Measure Mileage of Your Motorcycle With a Reserve Tank

Most motorcycles come with a reserve supply at the bottom of the fuel tank. Normally you would ride with fuel supply knob set to main. When main supply is exhausted, you can turn the fuel supply knob to utilize the reserved fuel supply.

With this article you will be able to find out mileage of such motorcycle easily.

This article applies to metric measurements (in Kilometers and Litres) but can be adopted to other systems.

Steps

  1. Start with the motorcycle's fuel knob set to main.

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  2. Deal with an empty gas tank. Once the main fuel is used up, the motorcycle engine will stop.

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  3. Switch to reserve tank and find the nearest gas station.

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  4. Fill up your gas tank. Make sure to switch your fuel supply back to main. Write down how much fuel it takes to fill up (g1)

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  5. Reset the trip odometer.
  6. Switch to main tank and ride till it empties again. Note the trip odometer reading (trip mileage).

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  7. Calculate mileage. This formula will give you quite accurate mileage = (trip mileage/g1)Kmpl.

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Tips

  • Repeat the experiment for one or more times in row and check if you get similar reading.
  • When you know you are approaching reserve, carry a small can of fuel (or a suitable empty container to fill once the tank goes onto reserve). and when it goes onto reserve, reset the trip and carry on till it dies then note the miles and fill it from the can then find the nearest filling station.
  • You can also use the trip mileage from fill up to fill up over the fuel used, but this will be inaccurate if the tank isn't filled up to the same level consistently.
  • If you keep track of many tanks of fuel and use the formula (total mileage of several tanks/total fuel used) it will eliminate the filling variations.
  • Averaging your mileage from several fill-ups will give you a 'good' number for your mileage but technically is inaccurate. The only accurate way is to total the distance travelled and divide by the total fuel used.

Warnings

  • Make sure you switch back to main tank in step 5
  • Many variations to this method are possible.
  • This assumes that you have fairly same riding conditions during the experiment. Mileage varies in different riding conditions like stop n go traffic in city and constant speed riding on highways. You may be surprised to check the mileage of your motorcycle under different conditions.

Things You'll Need

  • Reserve tank
  • Working odometer or resettable trip meter
  • List of gas stations close to you

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