Holy crap Batman! LOL Just get on them and ride. I have rode all over the U.S. and into CA. and Mexico, and have never ran a bike out of gas... Flown Ag for 40 years never ran out of gas. Never rely on a gas gauge, Know how much fuel your machine burns, and gas when getting low. There is no place in the U.S. that you can't get between fuel stops on a tank of Fuel. It is not exactly rocket science.

I pulled the tank to replace the throttle cables and shot a few pics. But the true eye-opener was the way the fuel vent tube was hooked up. OMG.

Not that it mattered, but the vapor tube was hooked to the gauge drain tube rather than the vapor tube. Apparently someone before me had mixed it up and when I pulled the tank off before I had no reason to question it.

But today I began looking for the 'Roll Over Valve' and tube which is supposed to be attached to the vapor vent and couldn't find one. But there it was, instead attached to the drain tube LOL.

For those seeing under your tank for the first time, the tube shown under the tank in the pics below is what's SUPPOSED TO BE clamped onto the front vapor tube above the tank.

So to clarify, if you pull your gauge cluster off (three screws) and swing it out of the way (I place a towel over the bars and lights and place it there rather than unplugging it), you'll see a drain hole in the tank toward the rear of the gauge panel area. That hole is to drain rain water out of the area to protect the gauges. Because of the attached tube beneath the tank, and not noticing the drain hole on top, I originally thought that was the vapor tube. It's not.

The metal tube coming out of the top front of the tank is for vapors. That's where the vent tube with the roll over valve is attached. But for our previous discussion about overfilling the tank etc., if you see that vent tube location you'll see that it's on the highest point of the tank and would be pretty hard to overfill the tank and cause gas to flow out of that vent tube. It may splash around and trickle out of there just after a fill up but otherwise it's pretty unimpeded. I suppose if the overflow roll over valve itself were plugged then that would be a problem of a different matter. But I've been running with no rubber overflow tube at all, filling the tank to the top, and haven't had any overflow issue whatsoever that I've detected. I did SMELL fuel but that's obviously because the vapors were venting from the front of the gauge panel itself and right up into my face while riding.

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Wow! Running 80-90 on the open desert? I don't imagine a bike would get 20 mpg at that speed. I think one reason I consistently get over 50 mpg is that I only rarely get above 65 mph. Wind resistance can beat you down. Of course, taking off like a drag racer at many stops will cut into the mileage too. Plus I see a lot of drivers and riders who accelerate right up to where they have to start braking. Having driven large vehicles, I know that it helps to do some anticipating so you're not constantly moving the throttle.

Not to say it's not okay to ride any way you want. For some, the performance is the top pleasure. Some like the high speeds. For me it's pretty much two things: one is making smooth corners, the other is keeping a constant speed at a slow enough rate to enjoy the scenery. I'm retired. That's what I do.

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Agpilot wrote:
Holy crap Batman! LOL Just get on them and ride. I have rode all over the U.S. and into CA. and Mexico, and have never ran a bike out of gas... Flown Ag for 40 years never ran out of gas. Never rely on a gas gauge, Know how much fuel your machine burns, and gas when getting low. There is no place in the U.S. that you can't get between fuel stops on a tank of Fuel. It is not exactly rocket science.

Not sure what you're implying but that's pretty much the POINT of this entire thread! Get to know your mileage and how much fuel you can stuff in your tank as well as how low is too low.

Do you religiously stop to fill up when your fuel light comes on? When you hit 175 or 200 miles? When you run out of gas and have to switch to reserve?

I now know that regardless of speed or riding conditions I should safely have 50 miles left once my fuel light comes on, and at LEAST 25 miles after switching to reserve. 200 miles is a guarantee regardless of how many riders or what speed or altitude, and on the last trip, riding 2-up at speed and altitude, we've ridden 233 miles so far with perhaps 2/3's of a gallon left in the tank (I'll measure later today). On the next fill up I'll know exactly how much fuel I can get in now that the filler neck has been drilled and there are no concerns about the vent tube.

That equals RANGE. Here out west that's extremely important because, yes, we can make it between gas stations on a FULL tank, but when you're planning a run up Death Valley and have just arrived at the entrance on more than half a tank remaining, you want to know if you can make it up to Scotty's Castle and BACK with what you have left, or whether you need to top off again before continuing.

If we want to ALTER our route, come home a different way or run up a side road to do some exploring on the way to Scotty's Castle, the fuel capacity will make a huge difference. We don't want to have to stop to fill up every two hours because we have no idea where the next gas station is. We've had times when we topped the tank off 25 miles into the ride simply because we wanted to run the rest of the trip without refueling.

On our recent 442 mile weekend day trip we went up via Nevada roads but came back via Utah roads. We called ahead to be sure the remote stations were going to be open because many of the stations in Utah are CLOSED ON SUNDAY for religious reasons! We used to experience the same thing in Montana and Wyoming with stations that closed at 5 PM. In cases like that having anything less than a half tank (or 100 miles) remaining can be pretty unnerving...

LIke I said do not rely on fuel lights or fuel gauges... They can be extremely inaccurate. Most Roadstars can run 140 miles on a tank of fuel.. If you run out before 140 you have A fuel leak or real bad mileage from continuous tinkering with the carb.

Agpilot wrote:
LIke I said do not rely on fuel lights or fuel gauges... They can be extremely inaccurate. Most Roadstars can run 140 miles on a tank of fuel.. If you run out before 140 you have A fuel leak or real bad mileage from continuous tinkering with the carb.

Well there you go. We'll get 240 miles out of this tank if I want to keep running it down. But as another example and to your point, my fuel gauge has been PEGGED on 'E' for the past 35 miles and was there for nearly 20 miles before the reserve tank even kicked in! 200 miles is our safe zone for planning and running 2-up on the open highways.

How are you guys who have done so, putting holes in the filler tube?

NJ

pastornj wrote:
How are you guys who have done so, putting holes in the filler tube?

NJ

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You need to read this entire thread. Questions like this should not need to be answered over and over.

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(5.75 gallons to the drilled holes!)

OK, so to possibly put this baby to rest while keeping this info for posterity, here's what I finally came up with.

I'd run the tank onto reserve and put 15 miles on it before pulling the tank off the bike.

I drained ALL THE FUEL into a measured bottle. I leaned the tank to the left side at times but kept it level while the fuel drained out, just to see how much it would actually flow into the carb if it was still hooked up.

It drained ALL OF IT. Virtually every last drop!

So after 15 miles running on reserve I still drained a full 10 cups of fuel (2.25 qts., or 5/8ths of a gallon).

Assuming I'm averaging 46+ MPG I could safely predict that I had another 23 miles before nearly running dry, and that would still leave 2 cups of fuel in the tank. That means 38 TOTAL miles on reserve, and likely 40+ iffy miles on level ground at highway speeds.

Adding that to the 25 miles I ran after the fuel light came on and before switching to reserve and I have a pretty solid 60+ miles from when my fuel light comes on (though I'd rely more on the reserve tank than the fuel light).

Good to know!! I'll know that I have a really safe 25-30 miles after hitting reserve.

So what I did next was to put 1 quart back into the tank and run it down to the local Chevron which is about 1/2 mile from my home. From there I added OVER 5.5 gallons of gas! I posted a pic below.

That gives me a total fuel capacity of just about 5.75 gallons to the center of the holes I drilled in the filler neck. So the 5.3 gallon capacity touted by Yamaha is likely to the bottom of the filler neck, as someone stated earlier. We averaged just over 46 MPG on our last 491 mile measurement. If we use that as an average while riding 2-up we could run 265 miles before running totally on fumes.

Not bad!

I think I can now extend our 'must reach' range scenario to 240 miles if in a crunch or even just for kicks, especially if we keep it under 75. We ran around 2/3's of our last trip between 80-90 MPH at altitude, much of it uphill, which challenged our fuel mileage a bit.

So now we can put this to rest and file it away for personal future reference, until I get a new, larger diameter, rear tire LOL. But knowing that I have 5.75 gallons on a stuffed fuel tank and that it'll run itself virtually DRY is great to know.

Regarding running dry, I had a single quart when I ran it to the gas station, my better half on standby waiting by her cell phone, with a way-too-long wait at a stoplight along the way. Now think about that. It means that I can AT LEAST run out 5.5 gallons on the road.

But here's why it'll run even more than the 5.5 gallons. When you go around left hand corners the fuel runs into the reserve petcock, supplying the fuel pump (if you still have one) and everything beyond. That fills the fuel line, fuel pump, and carb float bowl. You may run around a right hand corner that temporarily robs the petcock of fuel, so the bike continues to run on what's below the tank in the lines and carb. Straighten up or hit a left hand turn, or lean the bike to the left at a stop light (which I did on the way to the gas station), and it again feeds the beast below. It should keep doing that until you're completely dry.

This may be one true advantage of having the fuel pump vs. relying on gravity feed. The fuel pump will suck faster when fuel is available and keep everything pressurized beyond it until more comes down the tube.

Do I ever suggest that anyone runs dry? Of course not. But if you run up against that remote country gas station that unexpectedly closed at 5 PM (or on SUNDAY as many do in Utah and elsewhere), you may find yourself assessing whether you should turn around and go back to the station you passed 25 miles earlier or move ahead to the larger city that's 40 miles down the road. If my fuel light just came on but I haven't yet switched to reserve then I may well confidently head to that station ahead rather than retrace my route. I know that I have at least 60 miles when the light comes on, and around 40 when I have to switch to reserve.

I HATE backtracking! So boring...

Then again, we have AAA towing as a backup (hehehe).

Safe riding everyone!! Hope this helps for a future ride or tight squeeze scenario...

The tank will hold 5.75 gallons when stuffed to the rim of the fuel cap opening.

I did a loop up in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho to view the eclipse and logged over 55 MPG for the 400 mile loop! My speeds were mostly under 70 MPH at elevations of 4500' and higher, topping more than 7000'.

I was super stoked to see that kind of MPG while riding solo in cooler temps. That would give me a range of nearly 320 miles on a single tank of fuel!