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I ran out of gas on the way home on a major highway.

I hadn't ridden to work before and I really enjoyed it. I'm still getting nervous at higher speeds, but I'm sure I'll be okay in time. I was a nervous car driver when I started that.
Traffic isn't so bad because it's not heavy. I'm heading on mostly back roads except for maybe a total of 5 miles.

I was worried about riding home since it's the end of a 12 hour shift at 7am, but I actually enjoyed the cooler weather. And I ran out of gas on a multi lane highway. I was able to coast into the gas station, but that was not terribly fun.
I didn't panic, but I don't want to do it again.
We don't have a gas guage. I just have to watch the trip meter.
I was less sure of myself during the trip home. I think it was more of the not sleeping for the past 16 hours than the running out of gas because I didn't freak out or anything.
Some idiot was riding my tail and honking at me on a road where the limit was 45 mph and I was doing that. And it's in a residential area so it's not really safe to do much faster than that. Sometimes people irritate me.

No reserve on your tank? I didn't have one on my SV, but I did have an idiot light that came on when there was just a gallon less. My MP3 has an actual fuel gauge...very nice!

Congrats on the ride to work! People do get impatient behind bikes that are =gasp= doing the speed limit, but all you can do is keep going, or pull over and let them pass. I haven't had anyone sit back there and honk at me, though...probably a good thing because I would have been tempted to slow to a crawl.

lol Well at least you got the first over with. You handled it

I haven't run out of gas yet, but I've had to ride on reserve a couple of times. I think running out of gas would be more embarrassing than anything.

When I get tailgaters I let them pass. It's less stressful that way. Next time if you have any place to pull over safely, let them go. I'd rather do that than the possibility that road rage would impel someone to bump into the back of me.

Good for you for keeping your cool.

Got busted by this situation just last weekend on my first night ride. DH and I had been riding for a few hours...hit 100 miles on the trip meter and she started sputtering. I knew it was running out of gas and I reached for the reserve switch and couldn't find it!!!!!!! DH had shown it to me and I had practiced a few times but couldn't find it in the dark! Had to pull over to the shoulder of the road to switch it over. Since then I've practiced finding the switch many times w/out looking. Hopefully this won't happen to me again!

Congratulations on your commute and getting to the gas station safely.

While on vacation and less than 300 miles in the saddle, I hit my reserves while going up a hill. It was a long day of sightseeing and I just didn't put 2+2 together.

Have ran out a couple of times on old bike, could never gauge the distance I could/should get. Wind, speed, hills, everything was a factor on the MPG so always keep that in mind. So on LDR when I new fill ups would be far and few in between I carried a small fuel bottle in the saddle bag...it did come in handy.

graymojocat wrote:I ran out of gas on the way home on a major highway.

I hadn't ridden to work before and I really enjoyed it. I'm still getting nervous at higher speeds, but I'm sure I'll be okay in time. I was a nervous car driver when I started that.
Traffic isn't so bad because it's not heavy. I'm heading on mostly back roads except for maybe a total of 5 miles.

I was worried about riding home since it's the end of a 12 hour shift at 7am, but I actually enjoyed the cooler weather. And I ran out of gas on a multi lane highway. I was able to coast into the gas station, but that was not terribly fun.
I didn't panic, but I don't want to do it again.
We don't have a gas guage. I just have to watch the trip meter.
I was less sure of myself during the trip home. I think it was more of the not sleeping for the past 16 hours than the running out of gas because I didn't freak out or anything.
Some idiot was riding my tail and honking at me on a road where the limit was 45 mph and I was doing that. And it's in a residential area so it's not really safe to do much faster than that. Sometimes people irritate me.

You will find that virtually all motorcycle speedometers read a little high....usually around 10-11%. There was some discussions on this a year or two ago in Cycle World Magazine (I think). They went back through their tests and compared real speed to indicated speed and found that it was true pretty much across the board.

Try riding next to a friend in a car with a fairly accurate speedo....or better yet, have someone with a GPS that shows true speed. You go to and indicated 60mph and see what the GPS says. There will be a noticeable difference. Note: It takes about 10 seconds or more before the GPS will update your speed, depending on the model you're using. Still, they're more accurate than a car speedo.

So, bottom line is that you were probably going about 40mph on that road if your speedo said 45.

Cheers,

Mac

When using GPS (zumo550) it does read differently than bike when it comes to MPG and speed. When riding on Honda I went up to Montana, glad I had Zumo to let me know how much gas I had left, bike reading said I had a few bars than it just dropped to one but it is a good thing I was going by the Zumo instead (for total acuracy including miles for the IBA) And for those who are curious as to why I just did not make more frequent stops it was because I was doing a BBGold Iron Butt ride which gives you no room for errors when it comes to miles and time.