So I ran out of fuel

[Glennn]

Embarressing!!!

Havn't made 2k yet and found myself stranded on the side of the road.  Luckily my wife wasn't far behind me in the car so I was only there for 45 minutes in total instead of the couple of hours I might have otherwise spent. When I noticed the low fuel warning flashing I reset the second trip meter and knew I would have at least 60kms before I need to start getting really worried, but with the bike empty at the 50km mark it either meant I was getting LOUSY mileage (nope), or the fuel light had been flashing for a good 20kms already before I noticed it...

So I have two main gripes here in regards to the low fuel warning:

• You know what would be really handy with all that real estate the warning takes up as it flashes away - a third trip meter that starts counting as soon as the low fuel is triggered.  I could only imagine highway trips and not looking at the gauge for a long period and potentially being caught out if I am not managing the right hand appropriatly
• My other issue is that once the low fuel starts flashing I have no access to any other of the bike's diagnostics - most importantly being the average fuel consumption and current fuel consumption information, coulda been handy you know? 

At the end of the day it is of course my fault and already relying too much on the fancy 'lectronics of my new bike.  Hell, on my Road Star when I hit reserve I would have to reach down a twist a lever, you know, a real honest to goodness lever  , and I would know at that point I had four litres and 70kms  to find fuel.   

[So Cal Joe]

First of all you can clear that message by pressing in on the top button and the push in the bottom button and it will resume normal function. When my 09 starts to flash I have a little over a gallon left in the tank. As I have said before, any time you get a new bike you should always find out how much gas you left at different points on the gauge. Fill ii up when the third bar disappears and see how much it takes. Do that at each bar and you will always know pretty close to how much gas you have left.

[Glennn]

First of all you can clear that message by pressing in on the top button and the push in the bottom button and it will resume normal function.

Now that I did not know.  It's probably in the manual, huh...

[gPink]

It's real handy when the TPMS goes whacky on you too.

[maxtog]

First of all you can clear that message by pressing in on the top button and the push in the bottom button and it will resume normal function.

I wouldn't call it "normal" function, since you can no longer see an estimate of remaining fuel, and that annoying red light is on solid.  But it is certainly MORE functional.

But I always try NOT to wreck the bike while reaching up to do the complex two button press to clear the annoying warning AND to reset the second trip meter so I know how many miles I have gone on "reserve".  I always estimate that I safely have 30 miles left (knowing I have more).

[lt1]

Embarressing!!!

Havn't made 2k yet and found myself stranded on the side of the road.  Luckily my wife wasn't far behind me in the car so I was only there for 45 minutes in total instead of the couple of hours I might have otherwise spent. When I noticed the low fuel warning flashing I reset the second trip meter and knew I would have at least 60kms before I need to start getting really worried, but with the bike empty at the 50km mark it either meant I was getting LOUSY mileage (nope), or the fuel light had been flashing for a good 20kms already before I noticed it...

So I have two main gripes here in regards to the low fuel warning:

• You know what would be really handy with all that real estate the warning takes up as it flashes away - a third trip meter that starts counting as soon as the low fuel is triggered.  I could only imagine highway trips and not looking at the gauge for a long period and potentially being caught out if I am not managing the right hand appropriatly
• My other issue is that once the low fuel starts flashing I have no access to any other of the bike's diagnostics - most importantly being the average fuel consumption and current fuel consumption information, coulda been handy you know? 

At the end of the day it is of course my fault and already relying too much on the fancy 'lectronics of my new bike.  Hell, on my Road Star when I hit reserve I would have to reach down a twist a lever, you know, a real honest to goodness lever  , and I would know at that point I had four litres and 70kms  to find fuel.

1.  Agreed in concept.  I understand that some bike switch from Range to Miles on Reserve.  W/b easy to do.  Not sure why Kawi doesn't do this.  Patents/royalties/stupidity?
2.  In the manual, as noted.  As in:  If all else fails, read the instructions.  If no other benefit, you can get some smiles out of the Japlish it it written in.  Or is that Enganese?

[Glennn]

Weeeeeeeeell believe it or not I did read the manual on the day she came home, but I must have missed that little bit of forest for all the trees 

[AZ-ZG]

190-ish miles per tank, commuting, should be routine unless, of course, you're a hamfist with a limitless tire budget!   Did ya have to push the Big Grrrl?  :0

[Jay]

...when I hit reserve I would have to reach down a twist a lever, you know, a real honest to goodness lever...

Same on my '79 KZ100, easy-peezy. No fuel gauge either, had to rock the bike and listen to the tank.
You got off this one with a small slap on the wrist (self-inflicted). Lesson learned, no doubt.

Been 20 years between bikes (32 model years). Things have gotten way more complex on every level.
The engineering sophistication is awesome but sometimes the electronics get carried away.

I went through the manual cover to cover and missed several things. There is simply too much to absorb all at once.
Gotta learn as you go, address issues when they come up as best you can, and discover that experience is eventually
going to inform as much as--if not more than--the manual with these computerized cruise missiles.

Some folks on this forum have been immersed in the MC world for decades and know a lot about its evolution.
I respect that and enjoy learning from them. It can be humbling.

[Glennn]

190-ish miles per tank, commuting, should be routine unless, of course, you're a hamfist with a limitless tire budget!   Did ya have to push the Big Grrrl?  :0

Yeah haven't had her long enough to get a true appreciation of range yet, and at 100kmh she just seems to sip from the tank, but 130kmh she likes a bit of a drink.  No way was I going to push her the next kilometre up a steady hill...

Been 20 years between bikes (32 model years). Things have gotten way more complex on every level.
The engineering sophistication is awesome but sometimes the electronics get carried away.

The GTR is I think my 10th bike in over 20 years of riding, although my last bike a Yamaha Road Star I had for the last 12 years.  Going from almost as low tech as you can get with a single side draft carb, belt drive, pushrods, etc - plus being able to do anything with it mechanically - and now stepping up to this high-tech girl that is giving me more information in the start up sequence than my Roadie would in a year's worth of riding... Well lets just say I need to be careful with my bike technology making all my decisions for me 

[jjsC6]

At least with the Concours you have access to a lot of information.  I reset my average mileage and trip odometer every time I get gas.  That way I can do the math in my head to figure out how much fuel is left in the tank.  BTW, the "miles to empty" is worthless because it works on a sampling of you very recent mileage.  I don't know how many miles, but it appears it works on a sampling of maybe the last 1/2 mile.  If you don't believe me, put it in that mode and roll into the gas hard for a minute and watch what happens to the range.

I just got a Ninja 1000 and it has a tiny little black dot that flashes when it has a gallon left.  If you don't see exactly when it starts flashing, you have no idea how long it's been flashing, and there is no information to give you an idea how much fuel you might have left.  I live in fear I'll run out mostly because the little dot is so small it will never get my attention.

[W14]

+1 on resetting the trip odometer on gas ups. I know that at about 175 miles I have slightly over a gallon of fuel remaining and should refuel

[Bourne2Ride]

+2 on the resetting the odo on fill up. I too have about a gallon left and 40 miles when i hit 170-175 miles.

[Shadowofshoe]

    Current gas display system beats hell out of bike of days gone by....how many of us switched the petcock to reserve,then got to destination-then took off again-felt sputtering only to reach down to switch to reserve-oops......detach tank carry it to the gas station-how handy cell phones would have been!!

 Mike

[RBX QB]

+1 for resetting the odo.

I ran out of gas on my Ducati a couple years ago. On the freeway, no less. My "reserve" was only about 25 miles, when I thought I could get 30. Luckily I was back near home, and a friend came and brought me a gallon. Still kind of humbling. He got a free lunch out of it.

[Mister Tee]

BMW RT bikes are notorious for fuel gauge failures.  Mine failed indicating a quarter tank left, and BMW RT bikes also have a very annoying habit of randomly displaying the odometer or the second trip meter instead of displaying what was last set so I didn't have the trip meter visible and I forgot to reset the display to show it.   Consequently I ran out of gas.  The only time in my live I've ever run any vehicle out of gas.

I trust the gas gauge in the C14, but I still go off the trip meter, which I've always done with every bike I've ever had.  I really don't trust the mileage and remaining miles calculations, they vary too much so I do my own math and I manage to stay out of trouble.

[lather]

I've run out of gas on every bike except the C14. It's a great way to meet nice people. I ran out on my KLR650 on an elevated Interstate because it has a  6 gallon tank but I found out the hard way the last half gallon is out of reach of the fuel pickup. I pushed it to the next down ramp that was luckily only 100 yards away and then coasted most of the way to a gas station. The good thing about the KLRs tank is you can lay the bike down and a quart will flow into the middle of the tank and you can go a few more miles.

[Z71]

Instead of all this crap, why not just refuel your tank after every 150 miles or so and be done with it?  Very rarely you run into a situation where you cannot find a gas station for 150 miles. 

[Steve D]

The year was 1974, i had just bought a brand new Honda 550 Four, left the show room with a full tank of gas and started riding. Figured, hey this will be a good time to see how far a get on the main tank. Just watch the miles tick away and when I have to switch to reserve I got it.   Well I don't remember the mileage at the time but sure enough she started sputtering but it just so happened to do it just after i started up an interstate bridge over a major river that carries ship traffic, I think the bridge is about 250 ft tall.  So I quickly reach down and flip it to reserve so it will not die going up the bridge.  Didn't work it died anyway as i was about 1/3 the way up. I tried and tried to get it restarted but no luck so I started pushing.  Pushed it the rest of the way up the bridge (not fun) and coasted down the other side.  Just after the coast finished someone stopped and gave me some gas.  I figured it must be out.  Sure enough the bike fired right up and I rode it back to the dealer and asked them to check it out.  What they found was the factory had left out the little stand tube in the tank that lets the tank have a reserve cause the main tank position pulls from this tube.  Effectively without the tube I didn't have a reserve.  That was 12 bikes ago and that was the last time I ran out of gas.

[Bugnut]

Spare  ...



Mike