Modern Buddy

So I last filled up at 1,573 miles. I had 1,644 miles before I left for work and a quarter of a tank. Halfway into my 10 mile ride, I was flat out on E. I made it the other 5 miles to work, checked my tank, and there appeared to be plenty of fuel in it but its pretty scary to be riding with your tank reading empty!
Anyone know what's going on?

Fuel gauges are as like speedometers. As long as you know about how far you've gone, you should know about how much gas is left.

The gauge on my BV350 is so bad that it shines a low fuel light with a gallon of gas in the tank!

Gas Gauges are fickle at best, I have known one in a Chetak I once owned that was very accurate until it wasn't! Every few weeks it would get "sticky" and get slow to register loss of fuel. The next tank might fix it or, not but it would always come back in a week or so... I did drive the heck out of that machine two or three tanks a week. Your mileage is a more reliable indicator in many scooters. R


















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I find that the gas gauge is the least accurate at the low end. For example, after going, say, 25 miles on the top quarter, 25 miles on the second quarter, and 25 miles on the third quarter tank, it only takes about 10 miles for it to go through the last "quarter". But then I can usually get another 10 miles when it's on "E".

still shifting wrote:Gas Gauges are fickle at best, I have known one in a Chetak I once owned that was very accurate until it wasn't! Every few weeks it would get "sticky" and get slow to register loss of fuel. The next tank might fix it or, not but it would always come back in a week or so... I did drive the heck out of that machine two or three tanks a week. Your mileage is a more reliable indicator in many scooters. R

Yeah, my last scoot would stay at Full for a long time, gradually fall to half-full, then drop like a rock in a couple miles.

I've found that when the needle reads empty, I still have 3/4 of a gallon left. When I put gas in at that point, I only put in 1 gallon. That's usually around 65-70 miles. By my calculations, I should be able to go another 40 miles or so before running out.

The gauge is very inaccurate. As long as you know that, you should be fine.

guzziknight wrote:I've found that when the needle reads empty, I still have 3/4 of a gallon left. When I put gas in at that point, I only put in 1 gallon. That's usually around 65-70 miles. By my calculations, I should be able to go another 40 miles or so before running out.

I think your calculations are based on an incorrect assumption about the capacity of the tank. Despite what the spec sheet says, the most I've been able to add was 1.26 gallons, after running out of gas. (There was still a little gas splashing around in the tank, but none getting into the engine.) So if you're able to add 1 gallon or so when it's on "empty", that's probably less than 1/4 gallon still in the tank, and you're not likely to get much more than 15 miles on that.

TVB wrote:

guzziknight wrote:I've found that when the needle reads empty, I still have 3/4 of a gallon left. When I put gas in at that point, I only put in 1 gallon. That's usually around 65-70 miles. By my calculations, I should be able to go another 40 miles or so before running out.

I think your calculations are based on an incorrect assumption about the capacity of the tank. Despite what the spec sheet says, the most I've been able to add was 1.26 gallons, after running out of gas. (There was still a little gas splashing around in the tank, but none getting into the engine.) So if you're able to add 1 gallon or so when it's on "empty", that's probably less than 1/4 gallon still in the tank, and you're not likely to get much more than 15 miles on that.

So a Blackjack 150 DOESN'T have a 1.8 gal tank? Well that sucks!!

Syd wrote:

still shifting wrote:Gas Gauges are fickle at best, I have known one in a Chetak I once owned that was very accurate until it wasn't! Every few weeks it would get "sticky" and get slow to register loss of fuel. The next tank might fix it or, not but it would always come back in a week or so... I did drive the heck out of that machine two or three tanks a week. Your mileage is a more reliable indicator in many scooters. R

Yeah, my last scoot would stay at Full for a long time, gradually fall to half-full, then drop like a rock in a couple miles.

That's what mine seems to do!

I have never owned a scooter that had an accurate gas gauge or an accurate
speedometer. I always carry an extra gallon of gas in my top carrier and I
allow a 5 mph loss in my head when viewing the speedometer. If it says 50
mph I call it 45. This is based on my GPS readings averaged over the years.