How Accurate Is The Fuel Gauge On A Motorcycle?

Pegassus

Pegassus

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All of my previous 250cc and 350cc dual-sport bikes never had a fuel gauge, I used to reset the odometer to "000" and I knew that when it reached 200 km I had about 15 km's left of fuel.

I got a new bike which has a nice-looking fuel gauge, yeeehaaawwww!! How accurate is it? Does 1/4th of a tank really means 1/4th of a tank? I don't want to end up stuck in some isolated highway at 10:00pm at night. My BBQ propane tank has a gauge too and it has a margin of error of 50% :) Can I trust my bike's fuel gauge?


This is exactly how my fuel gauge/panel looks like:

7S_gauges.jpg
 
Pegassus said:
All of my previous 250cc and 350cc dual-sport bikes never had a fuel gauge, I used to reset the odometer to "000" and I knew that when it reached 200 km I had about 15 km's left of fuel.

I got a new bike which has a nice-looking fuel gauge, yeeehaaawwww!! How accurate is it? Does 1/4th of a tank really means 1/4th of a tank? I don't want to end up stuck in some isolated highway at 10:00pm at night. My BBQ propane tank has a gauge too and it has a margin of error of 50% :) Can I trust my bike's fuel gauge?


This is exactly how my fuel gauge/panel looks like:

7S_gauges.jpg
Click to expand...



having owned a ZR7S in the past, it is very conservative... think of it as that's the fuel guage and when you are at e? you turn to reservel... so the fuel guage doesn't show the full tank, it shows the full tank MINUS the reserve portion of the tank...

very handy ...

if you ride conservatively you should be able to get 400km to a tank ...
 
chiller said:
having owned a ZR7S in the past, it is very conservative... think of it as that's the fuel guage and when you are at e? you turn to reservel... so the fuel guage doesn't show the full tank, it shows the full tank MINUS the reserve portion of the tank...

very handy ...

if you ride conservatively you should be able to get 400km to a tank ...
Click to expand...

400 km, eh? Those older air cooled motors are surprisingly frugal. My gs500 could regularly do 350 km before I chickened out and switched to reserve.
 
chiller said:
having owned a ZR7S in the past, it is very conservative... think of it as that's the fuel guage and when you are at e? you turn to reservel... so the fuel guage doesn't show the full tank, it shows the full tank MINUS the reserve portion of the tank...

very handy ...

if you ride conservatively you should be able to get 400km to a tank ...
Click to expand...


Wow thanks that's good to know and a very bright idea, so you are telling me that my fuel gauge doesn't take into account my reserve? According to the internet my new bike has a 5.8 gallon (22 litres) tank and it can do 52 miles/gallon, that would be 300 miles (482 km's) but in real-life and real conditions it's 450 km per tank full according to some owners.... not bad :)
 
Flywheel said:
400 km, eh? Those older air cooled motors are surprisingly frugal. My gs500 could regularly do 350 km before I chickened out and switched to reserve.
Click to expand...

well big tank (22 litres) and an easy throttle hand got you lots of a fuel mileage...
 
Pegassus said:
Wow thanks that's good to know and a very bright idea, so you are telling me that my fuel gauge doesn't take into account my reserve? According to the internet my new bike has a 5.8 gallon (22 litres) tank and it can do 52 miles/gallon, that would be 300 miles (482 km's) but in real-life and real conditions it's 450 km per tank full according to some owners.... not bad :)
Click to expand...

from my experience I can get 400km and then switch to reserve if I am EASY on the throttle... if I am 'playing' that day or running with my other sprocket ( the +3 sprocket ) then I will get about 300km on a tank ... so you should never be less then 300km on a tank of gas BEFORE hitting the reserve...

once when I was just TOURING along at 80-90kph all day, I got to 460km before switching to reserve.

Let me know if you ever want to chat about upgrades on that bike, there's a whole host of stuff to make it a better bike...
 
one day I should fill up my jerrycan and empty my tank on my 250, I honestly have not hit the E ever and have no clue of how much I could get once its done. I fill up almost every 250km :(
 
On my Sv, I get about 250-300km before Im on reserve (works out to be 3L left or so) of a 17L tank. Though this year the gauge seems to be fickly and warns earlier.... :S
 
afelotreyu said:
one day I should fill up my jerrycan and empty my tank on my 250, I honestly have not hit the E ever and have no clue of how much I could get once its done. I fill up almost every 250km :(
Click to expand...

well why won't you just back-calculate the fuel mileage ? if you fill at 250km and you divide by number of litres you'll know how many km you are getting pre litre and voila you know how far you can go...
 
chiller said:
well why won't you just back-calculate the fuel mileage ? if you fill at 250km and you divide by number of litres you'll know how many km you are getting pre litre and voila you know how far you can go...
Click to expand...
I track all my fill-ups on a little app on my phone.

:violent1:The damn thing crashed a few weeks back and I lost all the history from the day I got the bike!.. but currently is about 4.706L/100km (18L gas tank), a little low cuz I missed one fill-up recently.

Somehow, numbers are not the same as actually doing it and see how it goes.. gain some more confidence that way I guess.
 
Flywheel said:
400 km, eh? Those older air cooled motors are surprisingly frugal. My gs500 could regularly do 350 km before I chickened out and switched to reserve.
Click to expand...

You mean you switch to reserve before actually needing it?
Why not just leave it on reserve always then?
 
djltoronto said:
You mean you switch to reserve before actually needing it?
Why not just leave it on reserve always then?
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing, Im thinking of letting mine run out of gas completely to see how much mileage I get in real life, then swith to reserve. I also would love to know how many kilometers I can go on the reserve before running out.
 
Pegassus said:
I was wondering the same thing, Im thinking of letting mine run out of gas completely to see how much mileage I get in real life, then swith to reserve. I also would love to know how many kilometers I can go on the reserve before running out.
Click to expand...

Umm, that's the whole idea of a "reserve". Run down your main tank until it's empty then switch to reserve. Get gas. Simple concept, I thought.

Easiest way I know of keeping track of what's in your tank and judge the accuracy of your gauge is to a) know how much your tank holds and b) make note of what the gauge reads and c) check how much fuel it takes to fill.

My tank holds 17.5 l. It will typically take me 15l to fill - therefore there was 2.5l left in the tank.

I don't have a gauge as such but the computer tells me when I'm getting low by telling me how much range it thinks I have based on the way I'm riding at the time - usually 40 - 60 kms. So, I typically fill when it's suggesting I can still go maybe 30 kms. My bike runs about 6.5l/100 km. So 2.5l will take me about 30 kms. That's seems pretty accurate to me.

The only accurate fuel gauge I've seen on a motorcycle is the odometer/tripmeter.
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