By Joe Tatulli
Riding to our last breakfast at Snug Harbor Marina I took a chance and didn’t stop to gas up on my way to breakfast. I’d get to that on my way home. As things worked out when I left the marina for home I had 15 miles range on my dashboard.
I thought about stopping in Wakefield but figured I could make it to the Shell station near RAZEE’s at the intersection of RT1 and Phillips Street.
Carl was in front of me on Gooseberry Road heading to RT1 and I thought of the stories I’d heard that told of his running out of gas on a couple of trips out west in the distant past. Would I suffer the same fate? Naaa!
Carl was quicker than me and I lost sight of him near the Tower, and didn’t see him again until I passed Razee with a big fat 1 on the range distance left. With only a quarter mile left I hoped the Shell was open. It was and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I was surprised at a couple of things. First was the accuracy of the read out for range. The world wide web says my gas tank holds 4.78 to 5.3 gallons, with a 4 liter reserve. My question has always been, “When does the reserve kick in, and is the little gas pump light, and flashing range indicator just a caution that tells me I have 4l of fuel left?” The bike’s manual says the reserve is the remaining volume of fuel left in the tank, and that when the reserve light goes on the bike’s system is telling me that I have approximately 4l of fuel left of the approximately 4.78 gallons that the tank holds. BTW The BMW manual confirms this.
Secondly, this is the closest to empty I have ever been on Valentina. As you can see in the gallery below I had 1 mile range when I got to the Shell station, and I put slightly over 5 gallons in the tank. I try to top it off as close to the top as possible.
Thirdly, after the fill up, and ten miles down the road, my range meter reached the highest number I had ever seen at 252 miles. I pulled over and took the shot. I typically get between 230 to 240 miles from a tank. When I tank up the range meter usually is under 220 miles, and will even go up a few miles as I travel. It seems that the onboard computer is continually calculating my available range miles as I travel and that can change depending on how I am riding the bike, i.e. quicker back roads in lower gears with quick acceleration (higher fuel consumption per mile), or higher gears on the highway at cruising speed (lower fuel consumption per mile).
My old plan was to be sure I gassed up when I still had at least 10 miles reserve. I like that plan and I am sticking to it.
PS. There are no photoshopped images in the gallery below. JT
