 miles, was 3.1 gals ... and in theory still had .8 gallon in the tank or approx another 40 miles at 50 mpg, but I dont know if you can actually put in or use the whole 3.9 gallons Honda claims will go in the tank.
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(07-02-2013, 06:24 AM)dBuster_imp Wrote: Okay I am at work and not by my manual but don't our bikes have a 3.9 gallon capacity? At what point does the thing start flashing?! I have ridden my bike down to the one bar and rode for almost 40 miles at that then said I better fill up and then only ended up putting 2.5 gallons in, to the bottom of the filler neck that is.
So at what point does the reserve kick in and the gauge flash at you to fill up?! Would like to know so I don't end up pushing the bike somewhere...
This is pretty much the problem: the gauge says you're on reserve, which ought to be 1 gallon remaining, but the bike is still half-full.
Like the ferret, the only way I can "gauge" how much fuel is left is with the odometer. I'm getting around 40 mph average, so I reset at fill up and start looking to refill around 120 or so. Meanwhile the bike says I ran out of gas 80 miles ago...
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At 120 miles my reserve light isn't even flashing yet. You should still have at minimum (at 40 mpg) another 30 or 40 miles before you actually need gas.
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When only one bar remains on the fuel gauge (but it's not flashing), that should indicate that the bike has .8 gallons remaining. Obviously it doesn't as the bike runs for some time before that last bar starts flashing and the flashing indicates .9 gallons if I remember right. When I have about half a tank my gauge changes readings when going up or down hill and braking or accelerating. It's not a real precise instrument. The old style gauge on my Road King is better but still not great. The trip odometer appears to be the better way to estimate fuel remaining.
Chip
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Could always do what we did in the old days...remove (open) the gas cap, bend your head down and cock it to the side, one ear down, rock the bike back and forth between your knees, and listen to the volume of the slosh.
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It doesn't work too well. Just use your trip odometer to be sure.
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My Yamaha XS850 didn't have the luxury of a fuel gauge so a tap on the side of the tank to hear the dead space/air or open the tank up and slosh. After a while though you learn the mileage to go by between fill ups and I am sure I will be doing the same thing with the CB1100...
