Ran out of gas this morning
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 428
Likes: 4
From: New Hampshire
Ran out of gas this morning
I've been riding my new (to me) 99 FXDWG almost a week. After going just over 120 miles the first few days I put about 3 gallons of gas in the tank. So this morning as I was headed to work with only 100 miles on the trip odometer I figured I was more than all set to make the 26 mile trip. Just about 2 miles from work I started sputtering. I switched the petcock to the reserve but nothing was there!
122 miles on the trip odometer and I'm stuck on the side of the road with no gas.
Now my wife and I did go out on the bike the other night cruising around town for maybe 40 miles but I don't think that would have made that big a difference in my mileage. She's not small but she's not going on TV anytime soon about her weight.
So here are my questions:
Could riding with the wife have made that big a difference?
Does my mileage sound really off? I've been putting in 93 octane, is it time to change the plugs and clean the air filter? I'm not an aggressive rider by any stretch of the imagination so it's not like I'm on the hammer all the time.
I'm still waiting to put on the 2" tank lift, will that make things worse?
Thanks guys I appreciate any insight you can give.
122 miles on the trip odometer and I'm stuck on the side of the road with no gas. Now my wife and I did go out on the bike the other night cruising around town for maybe 40 miles but I don't think that would have made that big a difference in my mileage. She's not small but she's not going on TV anytime soon about her weight.
So here are my questions:
Could riding with the wife have made that big a difference?
Does my mileage sound really off? I've been putting in 93 octane, is it time to change the plugs and clean the air filter? I'm not an aggressive rider by any stretch of the imagination so it's not like I'm on the hammer all the time.
I'm still waiting to put on the 2" tank lift, will that make things worse?
Thanks guys I appreciate any insight you can give.
Club Member
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,483
Likes: 39
From: Passaic County, NJ
By worse, what do you mean? If you have a gas gauge, it will throw it off even more. I'd get into the habit of using your tripmeter. You also may want to adjust for 2-up riding. The extra weight will cause you to use more gas. Bike is working just a little harder to do the same thing.
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 428
Likes: 4
From: New Hampshire
By worse, what do you mean? If you have a gas gauge, it will throw it off even more. I'd get into the habit of using your tripmeter. You also may want to adjust for 2-up riding. The extra weight will cause you to use more gas. Bike is working just a little harder to do the same thing.
I meant losing usable tank space because it may not pull all the fuel from it.
Tourer
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 383
Likes: 1
From: Fleetwood, Pa
if you hit the reserve and nothing was there, then you were running on reserve?
How full do you fill the tank, I watched some others fill up and they really didn't try and get it as full as possible, that could add some variation in how far you can go?
Just wondering...Eric
How full do you fill the tank, I watched some others fill up and they really didn't try and get it as full as possible, that could add some variation in how far you can go?
Just wondering...Eric
Supporter
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 15,787
Likes: 5,615
From: along the shore of Mishigami
Become familar with your fuel petcock setting. The little handle is notched and that notch should line up with "on", if you turn that handle 180 degrees the notch will line up with "res", in the middle is "off". I figure 40-45 mpg for my two Dyna's riding around town and commuting. Going up thru the gears and twisting the wick will play on your fuel mileage. I believe your fuel tank holds 4.9 gals and .9 gal of that is reserve.
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 428
Likes: 4
From: New Hampshire
if you hit the reserve and nothing was there, then you were running on reserve?
How full do you fill the tank, I watched some others fill up and they really didn't try and get it as full as possible, that could add some variation in how far you can go?
Just wondering...Eric
How full do you fill the tank, I watched some others fill up and they really didn't try and get it as full as possible, that could add some variation in how far you can go?
Just wondering...Eric
Become familar with your fuel petcock setting. The little handle is notched and that notch should line up with "on", if you turn that handle 180 degrees the notch will line up with "res", in the middle is "off". I figure 40-45 mpg for my two Dyna's riding around town and commuting. Going up thru the gears and twisting the wick will play on your fuel mileage. I believe your fuel tank holds 4.9 gals and .9 gal of that is reserve.
Thanks for the replies all!
Last edited by Unimoose; Apr 30, 2009 at 10:05 AM.
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Road Master
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 992
Likes: 1
From: Mechanicsburg, PA
If you switched to reserve and you were still out of gas, then my guess is you are not out of gas. If it had "running out of gas" symptoms like sputtering in and out then dying, maybe it is a problem getting gas TO the engine? Just random thoughts.....