1.3 Gallon Gas Tank Reserve

Facts: 2005 FJR - 5000 miles ODO - Two Brothers Exhaust (stock air filter, no PC) - 5'-9" 185lbs Rider - Ride with bags on all the time.

I'm still new to the FJR and learning about it as I go. I went 261 miles on this last tank of gas. 45 miles of that was on the reserve. I filled up to the correct spot inside the tank and put 5.965 gal in it. It looks like I'm getting 43-44mpg.

Question 1: Our tanks are 6.6 gal. Is that how much gas we can put in them or is that the total tank capacity if it was filled up 100% to the cap with no air space left?

Question 2: What is the total gas capacity we can put in them if the tank is bone dry? Anybody try that before?

Question 3: Based on my last tank mileage I'm thinking my total tank mileage would be approx. 280-285 miles before I ran out. Does that seem about right? Is that what you guys are getting both in total miles & MPG?

There is only one way to find out on your machine, as the sending unit levels may vary slightly bike to bike. Take a litre bottle with you full of fuel, and run until it goes dry. Pour in your litre and head for a gas station. Once you fill up you'll be able to calculate all the answers you seek.

Mine will go 60 miles before it sputters on the side stand, but still has some left.

This is probably destined for NEPRT, but I'll chime in anyway.

Q1: The tank capacity is measured from bone dry until the gas is gushing into the overflow. Once you hit the filler neck you can't get any more gas in there. There will still be air space in the top of the tank because the filler neck extends down an inch or so.

Q2: Just answered.

Q3: Yup. Seems about right. But it all depends on how much you've been using the right hand twisty thing. Best strategy seems to be to know what your gas mileage rate is when going easy (you said 43-44 which is consistent with my '05) and how much you have left when the reserve starts flashing, which gives you how many miles you have left when the reserve flashes. Since the trip meter goes into count-up mode when you hit reserve that is a great indicator of how much pushing you might be in to.

I ran mine out on a test at 45 mpg average. All done at 285, light came on at 215. Only about .1 left in the tank, which surprised me. My LT leaves at least .5 gals unusable that the pump can't get.

Fred W said:

The tank capacity is measured from bone dry until the gas is gushing into the overflow.

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Ok that's what I assumed.

JR said:

I ran mine out on a test at 45 mpg average. All done at 285, light came on at 215. Only about .1 left in the tank, which surprised me. My LT leaves at least .5 gals unusable that the pump can't get.

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That sounds spot on to mine.

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Thanks for the info & confirmation on this! It's pretty awesome to go that far on a tank of gas. By far the longest fuel range of any bike I've ever owned.

Just remember that the fuel pump is cooled by the fuel, so you can obviously run it down all the time and use the whole tank...I wouldn't typically make a practice of running it alot with a low fuel load.

Also, in a hot environment -near the engine- the gas tank absorbs heat and acts a little as a heat sink. I know if the ambient temperature is hot, and I go to fill up, I can feel some coolness from the now cooler gas tank.

Don't forget that a strong head/cross wind can significantly impact your mileage and range. (BTDT ) If counting on a certain number and you come up short, as Fred W stated, you'll know by the trip meter how far you'll be pushing the bike.

There are a number of past threads on tank capacity and range that have been nicely summarized above. Yamaha designers include the filler neck that gives a large expansion space at the top of the tank. You can slowly milk in quite a bit of gas, which is a pain but the filler neck and expansion space does serve good purpose. A number of us have gone over 300 miles on a tank, but doing it is painful and the low 200s would be a normal refill range.

Funny that we're having the exact same discussion in the Super Tenere forum for folks coming from other brands.

I just hit the reset on the trip odometer every time I fill up and never really go by the fuel gauge. I take a look at the average and plan on fueling up some where between 225 and 250 miles which leaves a little cushion.

Yeah I'm thinking that I'll use 250-260 as my max and just go no more than 30-40 miles on reserve just to be safe.

In May on my way to the Wheaton Camping trip, we were fighting an ugly head/cross wind. The bike started the out of gas die/restart thing about 500 yards from the offramp and stalled another couple of times getting to the pump.

I put 6.7 gallons of fuel in my 6.6 gallon tank. Whew!!

Checkswrecks said:

There are a number of past threads on tank capacity and range that have been nicely summarized above. Yamaha designers include the filler neck that gives a large expansion space at the top of the tank. You can slowly milk in quite a bit of gas, which is a pain but the filler neck and expansion space does serve good purpose. A number of us have gone over 300 miles on a tank, but doing it is painful and the low 200s would be a normal refill range.

Funny that we're having the exact same discussion in the Super Tenere forum for folks coming from other brands.

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I think the reason this keeps coming up is the variablity that different owners experience. My 2009 usually goes into the flashing mode/up count when I still have over two gallons reamining. In other words I stop when that happens, get gas and she only takes a little over 4 gallons of gas. Thus the system seems poorly calibrated. No problem I always use the odometer and don't go much past 200 miles unless I screw up my planning. Likely I'm being way conservative but I don't like pushing a 600+lb bike. Bill

WARNING in a friendly way:

I have to kick my mpg into the high thirtys when using ethanol which these days is more often than not, but occassional all gasoline is found. It really makes a diff, 3-4 mpg easy.

Lucky you, as far as I know, there's no such thing as 100 percent gas here in Florida. 10 % ethanol everywhere ya go around here. As a matter of fact, my Feej has never had anything else in it in the 13 months I've owned it.

Gary

darksider #44

Patriot said:

WARNING in a friendly way:

I have to kick my mpg into the high thirtys when using ethanol which these days is more often than not, but occassional all gasoline is found. It really makes a diff, 3-4 mpg easy.

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Funny you mention this...I was looking up the E10 difference and found this:

The average loss with a test fleet of 21 is 11.9 % loss of MPG using E10 instead of E0.

https://www.gasbuddy.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1356&topic=302138&page_no=4

03HiYoSilver said:

Patriot said:

WARNING in a friendly way:

I have to kick my mpg into the high thirtys when using ethanol which these days is more often than not, but occassional all gasoline is found. It really makes a diff, 3-4 mpg easy.

Click to expand...

Funny you mention this...I was looking up the E10 difference and found this:

The average loss with a test fleet of 21 is 11.9 % loss of MPG using E10 instead of E0.

https://www.gasbuddy.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1356&topic=302138&page_no=4

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All I can say is that is obscene and pisses me off to no end! :angry:

Biggest green fraud perpertated on the masses. Corn farmers like it tho,the goverment subsidises ethanol production which means they use your taxes and you get poorer fuel economy. The classic double whammy. FJR Content follows: My 09 runs ok on 15% ethanol, never had anything else in it because I can't find "Pure" gasoline here in Florida.

Bill

FJR Bill said:

Biggest green fraud perpertated on the masses. Corn farmers like it tho,the goverment subsidises ethanol production which means they use your taxes and you get poorer fuel economy. The classic double whammy. FJR Content follows: My 09 runs ok on 15% ethanol, never had anything else in it because I can't find "Pure" gasoline here in Florida.

Bill

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Er...gents, let's keep the political rant to ourselves lest the admins close and lock this thread for violating Forum Guidelines:

]2.[/b] No religious/moral philosophy/political crap. There are countless forums/blogs on the web if you want to delve into these divisive topics. This is a motorcycle forum. That said, political discussions SPECIFICALLY about pending motorcycle legislation, regulation, and laws are allowable.

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I think the reason this keeps coming up is the variablity that different owners experience. My 2009 usually goes into the flashing mode/up count when I still have over two gallons reamining. In other words I stop when that happens, get gas and she only takes a little over 4 gallons of gas. Thus the system seems poorly calibrated. No problem I always use the odometer and don't go much past 200 miles unless I screw up my planning. Likely I'm being way conservative but I don't like pushing a 600+lb bike. Bill

Click to expand...

As with FJR Bill, since I replaced my fuel pump/sending unit my fuel warning light now starts much earlier. I attribute it to the float adjustment but it isn't an issue because I also watch my odometer and try to gauge my fuel mileage based on weather (winds) and the speed at which I'm riding (high speed will seriously lower your MPG).

And....I run an auxiliary tank....

Gone are the days of the wooden stick.

Put it in and if it came out mostly dry it was time to put more in..