So chomping at the bit to get out the house, we packed up grabbed a few friends and had a nice ride out to Starved Rock Yesterday. When i gassed up at shell yesterday it took about 4.5 gallons. The needle was on E and I could see the bottom of the tank thru the fill. In the manual it states the tank is 6.1 gallons. On the dash it looks like there is a light that comes on when the tank gets to a certain point, but having bought the bike used I havent run into that yet. So I was curious how much can you actually fill the tank when its really empty and how far do you have when the light comes on.
GL1500 Gas Capacity Questions
- Status
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
Joined
·
2,711 Posts
If you've got an interstate...
:ROFL:
... the light won't come on (not that they get infinite mileage, but they just don't have the circuitry/harness for it).
Unless the fuel gage has been adjusted, the god ole "E-to-F" gauge will measure about the top 3.5 or 4 gallons of fuel. If it's working (and equipped) the low fuel light should come on with about 1 gallon left in the bottle.
You should be able to get 6.5 gallons (or a bit shy of that) in a dry tank, with a little over 30-miles left once the light is on. It all depends on how you ride, and how long you want your fuel pumps to last.... Kinda "plan" on 200-miles between stops and you'll be filling with about 5.5 gallons if you're calm enough to get 37mpg...
:ROFL:
... the light won't come on (not that they get infinite mileage, but they just don't have the circuitry/harness for it).
Unless the fuel gage has been adjusted, the god ole "E-to-F" gauge will measure about the top 3.5 or 4 gallons of fuel. If it's working (and equipped) the low fuel light should come on with about 1 gallon left in the bottle.
You should be able to get 6.5 gallons (or a bit shy of that) in a dry tank, with a little over 30-miles left once the light is on. It all depends on how you ride, and how long you want your fuel pumps to last.... Kinda "plan" on 200-miles between stops and you'll be filling with about 5.5 gallons if you're calm enough to get 37mpg...
Joined
·
3,286 Posts
The tank is 'stepped' also, so you were probably not looking at the real bottom of the tank. Not to mention it is far enough down to be deceiving.
Joined
·
6,344 Posts
The tank is odd shaped so you probably were not really seeing the bottom of the tank. Maybe the bottom of the top part of the tank?
Unless it's been adjusted by an owner before, as Satan said about the top 4gal reads from E-F normally.
The gauge should go a pretty long way under E also, so it's like reading 5/4's of a tank sort of. 5th being 1/4 UNDER empty. My 88 did that so I read the Under empty as part of the gauge. Not sure about my 95 as I seldom let it get that low. You'd just have to check if yours does that.
Need to learn to read your gauge or adjust it, or both. Sometimes the MPG can vary drastically with riding style, winds, bad gas, etc... so relying on mileage rode is not always good either.
My 88 would do about 230 miles to a tank (37.8mpg 6.3gal tank) if I pushed it to empty which I never did, but once I ran out at 180 miles and was lucky I was turning into a station right then and coasted downhill to the pumps.
Same with my 95, almost got stranded in desert when MPG dropped from normal 40-42mpg to about 30mpg! Just that one tank of bad gas then went back to normal MPG again.
Fighting really hard head winds at high speed can also drop MPG ALLOT.
If the low fuel light comes on (sometimes they don't work) your supposed to have about 1gal gas left I think. So how far you can ride depends what your MPG is right then!
Though I could push it longer I normally try to fill up around 180miles, or sooner if want to stop for anything else about then. Both times I almost got into problems was right at the 180 mile point also! Strange because there is one trip I make that I often ride 205 miles on one tank because the gas is more expensive there and I avoid it. So I fill at home, ride 205-210 miles and fill at home again.
The electric fuel pump is in the tank and the gas helps cool it so not running to low much helps the pump live longer they say. That makes sense in theory though I've not pushed it to the test LOL
Unless it's been adjusted by an owner before, as Satan said about the top 4gal reads from E-F normally.
The gauge should go a pretty long way under E also, so it's like reading 5/4's of a tank sort of. 5th being 1/4 UNDER empty. My 88 did that so I read the Under empty as part of the gauge. Not sure about my 95 as I seldom let it get that low. You'd just have to check if yours does that.
Need to learn to read your gauge or adjust it, or both. Sometimes the MPG can vary drastically with riding style, winds, bad gas, etc... so relying on mileage rode is not always good either.
My 88 would do about 230 miles to a tank (37.8mpg 6.3gal tank) if I pushed it to empty which I never did, but once I ran out at 180 miles and was lucky I was turning into a station right then and coasted downhill to the pumps.
Same with my 95, almost got stranded in desert when MPG dropped from normal 40-42mpg to about 30mpg! Just that one tank of bad gas then went back to normal MPG again.
Fighting really hard head winds at high speed can also drop MPG ALLOT.
If the low fuel light comes on (sometimes they don't work) your supposed to have about 1gal gas left I think. So how far you can ride depends what your MPG is right then!
Though I could push it longer I normally try to fill up around 180miles, or sooner if want to stop for anything else about then. Both times I almost got into problems was right at the 180 mile point also! Strange because there is one trip I make that I often ride 205 miles on one tank because the gas is more expensive there and I avoid it. So I fill at home, ride 205-210 miles and fill at home again.
The electric fuel pump is in the tank and the gas helps cool it so not running to low much helps the pump live longer they say. That makes sense in theory though I've not pushed it to the test LOL
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
- Status
Join the discussion
