Fuel Gauge last 2 blue squares !!!

[PhotoAl]

Several years ago when my daughter's VW Beetle died I decided to give her my car and buy and new car.  Had a friend who had a Chevy Volt and told me how great it was so I bought one at a very good discount plus the $7,500 tax credit.  At the time I had a CBR600RR for fun so the Volt was good transportation and cheap to operate.  I worked for an electric utility who put charging stations in the parking deck.  I still rode the bike to work most days but when I drove the Volt it was free to charge plus a reserved spot in the parking deck.  January of last year I noticed Chevy had some incredible discounts on the Bolts.  My wife was concerned at first but decided it was OK.  I felt like it was an opportunity that would not come around again and I needed to do it plus my daughter and son-in-law wanted the Volt.  The other daughter not the Beetle killer daughter 🙂  My out the door price for the Bolt was 48% of list!!!!  Guess it helped GM sell several Suburbans though.  I charge at home and am pretty insulated from gas prices.  Have a van for trips and my wife has her Smart car.  Still riding when and where I want will just pay the extra.

@Paddy01 on long trips I sometimes find myself stretching mileage so can make it to the next gas stop or even just make another town to save an extra stop.  Things that work are don't accelerate fast and shift up early and of course limiting high speeds.  The Yamaha triple is a pretty efficient engine with good torque at lower revs.  When I want to play I'll play but when loafing thru a small town I'll try and have it in as high a gear as I can run.  Other things like rolling off the gas early and not aggressively downshifting.  When I ride thru places like Yellowstone and the Tetons where the general speed limit is 45 and there are lots of folks slower I get amazing mileage by being chill and riding like it's a Harley - the horrors 🙂  Before the Tracer 900 GT I had a BMW F800GT which got about the same fuel mileage and it responded to the same techniques.  I keep a close eye on my instantaneous MPG and the average MPG to monitor how I'm doing.  What absolutely kills economy is interstates speeds into a stiff headwind.  In Wyoming on the interstate with an 80 MPH speed limit and trying to accelerate from 75 to 80 going uphill into a stiff headwind had my throttle pinned without much acceleration - the instantaneous MPG was not so good for sure.  Tracer has that extra muscle in situations like that but neither are going to not do good in mileage in those conditions.  One time got caught on the BMW a long way from the gas station and getting ow on gas.  I slowed to like 50 on a 65 road and got almost twice the mileage I would have at 70 and made it to the gas station 3 miles after the gas light went on.  

When I took my Tracer in for the 600 mile service I said something to one of the folks at the dealership about having to fill up with regular as no premium was available.  He said that was bad for the engine in particular the valves.  Not sure if he knew what he was talking about butI generally try and avoid regular.  Ran some in my BMW with no problems.  If I have to fill up with regular I'll ride the bike gently but not lugging.  Try and keep midrange revs and avoid large throttle openings.  As soon as I can I'll fill up with premium.  It is possible to alternate partial fillings with premium and regular so that you wind up with something in between but the money saved is not that much.  On my last trip of 6,400 miles if I had filled up with regular or mid grade and saved 30 cents a gallon it would have only saved $46 over the 18 days I was traveling.  Not insignificant but not worth the potential problems either.  

I know a fella at the Barber Museum who is from England.  When he was younger he was a test rider for BSA I think.  The test riders took the new bikes out for their test rides to make sure they performed as they should.  They were given a set amount of fuel for the test ride.  When they brought the bikes back any remaining fuel was theirs to keep as they bikes would be emptied as they were prepared for shipping.  Hearing him tell of the test rides and then the return where they would work to economize as much as possible even switching the bikes off at the crest of the last hill to the factory and coasting in.  They would take the remaining fuel and save it up to go racing on the weekends.  He is in the AMA Hall of Fame and a super nice fella and very entertaining to talk to.  Seven years ago I was riding home from work and was in the turn lane waiting on the light to change.  A car slowed up and said "your brake light is out".  It was him, he didn't know it was me but he was concerned about another motorcyclist.

[Paddy01]

I must say PhotoAl you tell very interesting tales - keep em up! Many thanks for the money saving suggestions.

Regarding fuel type, my tank has a big sticker on it stating E10 which is now the Europe standard where 95 octane was before.  So Yamaha clearly have faith in it. The difference in price between E10 and E5 (the old 98 octane) isn’t justifiable in my view. I’ve been riding a long time and never had valve wear issues running on standard fuel.

There’s much talk in the UK about the suspect quality of cheap supermarket fuel but I always use it with no issue. A friend works for Exxon and he says it all comes out of the same tanks at the depot, regardless of whose tanker is filling up. 

[Grumpy Goat]

8 hours ago, betoney said:

If you have never been, you definitely owe it to yourself to take a ride out West, all of the Pacific Coast states are spectacular and offer incredible diversity,- forests, deserts, ocean, canyons and mountains...  LOTS of twisty mountain roads.

It is absolutely on my list of things to do ... maybe not bucket list but pretty darned close.

[Grumpy Goat]

23 hours ago, nhchris said:

Anybody try running the CP3 on mid-grade?

Will the ECU compensate for that?

I can't speak for all the model years using the CP3 engine and any variations of fuel system programming across those engine applications, but I have never put anything other than mid-grade in my 2019 Tracer 900GT and it runs just fine. There is no missing / misfiring / knocking / etc. and I get decent mileage (48 mpg.US city / 52 mpg.US highway / 60 mpg.US best). So for my bike the answer is "yes".

[petshark]

I did run the engine dry once not long after I bought it. I immediately hit the kill switch when it started sputtering. Luckily I was only 100 meters from a gas station. I pushed it there, filled it up and it started with no problem.

The display showed 45 km on reserve. I haven't gone further than 35 km on reserve since.

FWIW I wouldn't mind an accurate fuel gauge but I have no problem with the design as it is. It's weird but rationally there is no reason for me to wonder if I am above or below 3/4 of the tank. One less stat to fret about is fine by me. With a glass-half-full mindset I even find it pleasant to have a nice full tank up until it's half and it's time to start keeping an eye on it. I'm weird like that sometimes. 

[texscottyd]

27 minutes ago, petshark said:

FWIW I wouldn't mind an accurate fuel gauge but I have no problem with the design as it is. It's weird but rationally there is no reason for me to wonder if I am above or below 3/4 of the tank. One less stat to fret about is fine by me. With a glass-half-full mindset I even find it pleasant to have a nice full tank up until it's half and it's time to start keeping an eye on it. I'm weird like that sometimes. 

The humor I find in all this is the extraordinary effort that Yamaha put into explaining the design and why it registers like it does.   There's a highly detailed service bulletin that details the shape of the tank, the float position and shape, sensor trigger points, etc...  It perfectly explains how it works.   But it doesn't explain WHY Yamaha went with the old school mechanical float arm to begin with...  There have to be other (arguably even simpler & cheaper) methods of designing a fuel level sensor that is at least semi-linear.    

My FJ has three fuel level tranches:   All Good; Not So Good; Oh No!!!

 

[betoney]

23 minutes ago, texscottyd said:

The humor I find in all this is the extraordinary effort that Yamaha put into explaining the design and why it registers like it does.   There's a highly detailed service bulletin that details the shape of the tank, the float position and shape, sensor trigger points, etc...  It perfectly explains how it works.   But it doesn't explain WHY Yamaha went with the old school mechanical float arm to begin with...  There have to be other (arguably even simpler & cheaper) methods of designing a fuel level sensor that is at least semi-linear.    

My FJ has three fuel level tranches:   All Good; Not So Good; Oh No!!!

 

My VFR also has a bizarre fuel gauge reading.  It has 5 bars which drop at a fairly even rate dependent on mpg, (45miles, 90 miles, 135 miles, 180 miles etc.)  However when it drops from two bars to 1 bar, the bars immediately disappear and the DTE countdown starts, so even though it shows 5 bars, the 5th is actually when reserve starts. 

[petshark]

20 hours ago, betoney said:

My VFR also has a bizarre fuel gauge reading.  It has 5 bars which drop at a fairly even rate dependent on mpg, (45miles, 90 miles, 135 miles, 180 miles etc.)  However when it drops from two bars to 1 bar, the bars immediately disappear and the DTE countdown starts, so even though it shows 5 bars, the 5th is actually when reserve starts. 

Is the reserve also 45 miles? I get that you expect reserve to be separate from the five bars but if you have a complete linear overview of your available fuel that is actually more logical to me than having an invisible reserve that magically kicks in when the bars are all gone. They could have chosen to leave the final bar visible while the countdown runs but they probably chose to do it this way to give the rider a sense of urgency.

It sounds like Honda perfection to me. Maybe I should get a VFR. 

[1moreroad]

Kids these days complaining about fuel bars! Half of my bikes have had carbs and the FJ is the 1st one with a fuel gauge.  For over 5 years commuting in LA traffic, my low fuel gauge was when the motorcycle started sputtering on the 405 during rush hour and I just reached behind my knee and flipped the petcock to reserve!  My first bike, a Kawi EX500, was already 10 years old when I bought it and a little rough.  After a couple of days of riding it, I discovered a slow fuel leak at the carbs.  For the weeks I spent waiting for parts* I figured out exactly where on my route that I needed to switch the petcock to off so that the carbs would drain and the motor die as I coasted into my parking spot at work.

Now get off my lawn!

(all typed with a smile, although I do use the trip meter on the FJ just like all of the other motorcycles I have owned)

 

*The parts were sitting on a ship just outside the port of Long Beach and < 5 miles from where I lived at the time - so supply chain shortages are nothing new either!

[texscottyd]

11 minutes ago, 1moreroad said:

Now get off my lawn!

[betoney]

2 hours ago, petshark said:

Is the reserve also 45 miles? I get that you expect reserve to be separate from the five bars but if you have a complete linear overview of your available fuel that is actually more logical to me than having an invisible reserve that magically kicks in when the bars are all gone.

It sounds like Honda perfection to me. Maybe I should get a VFR. 

Yes, when it changes to the DTE display it will show your current approximate mpg as miles remaining and will fluctuate depending on how you use your right wrist.  I have never ran it to empty so I'm not certain how precise their reserve calculation is. 

I ride in a lot of isolated areas so am not the type to push my luck (or push my bike) so I will combine my break and get a quick stretch, gas, snack, bathroom break etc. and usually always fill up before its necessary.

As far as "Honda Perfection", maybe perfection is a stretch but I find their display to be VERY accurate compared to my FJ. 

When I fill the tank, if the 'fuel average' reads a certain figure and I then calculate it manually, it is within a few tenths, every single time, where my Yamaha is off by at least 3-4 mpg.  I also always ride with a GPS and the speed is the same as what the display shows, the FJ reads 2mph difference and the odometer is off by a small margin but not as much as my FJ.

[Grumpy Goat]

Did my first 500+ mile day on the Tracer yesterday. It did great. I did miss the “Range“ function like in my BMW but as long as you keep an eye on the miles travelled on the tank and get gas every 160 miles or so you’ll be fine. I typically stop every 2 hours or so and get gas regardless of what the tank says. I don’t need fuel drama in my life. 

[Wintersdark]

On 9/2/2021 at 7:36 PM, letsride said:

The FJ09 is the first bike I've owned that didn't have a fuel petcock.  On all the others, I usually rode until I had to switch to reserve then stopped for gas.  I would leave the petcock on reserve for a few miles after I filled up to keep pulling from the very bottom of the tank.  This way you never get any build up of water.  Of course, if you forget to switch back you'll have a different problem.  On this bike, I just add some gas treatment every so often and let the alcohol in it mix with any water.

Keep in mind our fuel injected bikes (thus no petcocks) pump fuel from the bottom of the tank all the time - or else you'd run out of fuel with fuel still in the tank - so that's happening auto automatically.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Wintersdark

[BarryGT]

This topic is of interest to me because I haven't been able to figure out my range. The long bar disappears at 145 km and the small squares seem to get 45 km each. I had one square showing at 235 km. I refueled and it took less than 11 litres. Is this accurate or how much farther could I have travelled?

[Grumpy Goat]

42 minutes ago, BarryGT said:

This topic is of interest to me because I haven't been able to figure out my range. The long bar disappears at 145 km and the small squares seem to get 45 km each. I had one square showing at 235 km. I refueled and it took less than 11 litres. Is this accurate or how much farther could I have travelled?

When I first got interested in this bike and ended up getting it, I was made to understand that the fuel gauge display is essentially crap. After 1 year of ownership, I still have this view and that will never change because I know that there is better out there. Consequently, I don't waste time trying to figure out what the last squares might mean regarding range. The fuel economy of these bikes vary significantly with speed and acceleration, so even if you think you have the relationship of squares to range figured out, you could be off and stranded at the side of the road. Besides when you "notice" the square, is it at the start of its display or at some point after it started displaying? That would also matter and for me, too many variables.

What I did was to ride the bike with an average attitude (neither slow nor fast and with normal acceleration, and with a mix of light traffic and regular traffic but no stop-and-go) and I rode it as far as I dared past the point where the last square started flashing and the warning icon was on. At that point I noted that I had travelled just about 195 miles on the bike. I did not know how much farther it could have gone but for me that is my limit. Since then I am comfortable buying gas when in the last two or one square, as long as it stays green and I keep an eye on the distance travelled.

Just wish that this bike had a linear fuel gauge and a range calculator would be nice, but my approach works for me.