Low fuel idiot light?

Joined
Mar 2, 2016
Messages
114
Location
Silicon Valley
Does the NT have one? Just wondering once the gauge is buried at the bottom of the red, about how many miles can be cajoled out of it, if need be. Just as the needle sank to the bottom of red, I clicked over the 200 mile mark, and the tank took 4.2 gallons, for about 47 MPG. Anybody have any idea what is the actual useable fuel capacity of this bike? Anybody had the distinction of running it dry and filling 'er up?
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
630
Location
Western Washington
Bike
2010 NT700V, 2015 CB500X
No idiot light. The self check when you turn the ignition on shows all the idiot lights available. If you are concerned about range, it is easy to squeeze an additional ~1/4 gallon in if filling on the center stand vice side stand.
Anyone try to run out of gas? I did. Carried a 1 gallon can of gas to bail myself out. Here are my results:

1. Gas gauge goes about 2-3 needles below E and STOPS. Needle will not go lower, and definately will not go to the zero position as displayed with key off.
2. Was able to get ~40 miles after needle stopped moving.
3. Got 297.1 miles on that tank.
4. Filled 4.871 gallons. Usually fill 4.0 to 4.3 gallons, so I ran an extra .5 gallons out before fill up.
5. 61 mpg. This is above my normal 55-57 mpg in summer.
6. I felt engine stutter going up an incline and filled up at next gas station, so I didn't run it till it died..... but I tried & learned enough.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 16, 2010
Messages
550
Location
Port Townsend, Washington
I think over time you figure out where in the line is in the red zone before you need to fill up. I often run my bike to the larger empty red line and put in generally 4.2 or so gallons. That gives me an extra gallon. I'm consistently getting 55 mpg, so that's about 230 miles before fill up and I feel secure knowing I could go another 55 miles if needed.

terry
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
1,112
Location
Otsego, MI
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'10 NT 84 BMW R100RT Ural
Never run out of fuel unless your going down hill toward a gas station. At about 250 miles you need to find a station, at 300 you should have comfortable boots on to walk is necessary. AMA road service can bring you gas, and all you have to do it pay for the gas: and wait about 3 hours or more.
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2012
Messages
1,426
Location
Richardson, TX
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2010 Red NT700
Everything depends on how fast you are riding. You will routinely reach the lowest mark at about 200 miles... Just pull over as soon as you can. I've run out at 217 before and I've gone as far as 230. This guy that's telling you you can go 300 miles has to be getting 60 mpg, which is hardly doable at the speed limits
I routinely get 48-49
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2012
Messages
1,426
Location
Richardson, TX
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2010 Red NT700
Everything depends on how fast you are riding. You will routinely reach the lowest mark at about 200 miles... Just pull over as soon as you can. I've run out at 217 before and I've gone as far as 230. This guy that's telling you you can go 300 miles has to be getting 60 mpg, which is hardly doable at the speed limits
I routinely get 48-49
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
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1,285
Location
Arkansas
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2020 Kawasaki Versys
I'm not a long distance rider but I wouldn't push it too much. For one The NT doesn't push very easily. Also the fuel in the tank helps cool the fuel pump so filling a little early might prolong the pump life a little bit.

Brad
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2012
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1,426
Location
Richardson, TX
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2010 Red NT700
Chris, how many times have you gotten over 60 mpg?
Your 51.6 average is totally achievable on a regular basis but 60 plus mpg has to be a one off situation
I've ridden my NT over 50k miles and never even flirted with 60 mpg
 

Warren

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Dec 13, 2010
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2,332
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O'Fallon, MO
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2019 Yamaha XMAX
In my experience if you ride at 60 mph or slower you can get 60-65 mpg. I do it all the time on two lane highways that have a 55 mph speed limit.
 
Joined
Jun 14, 2012
Messages
1,426
Location
Richardson, TX
Bike
2010 Red NT700
I was going to say you need to be at or below 60 almost all the time to get those big numbers.
I don't ride aggressively but I do ride fairly fast when not on surface streets.
My tach is at or above 5k all the time when on the highway
 

junglejim

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Apr 26, 2012
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2,119
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Northern WI
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Tiger 800, NT sold
My best was 67 mpg on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Worst was 43 mpg crossing the Dakotas in a headwind.
Longest to fill up was 253 mi. In Alaska.

I can stop for gas much easier than I can push a motorcycle.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
630
Location
Western Washington
Bike
2010 NT700V, 2015 CB500X
It's all about throttle position. I get >58 mpg all summer commuting. Winter is about 5 mpg less. If my riding is limited to 60 mph roads and I don't practice my race track technique of rolling on the throttle thru every turn to maximize my turn exit speed.....60 mpg is difficult to avoid. I'm not on a track and don't need to be going fast at the exit of turn because the minivan in front of me certainly isn't practicing either.

It's all about throttle position. I don't ever remember getting <50mpg, maybe once fighting a head wind. I rarely ride 70mph or on interstates.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
27
Location
Virginia
I get 45 to 47 mpg. That is at highway speeds of about 75.

I could get better mileage by going slower. However that would likely get me squooshed by I95 traffic. :)
 

Phil Tarman

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Greeley, CO
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2010 Silver NT700VA (ABS)
My best mileage has been 68.4, riding between (IIRC) Kremmling, CO, and Greeley. I basically lost 4,000' of altitude and a bunch of those mile were in Rocky Mountain National Park where the limit is 35mph. Plus I had a pretty good tailwind.

I've put between 4.8-5.1 gallons into the bike a few times. That's down into the area where the needle stops moving. I don't go beyond the bottom of the red unless I know there's a station in the next very few miles.

On a ride to Devil's Tower from Spearfish at the National Rally in '12, about 4 or 5 of us left Devil's Tower and then headed south to Upton, through Newcastle, and didn't stop for gas till we got to Custer. I knew we were going to make -- not everyone was as confident as I was. :-0
 

junglejim

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Apr 26, 2012
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Northern WI
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I've gotten as low as 32 riding in west Texas against a strong headwind
Well you obviously ride much faster than I do. I live in Wisconsin where we only recently raised the speed limit to 70 mph on a Interstates and few divided highways. On our regular State and US highways the speedlimit is still 55 and you can safely go 60 mph without fear of being stopped by LEOs. I've been stopped twice for doing 61 in a 55 zone so I don't push it. Most other states are more lenient on enforcement. I can't understand why we ticket speeders and do such a poor job of enforcing drunk driving laws, but that seems to be the culture here. It does, however allow me to average 60+ mpg around home.

Seems each time I travel out of state I have to get used to going faster and then when I come home I have a hard time slowing down.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
644
Location
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Black 2009 NT700
Does the NT have one? Just wondering once the gauge is buried at the bottom of the red, about how many miles can be cajoled out of it, if need be. Just as the needle sank to the bottom of red, I clicked over the 200 mile mark, and the tank took 4.2 gallons, for about 47 MPG. Anybody have any idea what is the actual useable fuel capacity of this bike? Anybody had the distinction of running it dry and filling 'er up?
Yes. I have actually run the bike in the garage until it stopped so that I could see whether the fuel pump will drain the tank or not, thus working out the usabale capacity.
On the Centre Stand, which is near enough to being on the ground as far as the fuel tank is concerned, the pump WILL empty the tank completely, with NO visible fuel remaining.
This is not something I do on the road but for testing purposes on a cool day it is OK.
To fill the tank to the cap took exactly 20.6 litres or 5.44 US gallons. The owners handbook says 19.7 litres IIRC.
I have also recalibrated my fuel gauge sender unit to more accurately reflect the true volume of fuel in the tank.
Keep in mind that these figures apply ONLY to my bike:
FULL TANK 20.6L
3/4 ON THE GAUGE 15.3L
1/2 ON THE GAUGE 11.3L
1/4 ON THE GAUGE 5.9L
TOP OF THE RED ZONE 4.3L
EMPTY ON THE GAUGE 3.2L

We have lower speed limits in Oz so I usually travel at 95kph/60mph and consistanly average 3.95L/100km or 59 MPG US.
It never varies by more than +-2 MPG.
This gives me a theoretical range of 518km or 321 miles.
The furthest that I have travelled between fillups is 479km or 297 miles and it took 18.9L or 4.99 gallons US to fil it.
I usually look for fuel between 350 and 400 km but is is nice to know that I can go 500 if I need to.

Macka
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 19, 2015
Messages
84
Location
Onalaska, WI
Bike
2009 BMW R1200RT
I find that after I fill up, my gas gauge doesn't move for the first 100 miles and then it just drops to zero.
Does anyone else have the same?
I'm convinced that the same sick Honda engineer that designed the fuel gauge, also designed a Phillips, 2 different sizes of hex, a torx and a acorn nut head all on the same part that you are trying to remove...
 

Phil Tarman

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Most bikes (including the NT) that have a fuel gauge use a float on an arm and have a potentiometer measuring voltage based on the angle of the float arm. Since, like Chris said above, most gas tanks are shaped very irregularly, it's very hard to calibrate the gauge accurately.

Consistency is what you're looking for. My experience with the NT is that when the needle falls to the 3/4 mark, I've ridden about 90 miles; 120 at 1/2; 150 at 1/4. 180 or so at the top of the red.
 
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