Ducati Monster Forum

How far do you guys ride after it switches to reserve? < 10? < 25?  ??

After the reserve light turns on and the reserve odometer starts up, I usually seek the nearest fuel station. I've been lucky that I haven't been further than 25km from one. I never had an instance of needing to go further than that.

I have run out at 27mi and 32mi after the light comes on.   25mi is now my limit.  400lbs is pretty damn hard to push in leathers. 

'01 M900

My reserve light does not work. I've pushed the bike 3 or 4 times, but not more than 2 miles total combined.

I've gone 25 miles on a 620 and about 22 on a 696 without running out.

I really don't have any desire to find out the absolute limit. When I was a kid, my dad was forever trying to wean the family cars, so I've spent far more of my life hiking to get gas than I really want to.

we have a reserve?

i thought the fuel light was just a joke.

I could of pushed over 180 miles on my tank on my last trip ( plastic tank) i was doing 57mpg
avg speed 90mph fully tucked in. (120miles 2.1 gallon fill up)

My reserve light has come on twice, I found a station within 18 miles both times. Generally, I'm keeping an eye on my overall mileage on the tank to anticipate the light going on, then making sure I'm close to a station. Sounds obsessive, probably, but I don't want to run out with EFI - I hear that is a bad, bad thing...

Hyper with Chris's tank gets me over 30 miles on reserve for about 210 miles total. With stock exhaust/ecu I would have been hitting closer to 260 miles.  [thumbsup]

The farthest I've gone has been 30 miles but I try to find a gas station within 20 miles of the light coming on.  I think that 30 miles was a fluke. :P

On my S4Rs I'm not going to push more than 10 miles if I can find a gas station .

I think I typically get 90 miles before the light comes on and I have the full Performance Treatment.

I have no idea on the 1098 R.

I usually top off some where between 30 and 60 miles between top offs.

I always top off within 10 miles from going home on all 3 of my bikes.

Dolph..... :)

On my S2R I really start sweating if I pass 20mi on reserve.  I ran out only once at about 22.5 mi.

Both of my tanks, I've been about 10 miles from my local gas station when the light came on. I was actually nervous that I might be pushing my luck trying to wait until I was "home" before pulling over. Today I paid attention to how much it held (2.8 gal) and then looked up the capacity (3.8 gal). So I started thinking maybe I could make it another 40 miles if I were brave enough. I think after reading some of the posts here I'm going to continue trying to keep it within 10 miles.

Thanks all for the tips.

Ive done 25-28 on my 696 on many occasions.  My commute home from work is 17 miles (16 from work to the gas station) and I don't even sweat it.

My light don't work any more. I fixed it once and it lasted about 1 year. Now I just use my trip meter. I allways keep a full tank. It keeps the inside from corroding. I start pushing at 125 mi.

I went 42 kilometers on the 696 [thumbsup]

when mine lights up I did 200-210 km...then another 40 km to run it dry
tested and confirmed twice..
man...it sucks walking in the leather to the next gas station and filling up a coke bottle with fuel  [bang]

My light came on last week on the way home from the Keys. It would have been a long hot walk. I made it about 15 miles thank god. S4rs

When my bike was new the light came on at around 70 miles (yeah I know, terrible milage).  I was out in the middle of Northeast Texas on roads new to me.  My first priority was to find a station.  20 miles later I was still looking when the bike ran out of gas.  So good ol boys in a truck out fishing picked me up and drove me to a station AND back again.  They were surprised when the bike started right up when I pushed the button.  "It's like you have fuel injection!"  They found it hard to believe me that motorcycles DID have FI.

Great guys; I still want to buy them a couple of beers.   [beer]

Anyways, 20 miles tops on my bike.  I try to keep it under five.  On long trips I carry extra gas.

The day after I bought my S2R1K I was going for a ride with a friend and some of his buddies who I was meeting for the first time.  Trying to get the bike ready for its big debut, I was running late and didn't have time to top off the tank.  It was last filled by the previous owner, so I had no idea how much was in there.  Rookie mistake, I know.  The fuel light came on not five minutes into the ride and I ran dry very quickly afterward.  Maybe 15 miles?  Not long after that I was at a track day and met another Ducatisti, and it turns he too rides an S2R1K on the street.  After we made that connection, the first thing he said to me was, "Did you find out about the fuel light yet?"

25 - 30 miles after the light comes on no problem (696).  I was able to get 175 miles out of 3 gallons by riding super aero and thinking good thoughts when I was in the boonies on my road trip.  (My DH was with me and would have gotten the gas for me sparing the pushing, but I didn't need to). 

I also got 168 miles with only 2.3 gallons needed at another fill up on that trip - after a lot of slow back road riding, some moderate hwy, more aero riding.  I thought that was pretty insane, but the thing was full up at only 2.3 gal.

While I was carrying some extra gas in a 1 liter can, I went 35 miles before I decided to call it quits and stop at a station.

mitt

05 S4R Stock

I can go about 20 miles when the light goes on. Past that I am running on fumes.

Ive done 30 miles past the reserve light, but I did alot of low rpm lugging, tucking and pulling in the clutch on downhills. Never ran out, and never want to.

Depends on what you're riding.  Like Dolph, mine's an S4RS and on my old S4R it went 15 miles and stopped.  Only had to push mine about six blocks - up hill.

The light comes on - find the nearest gas station.

LA

Just a reminder-don't trust your fuel light too much. The only way to find out it's stopped working is the hard way  ;)

You are correct.  I look for the light, but I also always reset my odometer each time I gas up and take a look every now and then. I'm lucky to get almost 100 mi. until the light comes on.

LA

+1
While riding in the canyons, my light came on and I  :o
I made it 30 miles until the S2R 1K said 'no more'. Fortunately, we had just come out of ACH and i coasted all the way to the station  [laugh]
So now I reset the odo everytime I fill up!!
About 130 miles until the light comes on, then I know I have 29.99999 miles to go

When the light comes on i give myself 20 miles before i get gas. The most ive done on a tank was 167 miles, didn't run out of gas but i was probably close.

'06 749

On my 06' M620, the comes on and I can generally get another 25 to 30 miles. I always reset my odometer when I fill up that helps a ton. It's interesting, since I have been riding I am very cognizant of the miles from one point to another.

But, if you are asking the question to get an understanding of your range, its pointless if people don't include what bike they have.

You can say that about riding style, body mass, altitude, air temperature, tire pressure, state of tune, etc also if you really want specifics.

My bike gets 40mpg in Iowa at ~800 ft, but gets over 50mpg in South Dakota at 2000+ ft.

mitt

Your owners manual should tell you about how much fuel should be left when the light comes on -- and of course, YMMV. Because gas stations get mighty scarce once you get outside my little Arizona mountain town, I used to get really nervous about seeing the reserve light come on with the ST2. Then I happened to look in the manual and found it's designed to come on with about three liters of fuel left -- since it's a sport touring design, I'd imagine that's higher than on our Monster (which I haven't yet bothered to look up). I've yet to run either of them dry, but the farthest I've pushed it was about 35 miles on the ST2 -- riding two up, climbing about 2,500 feet in elevation. Last few miles before I crested the pass above town at around 6,200'  my mantra was momentum and I was constantly checking the narrow shoulder for safe spots I could coast into if the motor cut out...

my engine cut off at 27 miles.  if you don't want to ride B*itch, start looking once the light come on, or at 100 miles.

According to the manual for my '05 620, it's 3.5L for the metal tank or 3L for the plastic one. (Actually, they say cubic decimeters, but it's the same thing.)

I have a stock 2012 796 and have been stopping for gas when the reserve gets to 17. All 3 times I've put in 2.8 gallons which should mean I still have about a gallon in the tank.  Today I purposely pushed it and took it to 21 miles and still put in 2.9 gallons. My thinking is that I should be able to go to 30 but I'm afraid to risk it.

My M750 comes on at about 150 when out on rides, and around 130 when commuting.  I did get over 20 miles after the light came on before I found a gas station.  Still had about a half-gallon (about 2L for you metric guys) when I filled it.  I was babying once the light came on though.

JM

My 900 gets around 5.5 litres per 100 kms. I figure when the light comes on I've got at least 40-50 kms before I'm done.

Only pushed it to 40 once, which was previous to the fitting of the 14t front sprocket. I guess I'd better revise the safe reserve distance down to 30-40 kms now! LOL!

GK

2 km after the light comes on, which is the distance to the nearest gas station. 

I always reset the trip meter after every fill up, a habit from my sportster day which doesn't have a fuel indicator and I have to rely on the trip meter,  But since I'm not sure about the gas consumption of my bike, yet, I ride it until the res light comes on. After several more fill up I'm sure I can rely on the trip meter reading.

Three years later & this thread is resurrected?  I tripped out when reading Dolph's post and had to look at the date.  :'(

Yellow light means get gas RTFN.   ;D    I've never even tried for 10 miles.

+1 to all of that.

although I did just find out that the 40 or so mpg I get at ~5000 feet becomes 50+ mpg at 10,000 feet or better (15/44 on an S2R800).  A guy with an S2R1K told me he gets 55mpg with 14/44 gearing (but he lives in the mountains).

Dont forget that the manual lists total internal volume including the dead space left for expansion. So you actually can't get the fully stated amt of gas in there. You were prob cutting it very close at 2.8 gallons.

That's a geographic oddity; always 2 km from the nearest gas station.

(Apologies to "Oh Brother Where Art Thou")

ive got 28 miles with the fule light on, still running . 2009 m1100.

Yea, I flipped on Dolph's post.

I've run out at 15 reserve miles and had to push the last few blocks.

4V's don't do pretty good on the gas.

LA

same

I'm in Jakarta, Indonesia. So far I only ride my bike for commuting, about 600 km on the odo ... and during this time (two months) I have only filled up the gas three or four times  ;D  Longer ride will have to wait until after Ramadhan month (fasting month) and after 1000 km service.

We have many gas stations here in Jakarta. For instance, distance from home to office is about 11 km, and there are 4 gas stations that I pass by on the way to the office. Riding home, where I take different route, and about the same distance, there are 5 gas stations.  

I got 33 km on my S4R (Testastretta) before it died. 14T sprocket.
Since then the bike has been tuned on the Dyno and the guy said he actually thinned out the mixture somewhat and I should get a few more MPG:s. Have not tested it though.....

I got about 25 miles after the light came on before the S4R died 6 miles from the next gas station, but that included babying her down a few thousand feet of elevation (riding with the clutch in to conserve precious fuel).

The next day I got 122 miles BEFORE the light tripped, and we stopped 1 mile after that for fuel. Then another 115 miles before the light and 24 miles after the light to the next gas station (again with some babying after the light).

And this is why I have added extra fuel to my tool kit.

I'm considering picking up an MSR can for DrDemso to keep when he takes that S4R out again, as well as finding an easy-to-use siphon. The three of us included a Honda Blackbird and an Aprilia Falco, and wouldn't have had any issues with a siphon, thanks to the 6.1 gallon tank on the Blackbird.

When I ran out on the S4R, DrDesmo took the Blackbird down the road, grabbed a fuel can, and zip tied it to his luggage rack. After that point, we instituted an 80-mile rule - next gas station we pass after 80 miles is where we stop for fuel.

The wolfman bottle holsters strap on to the trellis pretty well and stay in place at speed.  They did get all covered in smashed bees, though.

I'm assuming the "reserve fuel" light is simply the low fuel orange warning light (on my '12 796)?  If so, wow some of you guys are pushing it...and I thought I was bad haha.  I used to push my car a ton after the low fuel light comes on, but I'm much more cautious on the bike.  I think I went 10 miles most so far.  At least it's good to know I have until ~25 until I REALLY need to start getting nervous.