Fuel can question

[azr33]

1 hour ago, filterx said:

Ya good update and I see you are on the Island. Do you know @Hurry Up?

I was riding Squamish last week and the local trails were awesome BUT did not get into the higher elevations and I'm HOPING to be able to ride the lower elevation trails snow free all winter

I haven't met any of the other members on here yet, have a pretty good group of friends I ride with. If Squamish is the same as here you should be able to ride all year round, that's one of the benefits of coastal life, especially on the southern Island. 

[Password1234]

I had an interesting scenario with fuel today. Got a 2017 DRZ400E with standard OEM tank. Changed the bike to supermoto set up and fitted a trail tech with the accuracy confirmed by my GPS. running 15-44 gearing.

Went for a ride today with the tank full prior to leaving. Wanted to find out how far I could go until hitting reserve. The type of riding was mainly road and managed to get 198km before she started to die on me. Pulled over and turned on the reserve, started her up again and was just around the corner from home.

I was interested in finding out how many litres it took to fill up. Using an accurate measuring container, ended up putting in the whole 10 litres.

So my question is, is the petcock faulty or is there additional room for the reserve?

 

[seer]

A 2 liter bottle carries well in a large fanny pack. Use a MSR or surplus military  pack.

[BillDirt1]

I had an interesting scenario with fuel today. Got a 2017 DRZ400E with standard OEM tank. Changed the bike to supermoto set up and fitted a trail tech with the accuracy confirmed by my GPS. running 15-44 gearing.

Went for a ride today with the tank full prior to leaving. Wanted to find out how far I could go until hitting reserve. The type of riding was mainly road and managed to get 198km before she started to die on me. Pulled over and turned on the reserve, started her up again and was just around the corner from home.

I was interested in finding out how many litres it took to fill up. Using an accurate measuring container, ended up putting in the whole 10 litres.

So my question is, is the petcock faulty or is there additional room for the reserve?

 

I've never accurately measured, but seems like some tanks hold a little more capacity than spec'd...

 

[BillDirt1]

Maybe because you're not supposed to fill it to the very top (as I do).

 

 

[Password1234]

6 hours ago, Diverdown said:

Maybe because you're not supposed to fill it to the very top (as I do).

 

 

 

Yes, I fill to the top. What are the issues with doing this?

Does anyone know how many miles / KM you can get out of the DRZ once switching to reserve?

[BillDirt1]

No issues as far as I know, filling tank to top. Reserve, just to be safe, I always count for 20 miles.

 

 

[The Inquisitor]

3 hours ago, Ilia . said:

 

Yes, I fill to the top. What are the issues with doing this?

Does anyone know how many miles / KM you can get out of the DRZ once switching to reserve?

If I know I'm going on long rides I put in as much gas as I can with the bike straight up and still close the cap with out overflowing. I also did this with a completely empty tank so I know exactly how much the tank holds, then rounded down a bit for my fuel range calculations. IE tank hold 9.3L but used 9.0L.

If you were to pull your petcock you will see that there are 2 fuel inlets (for lack of a better term) into the petcock. The one on the right allows fuel into the carb when the petcock is in the normal position.

 

Once the fuel gets lower than the top arrow on the right, you would then need to go to reserve. Then once the fuel get below the left arrow, you would essentially be out of fuel.

The reserve amount would be the difference between the top right arrow and the bottom left arrow.

This is the first time I've actually though about how to figure out the reserve size on my 400E and writing this is making my head spin and most likely why I've never actually done it ?

With the petcock/reserve its tricky since there would be some amount of gas still in the tank even if you ran out of gas on reserve then the hard part is to figure out exactly how liters of gas there is between the top right and the bottom left arrows.

Firstly this is what I would do to figure out how many KMs per Litre I could get before having to switch to reserve. Fill the tank completely and do some riding until I put on (using your range about 190KMS) Then I would ride around close to a gas station or my house and as soon as I ran out of gas, switch to reserve and get to gas as quick as I could. Then fill the tank to get KM's per Litre.

Then I would Personally base my fuel range based on many KM's I can get before I hit reserve

Maybe someone can tell you what the reserve amount otherwise this where IMO it gets complicated

I would say estimate the reserve at 2Ls OR after you know the KM's per Litres do another ride and carry say 3 x 1 Litre bottles of spare gas then once you run out on normal, ride until you completely run out of gas on reserve. Then switch to normal, pour in 1 litre and see if the bike starts. Reserve would then be at most one 1L. If bike does not start, pour in say half the 2nd liter and repeat, if not then keep repeating until you can figure it out how many litres the reserve is. If you choose to do this, please let me know cus Im not doing this ?

If someone else has an easier method please feel free to chime in ?

EDIT As an example this the petcock on my CRF250R and once it gets to the arrow you are out of gas and that would be from a full tank so IMO easy to figure out ?

I'm going back to drinking my Friday after work beers and un thinking all of this until the spring when I I plan on doing some LONG rides on the DRZ ?

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by filterx

[Ryguy00]

The fuel capacity calculations are easy. Drain the tank. Unhook the fuel line from the carb and route it to a container. Switch petcock to reserve and measure the amount of fuel you pour into the tank before it comes out the fuel line. That's going to be A: the amount of fuel wasted below the reserve line. Switch petcock to ON and measure how much more fuel needs to be added before it comes through the fuel line again. That's going to be B: the amount of fuel you have available once switching to reserve. Filling to max capacity will give number C: total amount of fuel. Remember the right side of the tank is separate from the petcock though so make sure you're taking accurate measurements.

But your fuel economy calculations are flawed. Your true fuel economy will vary depending on several factors, among which are altitude, terrain, temperature, weight of total load, tire pressure, throttle control, etc. Those variables can all change daily. At best, you'll be able to come up with a general idea, but a general idea could also be gotten with a sharpie marking 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 tank levels on the side of the tank and keeping track of miles traveled with a phone or gps.

My last streetbike did not have a fuel gauge and was fuel injected so there was no reserve either. It did have a trip odometer and a low fuel light though. Due to the variables mentioned above, mileage on a tank before fuel light came on was never the same, but after riding the bike a while, I got a general idea for when it was time for fuel. I think putting a trip odometer on your bike would be more beneficial for what you're trying to do here.

Edited December 16, 2017 by Ryguy00

[Password1234]

2 hours ago, Ryguy00 said:

The fuel capacity calculations are easy. Drain the tank. Unhook the fuel line from the carb and route it to a container. Switch petcock to reserve and measure the amount of fuel you pour into the tank before it comes out the fuel line. That's going to be A: the amount of fuel wasted below the reserve line. Switch petcock to ON and measure how much more fuel needs to be added before it comes through the fuel line again. That's going to be B: the amount of fuel you have available once switching to reserve. Filling to max capacity will give number C: total amount of fuel. Remember the right side of the tank is separate from the petcock though so make sure you're taking accurate measurements.

But your fuel economy calculations are flawed. Your true fuel economy will vary depending on several factors, among which are altitude, terrain, temperature, weight of total load, tire pressure, throttle control, etc. Those variables can all change daily. At best, you'll be able to come up with a general idea, but a general idea could also be gotten with a sharpie marking 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 tank levels on the side of the tank and keeping track of miles traveled with a phone or gps.

My last streetbike did not have a fuel gauge and was fuel injected so there was no reserve either. It did have a trip odometer and a low fuel light though. Due to the variables mentioned above, mileage on a tank before fuel light came on was never the same, but after riding the bike a while, I got a general idea for when it was time for fuel. I think putting a trip odometer on your bike would be more beneficial for what you're trying to do here.

Thanks, your logic sounds spot on and yes elevation, terrain, road or dirt bike tires, tire pressure, how hard you are on the throttle all play a part in fuel economy.

 I frequently get over 190km before hitting reserve- This may explain why-

The bike has only 1600km on the clock and only just run in.

Road riding

Where I ride is is between 60 - 200 meters above sea level.

Tire pressure for supermoto tires are checked before each ride at 28F & 33R PSI

I certainly don't baby the throttle.

I do use a trip counter on my trail tech.

From the recent posts, I think that it is safe to assume that with the above conditions that I should be able to get another 30-40km once switching to reserve.

 

Thanks for all the comments, much appreciated.

[The Inquisitor]

14 hours ago, Ryguy00 said:

The fuel capacity calculations are easy. Drain the tank. Unhook the fuel line from the carb and route it to a container. Switch petcock to reserve and measure the amount of fuel you pour into the tank before it comes out the fuel line. That's going to be A: the amount of fuel wasted below the reserve line. Switch petcock to ON and measure how much more fuel needs to be added before it comes through the fuel line again. That's going to be B: the amount of fuel you have available once switching to reserve. Filling to max capacity will give number C: total amount of fuel. Remember the right side of the tank is separate from the petcock though so make sure you're taking accurate measurements.

But your fuel economy calculations are flawed. Your true fuel economy will vary depending on several factors, among which are altitude, terrain, temperature, weight of total load, tire pressure, throttle control, etc. Those variables can all change daily. At best, you'll be able to come up with a general idea, but a general idea could also be gotten with a sharpie marking 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 tank levels on the side of the tank and keeping track of miles traveled with a phone or gps.

My last streetbike did not have a fuel gauge and was fuel injected so there was no reserve either. It did have a trip odometer and a low fuel light though. Due to the variables mentioned above, mileage on a tank before fuel light came on was never the same, but after riding the bike a while, I got a general idea for when it was time for fuel. I think putting a trip odometer on your bike would be more beneficial for what you're trying to do here.

I knew I was over thinking figuring out the reserve size so THANKS ?

I understand the variables for calculating fuel economy, hence I did 2 very different rides and got pretty much the same results. 

With that said if running out of gas is going to be a HUGE problem, error on the side of caution ?

[Muffintop]

We did a long ride in Moab before we had big tanks on our bikes. We emptied out Propel/Gatorade bottles and filled them with fuel, it worked great. The plastic probably isn't made for fuel but it worked out fine for the day.