[Jason Pittenger]

I decided to grab a 1/2 gallon of extra fuel and run the tank fully dry, just to see how far she'll go and how much of the tank capacity is usable.
Most of my trip was 75+ mph so my MPGs weren't excellent.

On Saturday I hit reserve at 111 miles. I was close to home so I rode the last 11 miles on reserve.
This morning on the way to work, I more or less circled the town to use up the last of the tank.
I made it to 132.5 miles before she ran out, or 21.5 miles on reserve.

I dumped in 1/2 gallon and rode another 4.8 miles to the gas station.
I filled her up with 3.187 gallons of gas, for a total of 3.687 gallons.
My MPG for the trip was 37.27.
The last 4.8 miles took about 0.13 gallons (assuming similar MPGs).
That means of the 3.6 gallon tank, about 3.56 of it is usable!

I tend to hit reserve just before the 3 gallon mark.

 

[Spockster]

120 miles is where I hit reserve and start thinking about a gas station. 32-34 mpg is the best I can get. The reserve was good for at least 10 miles for me.

I pushed it on the main tank once, forgot about it and ran out of gas right in front of a semi. I was way too fast through the cinders and trash in the breakdown lane, hard to start too. This is not a bike you can restart easily in that situation.

 

[Jason Pittenger]

120 miles is where I hit reserve and start thinking about a gas station. 32-34 mpg is the best I can get. The reserve was good for at least 10 miles for me.

I pushed it on the main tank once, forgot about it and ran out of gas right in front of a semi. I was way too fast through the cinders and trash in the breakdown lane, hard to start too. This is not a bike you can restart easily in that situation.

I know I've asked before, but how do you manage to only get 32-34 mpg? I've only seen those numbers after a tankful of 90+ mph riding! And I typically run 3/4 throttle out to 6k+ accelerating out of a stop. My lowest was 32-33 mpg. The Jan 30 and April 9 don't count, I was doing a lot of ignition tuning so I was running it a lot in my garage without actually going anywhere.

As for restarting from a fuel starvation, mine usually drops one cylinder for 10-15 seconds before dying completely. If I switch over the moment of first misfire, I can usually maintain speed on that one cylinder and it'll recover after about 5-10 seconds. I once waited until both cylinders dropped out and coasted to a stop before switching over and she was VERY hard to restart. I almost drained the battery. On this ride, knowing I was going to run the tank fully dry, I hit the emergency cutoff switch at the moment of misfire and coasted to the nearest safe stopping point to refuel. It only took 2-3 cranks to restart at that point because one carb still had a bit of fuel left in it and it'd still fire on that one cylinder. Makes me wonder if one of my floats is set slightly higher than the other.

 

[Jason Pittenger]

Accidental repost instead of an edit, and it won't let me delete.

 

[Spockster]

I know I've asked before, but how do you manage to only get 32-34 mpg? I've only seen those numbers after a tankful of 90+ mph riding! And I typically run 3/4 throttle out to 6k+ accelerating out of a stop. My lowest was 32-33 mpg. The Jan 30 and April 9 don't count, I was doing a lot of ignition tuning so I was running it a lot in my garage without actually going anywhere.

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As for restarting from a fuel starvation, mine usually drops one cylinder for 10-15 seconds before dying completely. If I switch over the moment of first misfire, I can usually maintain speed on that one cylinder and it'll recover after about 5-10 seconds. I once waited until both cylinders dropped out and coasted to a stop before switching over and she was VERY hard to restart. I almost drained the battery. On this ride, knowing I was going to run the tank fully dry, I hit the emergency cutoff switch at the moment of misfire and coasted to the nearest safe stopping point to refuel. It only took 2-3 cranks to restart at that point because one carb still had a bit of fuel left in it and it'd still fire on that one cylinder. Makes me wonder if one of my floats is set slightly higher than the other.

Has to be that I like the sound of the shaved carbs moaning at WFO, and the quick, high revs. Zero to speed limit ASAP.

I start out with good intentions on a mileage run, and it's all forgotten in five minutes. 34 mpg is fairly respectable, considering the smiles per gallon. If I ran my car like that it would be getting about 5. Love a moaning QuadraJet too though. Heh, my car is earshaved too come to think of it.

 

[Hexadecimus]

Quick accel to speed limit usually helps mpg. That's a pretty awful mpg, but bikes and riding styles vary. I want to say I averaged 50+ on mine, ear shaved, muffs, coastered, sport windshield, and saddlebags.