I have maybe 300 miles on my new toy, and wanted to establish a baseline for how many miles I can get on a tank of gas. This of course requires running out of gas to find out. I stay close to home so that running on reserve is plenty of fuel. (I currently do not ride to gas stations. I buy ethanol-free at the local co-op and take it home for the lawn mowers and this bike.)
I've done this twice now. An ideal MPG would require easy and steady speed, but my riding is all hills and curves or maybe a brief higher-speed run on local 2-lane roads. So instead of the 150-ish miles I might theoretically achieve it's really more like 125 miles before the engine sputters. It's not an exact metric ... when filling up, the tank looks full for quite a bit longer than when actually full, if trying to get it up to the filler hole. I don't know how ya'll do it at gas stations ... I'd expect a pump to shut off frequently because our tanks tend to be as wide as they are deep, and the fuel level doesn't have a filler neck to fill.
The first time -- I was so proud of myself -- it occurred on the way home and I flipped it over to reserve while on a 45mph straight. Today I wasn't so lucky. I stopped at a busy intersection and as I pulled out, the engine said, "nah, don't think so." Actually, I was lucky in that I was making a right turn, instead of entering the intersection. I restarted the engine and gave it a 2nd attempt, which was similarly unsuccessful at moving the bike more than 3 ft.
At this point I moved out of the lane and on to the non-shoulder, and hoped that it was indeed a fuel delivery issue. I moved it over to reserve and with my first opportunity to look up noticed all the cars at the intersection were patiently waiting to see if I'd get the eff out of the way even though I wasn't blocking anyone. I did get the eff out of the way, and with plenty of RPM gusto now, and suffered no further embarrassment the rest of the trip.
Moral of the story: Accelerating from a complete stop requires more fuel than coasting at speed. You may "know" this (I already did) but that's not the same as being smart and running little fuel experiments some other way.
I've done this twice now. An ideal MPG would require easy and steady speed, but my riding is all hills and curves or maybe a brief higher-speed run on local 2-lane roads. So instead of the 150-ish miles I might theoretically achieve it's really more like 125 miles before the engine sputters. It's not an exact metric ... when filling up, the tank looks full for quite a bit longer than when actually full, if trying to get it up to the filler hole. I don't know how ya'll do it at gas stations ... I'd expect a pump to shut off frequently because our tanks tend to be as wide as they are deep, and the fuel level doesn't have a filler neck to fill.
The first time -- I was so proud of myself -- it occurred on the way home and I flipped it over to reserve while on a 45mph straight. Today I wasn't so lucky. I stopped at a busy intersection and as I pulled out, the engine said, "nah, don't think so." Actually, I was lucky in that I was making a right turn, instead of entering the intersection. I restarted the engine and gave it a 2nd attempt, which was similarly unsuccessful at moving the bike more than 3 ft.
At this point I moved out of the lane and on to the non-shoulder, and hoped that it was indeed a fuel delivery issue. I moved it over to reserve and with my first opportunity to look up noticed all the cars at the intersection were patiently waiting to see if I'd get the eff out of the way even though I wasn't blocking anyone. I did get the eff out of the way, and with plenty of RPM gusto now, and suffered no further embarrassment the rest of the trip.
Moral of the story: Accelerating from a complete stop requires more fuel than coasting at speed. You may "know" this (I already did) but that's not the same as being smart and running little fuel experiments some other way.
