went for a run on sunday ,2011 gsa filled up before the start , at around 250 miles and with tales of inaccurate fuel guages thought i had better put some fuel in ,just to be safe bike is stateing that I'm getting 48.7 mpg and was saying I had around 70 odd miles left till empty .so was i being over cautious .also would like to ask If the tank runs dry is there any problems that might occur or do you just put some fuel in and off you go . as the tank is plastic there won't be any rust at the bottom of the tank .
range .
- Thread starter rovert57
- Start date
From experience of taking bods on jaunts, many people underestimate (rather than over estimate) the real range of their motorcycle. Why? Because they rarely go far enough, often enough, to really know.
As a pretty good rule of thumb, you can guesstimate most bikes' range as 10 miles per litre of tank capacity, so your 2011 has a 33 litre tank, ie about 330 miles. Many bods don't know how big their tank is, so find it impossible to do the 10 miles per litre sums.
However your mpg of 48.7 equates to about 12.5 miles per litre, in fact closer to 13; so you are hardly squeezing the pips off your bike. You had miles to go before you'd probably have run dry. With such a huge tank I'd not worry about it too much as you'll probably be stopping way before you run out.
Will there be any adverse problems running dry? No, not unless you:
(A) Strain a muscle pushing your awesome steed
(B) Are overtaking a long line of vehicles, with oncoming traffic
As a pretty good rule of thumb, you can guesstimate most bikes' range as 10 miles per litre of tank capacity, so your 2011 has a 33 litre tank, ie about 330 miles. Many bods don't know how big their tank is, so find it impossible to do the 10 miles per litre sums.
However your mpg of 48.7 equates to about 12.5 miles per litre, in fact closer to 13; so you are hardly squeezing the pips off your bike. You had miles to go before you'd probably have run dry. With such a huge tank I'd not worry about it too much as you'll probably be stopping way before you run out.
Will there be any adverse problems running dry? No, not unless you:
(A) Strain a muscle pushing your awesome steed
(B) Are overtaking a long line of vehicles, with oncoming traffic
I have ran my GSA dry a few times in the past (mainly due to a broken coil/Lambda probe coupled with a heavy right hand.)
The trick is to tip the bike as far as you can to its left side. You will hear the fuel sloshing across from the high right side into the low left side where the fuel pump sits. Its usually enough to get you a few miles down the road to the nearest fuel filling station. The fuel system is self-priming and self-venting.
As Richard says, 10 miles per litre is about right as a rule of thumb. When touring, I fill up when the smaller bikes in the group do anyway, confident that I will run out last.
The trick is to tip the bike as far as you can to its left side. You will hear the fuel sloshing across from the high right side into the low left side where the fuel pump sits. Its usually enough to get you a few miles down the road to the nearest fuel filling station. The fuel system is self-priming and self-venting.
As Richard says, 10 miles per litre is about right as a rule of thumb. When touring, I fill up when the smaller bikes in the group do anyway, confident that I will run out last.
I tend to ave 50+ and normally fill up apx 350 miles with not much more than 27 ltr so use the gauge and the ave mog on the bike you will be amazed as to how far you can go
Mine's only a GS but I've never put more than 21l into its 24l tank, even when the dashboard says 0 range. Usually the fuel light comes on at 170 to 190 miles and it takes 15-17l. The 10 miles/litre works ok for me, though it is a bit conservative, I'm generally ready for a stop at 170 miles anyway.
48.7 mpg is 10.7 miles per litre!!
You are of course right.
He's riding the bike normally, as one might expect. Mea Culpa to the OP. I confess I thought it looked odd as the distance left didn't add up. At least it confirms the rule of thumb.
330 mile range OP
So I must ride like an old fart on my gsa then
NZRalphy
Registered user
My 2012 GSA takes 37.5L from dry. I'm not slow but I also don't ride it like a sport bike. Riding normally I get to 550km when it is showing 0km range and will go another 80km until it runs out (I tried it) so total of 630km.
550km's = 342 miles
630km's = 392 miles
Based on your 37.5 litre tank that equates to 16.8Km per litre which is nearly 10.5 miles per litre - about what I get for my '08 GSA. The WC GSA though has a smaller tank by about 6 litres so an estimated full range on the same basis would be about 530Km's to run dry or 330 miles.
Pathologic
Registered user
I swear I got 230 miles out of my old GS on a 20 litre tank once. Possibly it was due to it being on the decent from the Anatolian plateau into Adana. I swear it was all down hill
I swear I got 230 miles out of my old GS on a 20 litre tank once. Possibly it was due to it being on the decent from the Anatolian plateau into Adana. I swear it was all down hill
I know that on my Hexhead GSA, BMW quote a 33 litre fuel tank, however, that's only 90% volume of the tank itself which I assume is a play it safe figure to allow for expansion. I know I have put in 35.6 litres myself without running dry and others on here seem to have squeezed in a bit more than that. If the same applies for other bikes/years then a 20 litre tank might actually take 22 litre's when brimmed to the top. This could easily account for the extra mileage people are quoting.
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