Not sure about reserve. I've been calculating down from the typical 40 miles per gallon I get, gauged by past performance. At the listed 4.8 gals. I should be able to get at least 180 miles per full tank. But this time I ran out at 157. 40mpg at 4.2 gals. comes out to about 160 miles, so the mileage figure seems to be correct. I had this problem with a car once and finally got Subaru to admit they had misstated the fuel capacity spec. in the manual. Not a big deal since most of my riding is commuting, but I am curious if others have run into this.