Reserve Fuel Capacity

Brillot2000

Brillot2000

0
Joined
Nov 7, 2017
Messages
1,300
Age
50
Location
Sun Valley, CA
Bike
NT700V, NC700X, XL600R
I was wondering if any of you know how much fuel is left in the tank when the needle is pointing on the "E"?

I am only on my second tank on this bike and have not made that determination yet. The odometer this morning was showing about 180 miles and was lying on the bottom "E" line. If the bike gets 50 MPG average and the tank is 5.2 gallon. Then I should be getting 260 miles per tank. I would feel comfortable fueling up at 240 miles.

I would appreciate many of you sharing your experience regarding this.

Thank you in advance... :smile:
 
When I fill up with the needle sitting at the bottom of the red, Mine takes about 4.4 gallons to fill. I have never put more than 4.5 gallons in the tank so a bit more than 1/2 gallon has always been left.
 
Brillot, there is no way of knowing how much is left. It seems to be a bit inconsistant. The best I can do is to say "a lot".

But I discovered a long time ago I can stop for more gas much easier than I can push a motorcycle to a gas station. I was 50 years younger and the motorcycle was 250# lighter.

When Phil Tarman and rode to Alaska (both on NTs) I always got a little better gas mileage than he did. We rode the same roads at the same speed. He probably had a little more weight and I know he had a higher windshield. I think Phil's was a Cee Bailey +6 and mine was a +1". When we filled up in Valdez at 255 miles mine took 4.7 gal. and his took 4.9??? or so.

Conditions determine a lot too. I got 67 mpg one day on the Blue Ridge Parkway and 47 mpg on another day crossing North Dakota in a headwind. 50 mpg is a safe guess for average fuel mileage, but you won't see that at high speeds on the freeways.
 
Brillot, looking at my dashboard on Fuelly.com, I see that, in all miles I've logged on Fuelly (96,000 out of the 125,000 I've actually ridden), I've averaged 46.7mpg. Understand that out here in the west, I'm usually riding at 75-80mpg on 4-lane highways and 68-72 on 2-lanes. The best mileage I've ever gotten was 68.6; that included riding at higher altitudes and through Rocky Mountain National Park with its 35mph speed limit and losing about 3500' in elevation from the time I filled up till the next fill-up. I've put, like Jim said, 5.1 gallons in the tank once. A couple of times I've been down to the last 3 or 4 tenths of a gallon. The gauge is pointing at the bottom right corner of the "E" when it's that low. Seems like that time I put in 5.1 gallons, it was almost touching the peg on the bottom of the gauge.
 
after sneaking up on it,(going farther) knowing it was a 5.2 tank, finally did a 280.5 mile tank. then in Colorado did a 327 mile tank. I do it all the time - go past E if I KNOW where gas stations are at. never pushed NT
 
Thank you for the valuable feedback. This will be helpful in figuring out my distance limits and how to read the fuel gauge position past the red zone.

I rode the bike home nearly 30 miles away from work. At that time the needle was laying on the bottom red line. When I got to the gas station 1.5 miles from my house the needle was lying just beneath the bottom line. I traveled 222.1 miles on that tank and it took 4.7 gallons to fill the tank to the brim. The calculated MPG was 47.25 while the indicated on the dash was 50.2 average.

We currently have the "Winter Blend" of gas, which has more alcohol in it. You will tend to use more fuel and see a decrease in the MPG during these months.
 
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Brillot, I guess most of us forgot to add that the fuel mileage display on the dashboard is pretty optimistic. Most of us know that and ignore whatever it says. The speedometer, however, is pretty good.

I notice a significant difference in fuel mileage when using gas with no ethanol compared to using the more common regular ethanol blend in all my vehicles. The non-ethanol regular will run 2 - 4 mpg higher in my motorcycle and about 1 1/2 mpg higher in my truck. There is only one gas station that sells the non-ethanol regular in my area.
 
junglejim said:
There is only one gas station that sells the non-ethanol regular in my area.
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All fuel intended for on-road use in California has ethanol in it, at least in Los Angeles County and other surrounding counties. We do not get the choice of using "Real Gas".

My truck is a diesel. I find that I get more out of a tank of B20 (bio-diesel) blend. Go figure???
 
I have a gas station near me that sells gas without ethanol. I live by a lake and they primarily cater to those filling gas tanks for boats and RV's. It does cost more per gallon and the last time I gave it a try the increased gas mileage did not cover the increase in cost per gallon.
 
Pure Gas is usually Premium, so you have to figure it is not that much more the corn gas premium. NT of course runs on regular, so you have much more cost with the premium to figure. If you have a motorcycle that must use premium, then it would not be a very big difference. I try and use Pure Gas on storage, I do not believe you have the fuel attack moisture as much without the corn.
 
Phil Tarman said:
Do you remember where you rode on that tank?
Click to expand...

that was in YOUR state! 2015 Colorado / Utah summer vacation. that day was Rocky Mountain State Park, starting from Pine. Going back to B & B I saw fuel gauge still high. So I rode south farther on HWY 285 (or is it 281?)past gas stations, reset trip odo #2 , then over that Pass, down that big hill at sunset, was cool to see headlights so far in distance! Turned around back to gas with 327 miles. that was a real fun tank!!!!
 
I agree with Jungle Jims coment regarding fueling before the pushing zone comes into play!On he two occasions I had to run real hard for distance on my NT , one from Spearfish to Kennewick /wa m and then a year later frm Custer SD tp Twin Falls ID both in response to death calls I ran BOUT 175 OR 185 MI AND GOT FUEL AT OR ABOUT THOSE POINTS AS I DIDNT HAVE TIME TO BE PUSHING OR AWAITING A RESCUE BECAUSE I NEEDED GAS. I ONLY EXPEXTED MPG TO BE IN HI 30'S AS I WAS NOT TRYING FOR mpg OR EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT. ///////////////////////////////////THE LACK OF A EASY ADAPTION OF A aux FUEL CELL SYSTEM TO THE nt IS ONE OF ITS MAJOR FAULTSFOR A SERIOUS EXTREAM MILE EATER. //////////////////B/UT THE nt IS A VERY FINE PLATFORM IF YOU DONT WANT A USEABLE 400 MILE FUEL CA[ACITY WITH A EXTRA 50 OR 75 MILE SAFEY BUFFER ABOVE SNF BEYOUND THAT, THIS IS JUST MY HUMBLE OPPINION AND I DONT EXPECT MOST OF YOU TO UNDERSTAND WHY A OLD NEARLY BLIND GUY SAYS IT. mY SECOND COMPLAINT ABOUT THE nt IS THE pANNIER BAG LID LOCKING SYSTEM THAT SEVERAL FORUM MEMBERS HAVE DEVELLOPED A GREAT FIS FOR THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY Honda.

aLL IN ALL TAKE A ABONE STOCK nt AND PUT $3 TO $5,000 IN FARKLES ON IT TO MAKE IT FIT YOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND YOU HAVE A MOUNT THAT WILL CARRY YOU FAITHFULLYFOR 150 TO 200,000 MILES

eLDON
 
EX Winger said:
I agree with Jungle Jims coment regarding fueling before the pushing zone comes into play!On he two occasions I had to run real hard for distance on my NT , one from Spearfish to Kennewick /wa m and then a year later frm Custer SD tp Twin Falls ID both in response to death calls I ran BOUT 175 OR 185 MI AND GOT FUEL AT OR ABOUT THOSE POINTS AS I DIDNT HAVE TIME TO BE PUSHING OR AWAITING A RESCUE BECAUSE I NEEDED GAS. I ONLY EXPEXTED MPG TO BE IN HI 30'S AS I WAS NOT TRYING FOR mpg OR EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT. ///////////////////////////////////THE LACK OF A EASY ADAPTION OF A aux FUEL CELL SYSTEM TO THE nt IS ONE OF ITS MAJOR FAULTSFOR A SERIOUS EXTREAM MILE EATER. //////////////////B/UT THE nt IS A VERY FINE PLATFORM IF YOU DONT WANT A USEABLE 400 MILE FUEL CA[ACITY WITH A EXTRA 50 OR 75 MILE SAFEY BUFFER ABOVE SNF BEYOUND THAT, THIS IS JUST MY HUMBLE OPPINION AND I DONT EXPECT MOST OF YOU TO UNDERSTAND WHY A OLD NEARLY BLIND GUY SAYS IT. mY SECOND COMPLAINT ABOUT THE nt IS THE pANNIER BAG LID LOCKING SYSTEM THAT SEVERAL FORUM MEMBERS HAVE DEVELLOPED A GREAT FIS FOR THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY Honda.

aLL IN ALL TAKE A ABONE STOCK nt AND PUT $3 TO $5,000 IN FARKLES ON IT TO MAKE IT FIT YOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND YOU HAVE A MOUNT THAT WILL CARRY YOU FAITHFULLYFOR 150 TO 200,000 MILES

eLDON
Click to expand...

I am sorry you lost me with all the "CAPS". Were your yelling at me in your response?
 
Well, I ran the tank dry earlier this evening while cruising down I-5. I only got 228 miles before the engine went completely dead. I calculated the MPG and it came out to 43.8 on the Winter Blend of gas.
 
So...how much gas did you get into the tank after running it completely dry?
 
My son said he brought me 4.5 gallons. I haven't had a chance to top it off yet to know for sure.
 
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