Date: 29-03-24  Time: 01:27 am

Author Topic: A three-quarter mile workout  (Read 6680 times)

Fazerider

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A three-quarter mile workout
« on: 03 February 2013, 12:35:10 am »
As I came over the crest of the flyover at the start of the M3 this evening the bike spluttered and died. I knew I was low on fuel, but the light had only come on 10 miles before that and I haven't filled up that early for years... I feel I'm pushing my luck after 45 miles, but I was so certain I'd the range left to get home and fill up in the morning that I'd happily ignored the Shell station just two miles previously.
Anyhow, I coasted to a halt and pushed the bike backwards along the on-ramp at Sunbury and, after a bit of sloshing the dregs of fuel around in the tank, enough found its way into the carbs for another 200 yards under intermittent power before I had to resort to shoving the dead weight myself again.
I've never been so glad to see a Tesco filling station price pillar, though it took me a while to find the station itself... it doesn't come into sight until another 5 minutes by which time I was soaked with sweat from the effort. Then I discovered they were just closing... kind of annoying that they advertise themselves as open 24 hours yet shut at 10:30 on a Saturday evening. Fortunately the guy locking the pumps took pity on me and let me fill up and the remaining 25 miles of my commute home were uneventful aside from the sub-zero temperature chilling my saturated clothing.
Why the metering system should have turned on the low fuel light so much later this time is a puzzle. I can't imagine anyone stole 2 litres of fuel from the tank while it was parked at work today and I've not smelt any leakage. The warning light had been such a dependable guide until now (much more use than the gauge itself) that it's a shame to think it can no longer be trusted.

darrsi

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #1 on: 03 February 2013, 10:35:04 am »
I've never let my fuel go down to the reserve level before, each to their own i s'pose.


If the fuel gauge had a much more reliable look about it i would put more faith in it but it just doesn't work the way it should in my opinion, so once it gets to showing a third left i hit the nearest garage.
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Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #2 on: 03 February 2013, 11:51:29 am »
With the miles I do it seems worth making use of the whole tankful... I spend enough time at filling stations without deliberately restricting the bike's range!

darrsi

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #3 on: 03 February 2013, 12:13:42 pm »
Does the 00/01 tank fit straight on your bike?
That'd give you a couple more litres to play with if you do a lot of mileage.
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His Dudeness

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #4 on: 03 February 2013, 12:38:37 pm »
i usually ignore the light because mine's not empty until it goes past the middle line of the E on the gauge and the light comes on way before that

Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #5 on: 03 February 2013, 01:00:43 pm »
Does the 00/01 tank fit straight on your bike?
That'd give you a couple more litres to play with if you do a lot of mileage.

I guess it would. When I had the tank off for repair a few years back I drilled a hole in the side of the filler tube. Air escapes there as the level rises up beyond the bottom of the tube so "overfilling" the tank doesn't take long... can usually get 19 litres in.
If I ever need to replace the tank though, I'll hope to get the newer one.

JoeRock

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #6 on: 04 February 2013, 10:52:39 am »
Does the 00/01 tank fit straight on your bike?
That'd give you a couple more litres to play with if you do a lot of mileage.

I guess it would. When I had the tank off for repair a few years back I drilled a hole in the side of the filler tube. Air escapes there as the level rises up beyond the bottom of the tube so "overfilling" the tank doesn't take long... can usually get 19 litres in.
If I ever need to replace the tank though, I'll hope to get the newer one.

When you filled up, how many liters did you get in mate? If it was close to what you should've put in a pretty much empty tank, all be good, otherwise you could possibly have a shed load of dodgy fuel sitting in the bottom - I had that on my last bike and it basically restricted my range on the reserve tank to about 10 miles from what should've been about 4 liters, ended up emptying out the tank and flushing some redex through it and voila, proper tank range was restored :)

Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #7 on: 04 February 2013, 12:12:47 pm »
When you filled up, how many liters did you get in mate? If it was close to what you should've put in a pretty much empty tank, all be good, otherwise you could possibly have a shed load of dodgy fuel sitting in the bottom - I had that on my last bike and it basically restricted my range on the reserve tank to about 10 miles from what should've been about 4 liters, ended up emptying out the tank and flushing some redex through it and voila, proper tank range was restored :)
In the end I only put 19 litres in, there was probably room for one more but I do have to take it a bit slow once the filler neck is reached despite the extra bleed hole and the guy was waiting for me to finish so he could lock up the pump.
There's no reserve on the Fazer, of course, just an inaccessible litre or so below the level of the outlet. I'm pretty sure there's no water there, the throughtput of fresh fuel is high enough to keep it dry now they include ethanol in the mixture.

simonm

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #8 on: 05 February 2013, 12:27:17 pm »
I do newB riding, reset the trip on filling and brim it every time (all 2 times I've done it).  I get about 145 miles before the reserve light flicks on, then I go hunting for fuel.

If I get to 145 and the reserve light doesn't come on.....I go hunting anyway.

When I brim it from reserve at 145 miles I get about 13 litres in it.

Moral of the story is to reset your trip, calibrate your distance vs how you ride and pay attention to it :-)

Sorry if this is a sucking eggs moment.  Trying to help.
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Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #9 on: 05 February 2013, 01:38:13 pm »
I do newB riding, reset the trip on filling and brim it every time (all 2 times I've done it).  I get about 145 miles before the reserve light flicks on, then I go hunting for fuel.

If I get to 145 and the reserve light doesn't come on.....I go hunting anyway.

When I brim it from reserve at 145 miles I get about 13 litres in it.

Moral of the story is to reset your trip, calibrate your distance vs how you ride and pay attention to it :-)

Sorry if this is a sucking eggs moment.  Trying to help.

That was pretty much what I did when I first got the Fazer, but figured that there wasn't much point in stopping to fill up more often than necessary, so gradually increased my post-warning light riding. My average range between refills is 217 miles. This is the first time it's caught me out after many hundreds of fill-ups. I guess the many occasions when I've covered 40+ miles with the light on happened when it came on early and this time it happened to come on very late. But yes, I should have taken more account of the trip meter reading.
Trouble is, there is no clear measuring point throughout a tankful (other than running it dry  :lol )... the light runs off the fuel gauge sensor and brimming the tank is no more definitive, it depends on the angle the bike's parked at and how patient you are at squeezing the last bit in. Which makes it impossible to give an accurate figure for consumption unless you average it out over many tanks worth of fuel... at least Fuelly makes that job easy. :)

simonm

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #10 on: 06 February 2013, 09:27:20 am »
Would you mind telling me how many miles you get before the reserve light comes on ?

Cheers
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Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #11 on: 06 February 2013, 07:24:17 pm »
Would you mind telling me how many miles you get before the reserve light comes on ?
Cheers
From a full tank to light-on is usually about 185 miles. However, I do fill the tank well above to bottom of the filler tube and average 54 to the gallon... and fuel sensors are all reliant on a resistor operated by a float on a bent bit of wire... so don't blame me if you make decisions based on my figures and you end up with dry tank syndrome miles from a filling station.  :lol
Having said that, I'd expect most people to be able to get a 200 mile range from the FZS600.

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #12 on: 06 February 2013, 10:02:28 pm »
Petrol, eh, you've got to love it haven't you.

Fazbaz

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #13 on: 07 February 2013, 10:36:38 pm »
The new tank will fit your bike but if it's a pre-2000 model I'm fairly sure you'll need to swap over the fuel sender unit from the base of the tank. It's not a big job ( direct replacement ) and if you do the air gap mod you'll get around 24 litres in there.

I did this on my Mk1 Fazer which I put the 2002/3 Foxeye tank on. I got to 297 miles before it ran out.

Having said that the fuel low light was on for around 125 miles. I asked ( on the old forum ) what turns on the fuel light and no-one knew. It is not switched on by the position of the float, I got to the assumption that it was switched on by the petrol not making a contact across the guts of the sender ?

HTH... Baz  :)

packie

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #14 on: 08 February 2013, 12:30:55 am »
The new tank will fit your bike but if it's a pre-2000 model I'm fairly sure you'll need to swap over the fuel sender unit from the base of the tank. It's not a big job ( direct replacement ) and if you do the air gap mod you'll get around 24 litres in there.

I did this on my Mk1 Fazer which I put the 2002/3 Foxeye tank on. I got to 297 miles before it ran out.

Having said that the fuel low light was on for around 125 miles. I asked ( on the old forum ) what turns on the fuel light and no-one knew. It is not switched on by the position of the float, I got to the assumption that it was switched on by the petrol not making a contact across the guts of the sender ?

HTH... Baz  :)
Baz.....whats the air gap mod?

darrsi

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #15 on: 08 February 2013, 10:14:07 am »
Yeah, i'm curious too, what is the air gap mod ?
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Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #16 on: 08 February 2013, 01:49:21 pm »
Thanks Baz, didn't realise a 2003 foxeye tank would fit. A near-300 mile range would be wonderful!
Having said that, I'll probably stick with my existing tank until it rusts through.
I guess the mod you refer to is much the same as I've done to my tank... a hole drilled through the filler neck to allow filling below the bottom of the tube.
Incidentally, if any MkI owners want to do this to an older style tank with the long filler tube, don't drill through the left side of it like I did. The two breather pipes run up that side and I was damn lucky not to go through one of those too which would have pretty much written the tank off. (And obviously, take the usual precautions... red hot swarf and petrol vapour are a bad combination.) :lol 

packie

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #17 on: 09 February 2013, 12:06:35 am »
Thanks Baz, didn't realise a 2003 foxeye tank would fit. A near-300 mile range would be wonderful!
Having said that, I'll probably stick with my existing tank until it rusts through.
I guess the mod you refer to is much the same as I've done to my tank... a hole drilled through the filler neck to allow filling below the bottom of the tube.
Incidentally, if any MkI owners want to do this to an older style tank with the long filler tube, don't drill through the left side of it like I did. The two breather pipes run up that side and I was damn lucky not to go through one of those too which would have pretty much written the tank off. (And obviously, take the usual precautions... red hot swarf and petrol vapour are a bad combination.) :lol


Any possibility you can grab a photo of that mod sometime?


Cheers.......

richfzs

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #18 on: 09 February 2013, 12:15:15 am »
A photo of a hole? Seriously? Try google, although you may not get quite what you were looking for  :rollin :rollin

darrsi

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #19 on: 09 February 2013, 10:10:43 am »


"....a hole drilled through the filler neck to allow filling below the bottom of the tube...."


Sorry, i'm probably being a bit slow here, but can you explain this a bit more please?  :crazy
« Last Edit: 09 February 2013, 10:11:20 am by darrsi »
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Fazbaz

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #20 on: 10 February 2013, 09:24:06 pm »
Fazerider explained the air gap mod...... "When I had the tank off for repair a few years back I drilled a hole in the side of the filler tube. Air escapes there as the level rises up beyond the bottom of the tube so "overfilling" the tank doesn't take long... can usually get 19 litres in."

Basically when you look in the filler neck you'll see a tiny wee hole on the RHS of the neck. I opened this up from 1mm diameter to about 14mm with a dremely type thing. On a Foxeye tank you can fill about 24 litres into the tank giving massive mileage range.

Baz  :)

Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #21 on: 14 February 2013, 07:09:58 pm »


"....a hole drilled through the filler neck to allow filling below the bottom of the tube...."


Sorry, i'm probably being a bit slow here, but can you explain this a bit more please?  :crazy
Oops... no, you weren't being slow... I was. :o
The description would have made much more sense had I written "above" rather than "below"!

darrsi

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #22 on: 14 February 2013, 07:43:49 pm »


"....a hole drilled through the filler neck to allow filling below the bottom of the tube...."


Sorry, i'm probably being a bit slow here, but can you explain this a bit more please?  :crazy
Oops... no, you weren't being slow... I was. :o
The description would have made much more sense had I written "above" rather than "below"!


So are you saying you can gain about a litre of space then just by opening that little hole up?
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Fazerider

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Re: A three-quarter mile workout
« Reply #23 on: 14 February 2013, 11:59:35 pm »
So are you saying you can gain about a litre of space then just by opening that little hole up?
Yes. (Unless you're patient enough to keep filling very slowly as the air bleeds though the tiny hole.)
I saved the job for when needed to clean the tank out anyway for a repair on a rust hole. I didn't want swarf clogging the filter and had concerns about the fire/explosion risk.
I guess braver people than me might figure a way to catch the filings with a magnet and do the cutting with a full tank... theory being that the greater the air space available the larger the potential bang if the concentration of petrol vapour gets low enough. For the same reason it'd be safer to do it on a hot day rather than a cold one.
I'm sure of the science, but am also a coward... so made certain the tank was vapour free instead. :lol