gas mileage
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Tourer
Joined: Oct 2009
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gas mileage
Well, newbie's got another question... the other day I finally remembered to reset my trip meter when I filled up with gas. Today, had to switch to reserve when trip meter hit 103. It's a freaking 5.1 gallon tank. I rode it pretty hard, but 20 mpg?!?! What am I missing here? Is part of the 5.1 reserve? Bike seems to be running OK, no leaks.
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Joined: Apr 2006
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From:
You cannot go by when you hit reserve to compute mileage. You have to refill the tank and figure your mileage by dividing the number of miles ridden since last fill-up by the gallons of gas required to fill-up again.
If you have a carb then you have a petcock. The amount the petcock is screwed into the tank will determine when you have to switch to reserve and how much is in reserve. You might want to adjust that. If the petcock is set properly you should go between 150 and 200 miles before having to switch to reserve, depending on how hard you ride. You should be getting over 40mpg even riding very hard and as much as 50 riding conservatively. On my 96 Evo softail with a S&S carb and riding pretty hard I seldom got less than 44 or 45 mpg.
If you have a carb then you have a petcock. The amount the petcock is screwed into the tank will determine when you have to switch to reserve and how much is in reserve. You might want to adjust that. If the petcock is set properly you should go between 150 and 200 miles before having to switch to reserve, depending on how hard you ride. You should be getting over 40mpg even riding very hard and as much as 50 riding conservatively. On my 96 Evo softail with a S&S carb and riding pretty hard I seldom got less than 44 or 45 mpg.
Road Master
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 1,074
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From: Baltimore, MD
2002 FXSTDi 170-180 miles before low fuel light. It's a 4.9 gallon tank and when light comes on I still have a gallon. @20MPG something is wrong. My sportbike got better than that on track days @ 12,000 RPM plus!
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Tourer
Joined: Oct 2009
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Thanks for all the responses. Someone I talked to also suggested that if I'm just quickly filling the tank and not giving a moment for the left side to equalize via the crossover that I might not be getting a full tank. Do you all wait a bit for the left tank to fill? Seems reasonable, since I never took that into consideration. Since that's the easiest thing to check I'll start there.
I do know that the carb has been rejetted-- with what I don't know.
I do know that the carb has been rejetted-- with what I don't know.
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Tourer
Joined: Oct 2009
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well, figured this out. Nothing wrong with the bike, just the rider.
Curiously, there is nothing about this in the owner's manual, but it turns out on older bikes with split tanks (pre-99?) you have to fill the left (low side when on sidestand) side first, then the right. You can just fill the right tank and wait for it to crossover to the left, but it takes a LONG time. So turns out I was only filling a little more than half the capacity of the tanks.
Curiously, there is nothing about this in the owner's manual, but it turns out on older bikes with split tanks (pre-99?) you have to fill the left (low side when on sidestand) side first, then the right. You can just fill the right tank and wait for it to crossover to the left, but it takes a LONG time. So turns out I was only filling a little more than half the capacity of the tanks.
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