I have an 09 883 with the 3.3 gal tank. When my low fuel light comes on i stop and fill it up, but am only able to put about 2 gallons in. Is this because the filler hole sits down in the tank and part of the 3.3 gallon capacity is unusable, or becasue i still have about 1.3 gallons left in the tank. also about how far can i go once the low fuel light comes on before i have to "take a hike"??

 

I have not ran out of fuel with 125 miles when I stopped for fuel. I wouldn't push it much farther. The fuel pump in your tank uses the fuel to keep cool. low fuel is harder on the pump. I usually get fuel at 100 miles.

 

in order to get the max amount out of a sportster tank you have to relocate the fill cap towards the top of the tank and relocate the petcock to the bottom corner (closer to your seat) and most important convert it to a low tunnel or flat bottom (you get alot more fuel by switching to a low tunnel plus it seems like alot of guys on this site are doing tank lifts this gives you the same look but you get more fuel capacity. now with doing that you eliminate your reserve option, but it looks a hell of alot kooler! my solution to the no reserve is a Nash motorcycles fuel cell.

 

When the light comes on, you have about 1 gal of gas left. Or like you said 1.3 gal left. You should be able to run about 50 miles on this gallon. I have run out because I got on a road in Ohio and as soon as I got on it the light came on. I knew I had some time to get gas. So I continued, little did I know there were no gas stations for over 50 miles. And it was real close to the 50 mile mark.

 

I ignore the fuel light...the best way track how long you can drive on a tank is to track your mileage over the course of several fill-ups. I reset my trip each time I fill and then when my light comes on I switch to the trip to see how much further I can go.

 

My brother ran out of gas at 128 miles the other night. He has a Nightster.

 

Cool. so at about 100 miles fill er up and be good to go. not bad at all 100 miles on 2 gallons of gas.

 

I just got 151 miles out of my 3.3 tank,and when i filled it it only took 2.7 gallons.I don't have a low fuel light.My 2003 883r didn't come with the low fuel light.But I normally fill up at 125-150 miles.I have never run out and I have only switched to the reserve one time.

 

If you always depend on a light to tell you when to get gas, one of these days you WILL run out of gas. It is important to know your bike well enough to know how far you can go on a tank of gas. When I start my bike to warm it up, I check turn signals, high and low beam and brake light operation. I also look at the odometer to see how many miles I've gone since last fill-up. (It always shows trip mileage.) I know I can go about 85 miles of city driving and 95 miles of highway before I hit reserve. I can then go about 12-15 miles on reserve. I reset the trip odometer at every fill-up. If you're really curious, then get a friend to standy by with 2 gallons of gas, and then when your fuel light comes on, keep going to see exactly how many miles you can go before it sputters to a stop. That way you would KNOW, and eliminate the guess-work.

 

There is about 3.1 gallons in that tank that is usable. I found this out the hard way