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I must be going senile or whatever, because I can't find how to access the reserve fuel capacity on my FLSB Sport Glide. The total fuel capacity is 5 gal. with 1 gal. reserve... I pushed my bike to a fuelless halt and could only get 4 gal. in afterwards. Anyone? Many thx!
Fuel injected bikes don't have a reserve. When your out your out. I do find it hard to believe that the pump and hardware in the tank would take up a gallon of fuel space in a 5 gallon tank. Did you look in the tank to see if fuel visible before you filled it up? Things that make you go Hhhhhhmmmmmmm....
No, I didn't look in the tank myself but the road assistance guy who brought my bike to the nearest gas station confirmed = no fuel. The bike dropped dead on a flat road and worked just fine again after refueling. And yes I agree, things that make you go hmmmm, surprising... And moreover, 5 gal should be 5 gal, internal hardware or not, it's what the specs say so that should be available, or maybe I'm not only senile but naive to top it off
5 gallon is on a perfect flat plane and being filled to the rim, simply tank capacity. Depending the angle of the tank, depending on where the fuel pump pickup is, depending the lean is how much fuel gets left in the tank. Most I have ever got in my tank is close to a gallon shy of capacity. Changing anything geometry-wise on a bike (ie tires, shocks etc) also effects how much available fuel there is.
All I can tell you is that when I get to ~ 180 to 190 miles on my '18 Heritage, my miles to empty indication is likely getting to a low enough number that I'm sweating it for the nearest gas station. When I get there the bike normally takes ~3.3 to 3.5 gallons. How much is actually left in there? IDK. Other M8 Heritage owners have reported the same. Another thread on the subject...
Never ran my Sport Glide out of fuel. But close the countdown gets down to 10 miles before changing to low fuel. At that point burping it some I can get about 4.5 gallons in it.
The tank doesn't have a petcock that you swap over for "reserve".
It holds 5 gallons. The "low fuel" light comes on when the fuel level dips to around 1.4 gallons left. When that "low fuel" light is on, you're using up the "reserve" gas, and you had better refill within the next 40-60 miles or you will run out
As for how much a Harley Softail 5-gallon tank will hold, I once ran mine down to about 5 miles after the gauge said "LOW" (meaning about 5 miles away from bone dry) and then refilled. This shows the refill:
(That was just a couple of years ago, and gas was $2.79/gallon!)
Last edited by FatBob2018; Jun 30, 2022 at 05:32 PM.
Note: it isn't easy to get the tank to hold that much. If I just stick the nozzle in an empty tank and let it fill up, it will usually stop at around 4 gallons, with gas visible in the filler neck. But if you wait a few seconds, the gas will trickle down into various nooks and crannies and the filler neck will drain down some. Also, if it isn't draining down, you can usually "burp" some air out of the tank by jostling the bike a bit side to side. This will frequently result in some air bubbles popping out, and the fuel level dropping as the gas moves in to where the air bubbles were. I have been able to add up to 3/4 of a gallon extra using these techniques, and that's how I was able to get the 4.9 gallons shown in this picture (and note, the tank wasn't 100% empty during this refill, I probably still had about 5 miles of range left (or about 1/10 of a gallon).
So yes, there's about five usable gallons possible. But it's a bit of a pain in the patootie to get full use of all five gallons. Getting a usable 4 is very easy, getting all five takes some work.
Last edited by FatBob2018; Jun 30, 2022 at 05:33 PM.
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How to access reserve fuel on FLSB Sport Glide
