So how far can you go on a tank of gas?? First, let me go over why this is good to know. I apologize if this seems obvious, but it seems like a lot of people I meet don’t know this and it’s important for several reasons.
One reason it’s important is to understand when you need to gas up. Many of the rides my friends and I do are in the neighborhood of 200+ kms. That’s well into the fuel capacity of some smaller bikes. There’s nothing worse than being between gas stations and not being sure how much further you can go.
Another reason it’s important is because fuel consumption can be a clear indicator of problems with the bike. If you’ve been getting 400kms out of a tank and all of a sudden you are getting 300-320kms per tank that can be an indicative of a problem.
Yet another reason is for trip planning. Especially in areas where gas stations may be inaccessible. If you are planning a leg of a journey that is 250kms and you normally only get 200kms out a tank that could be a problem right???
Ok so let’s get down to it. The first thing to learn is the fuel capacity of your bike. If you google 2015 honda shadow fuel capacity you will come up with this answer:
Great, so you know your fuel capacity is 14 litres, now what?? Another good piece of info to get from google is fuel consumption. The same article from above references the fuel consumption:
| Fuel consumption: | 4.20 litres/100 km (23.8 km/l or 56.00 mpg) |
So that’s good info right?? What that tells us is that theoretically, we can get 23.8km per litre. If we have 14 litres in the tank, theoretically we can get 14×23.8= 333.2kms out of a tank of gas. I say theoretically because that specification is a calculated spec, based on a new bike and the engineering specs. It doesn’t factor in how you ride, if you are heavy on the throttle etc. So we still need to understand how many kms we actually will get out of the tank of gas. It could be less it could actually be more.
The Odometer:
This brings us to your odometer. Unless you have an expensive touring bike, it’s unlikely you have a fuel gauge. There are usually at least two odometers on your bike. A main odometer that measures the total kms on your bike and at least one trip odometer. The trip odometer is the one that will help us figure out how far we can go!
On the example above, you can see there are two odometers. The top odometer is your total mileage on the bike. The bottom odometer is the trip odometer. This can be reset by pressing the button you see to the right of the odometer.
The next example above has a separate digital odometer that will also reset by pressing a button somewhere on or near the odometer.
The last example above appears not to have a trip odometer. However, there will be a button near the odometer that will allow you to cycle between the main odometer and a trip odometer. A short press of the button will cycle between the odometers and a long press will reset the trip odometer.
Using the Odometer to Calculate your Mileage:
To use the trip odometer, simply reset it when you gas up. The first time you do this, the easiest way to proceed is do the following:
- Ride for approximately 100kms and then gas up again.
- When you gas up, note the number of litres you put into the tank.
- Calculate how many litres you used and work out the actual km per litre.
Example:
You had to add 5 litres in the tank. That means you used 5 litres per 100km.
Now divide 100kms by 5 litres and you get 20 km / litre.
With a 14 litre tank that means you can go 14 litres X 20km/l which = 280kms.
While this is a rough calculation, it will get you where you need to be with a little gas left in the tank! Safe Riding!!