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Question about tank capacity can reserve.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skateguy50
  • Start date Start date
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Skateguy50

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So took the bike to the lake today and my wife was following with the kids in the wagon. I figured since I had someone in a car following it would be a good time to test how far the tank went related to the E mark. My truck E really means empty, and the car you get another good 50 miles past E.

Anyways when it went I had to pull over and prime it then start it again... but when I got going I filled up the next stop, maybe 5 miles, and all it took to fill was 2.2 gallons. Im pretty sure my tank is 3.2 gallons when I looked up the specs in my repair book, its a 83 GS650 GL.

So the question is does that mean the reserve is 1 gallon, and if so how many of you rely on that reserve as normal driving gas?

This is only my second tank of gas since the bike sat for years, but I got 43 mpg off it... If I dont drive on the reserve a bit thats less than 100 mile range before I got to look to fill up again.

btw, I did search a bit on the forums but would like to get some advice specific to my bike.

thanks
 
Last edited:
That would not be unusual for the reserve to be that much. It can vary by tank and by petcock. The reserve is just created by having two intakes to the petcock. One is longer ("normal" tank) one is shorter ("Reserve" Tank). It's all the same gas. The reserve is just kind of a warning. "Oh, I had to switch to reserves I have X miles left".
 
Skateguy50 said:
So took the bike to the lake today and my wife was following with the kids in the wagon. I figured since I had someone in a car following it would be a good time to test how far the tank went related to the E mark. My truck E really means empty, and the car you get another good 50 miles past E.

Anyways when it went I had to pull over and prime it then start it again... but when I got going I filled up the next stop, maybe 5 miles, and all it took to fill was 2.2 gallons. Im pretty sure my tank is 3.2 gallons when I looked up the specs in my repair book, its a 83 GS650 GL.

So the question is does that mean the reserve is 1 gallon, and if so how many of you rely on that reserve as normal driving gas?

This is only my second tank of gas since the bike sat for years, but I got 43 mpg off it... If I dont drive on the reserve a bit thats less than 100 mile range before I got to look to fill up again.

btw, I did search a bit on the forums but would like to get some advice specific to my bike.

thanks
Click to expand...

That's one of the major problems with the "ladies" models, they don't have much range.
 
Yea, I guess since Im still figuring out my mileage and learning what the reserve holds I didnt know what I had for miles left.

So going forward I have a good idea now, since I got 43 mpg and would have 1 gal left in reserve, so if I plan on needing gas in 25 miles or so after switching to reserve that should be safe.

I tried to switch to reserve while running but had to stop, put it in prime a bit to refill the carbs, then switch to reserve to get it started up again. Oh the lessons learned :p

I knew I would have to learn this one way or another so having a car follow me was as good a time as any just in case.
 
tkent02 said:
That's one of the major problems with the "ladies" models, they don't have much range.
Click to expand...

I like to refer to it as a starter bike... but then again the master plan is for my wife to like it enough that the next one is an upgrade for me and she keeps this one.
 
I almost always run onto reserve before filling up, unless I am on a long trip and know there is a long stretch coming up. Around town, my normal routine is to run it until I hit reserve, then fill up the next opportunity. I also watch my trip odometer to know where I am at and always zero it at every fill up.

Mark
 
on my GS550, I get around 77 highway miles before the fuel starts cutting off with the petcock on "ON". When I fill the tank its 1.8 gallons. I already know the petcock has to be rebuilt cause it leaks fuel even when its on "ON" with no vacuum off the bike sitting on a bucket. Its got a 4.3 gallon tank, so wtf...
 
I'm guessing the whole concept of the "reserve" tank dates to before fuel gauges. Otherwise, how would you know gas was getting low? Kind of an anachronism now, they probably just leave them on because bikers are so used to having them.
 
Its a good concept but, if my reserve is 1/3 of my fuel / range I cant really see using it as a pure reserve that much.

thanks for the responses :p
 
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