ims reserve
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:44 am
At 259 miles, I hit reserve on my IMS tank. It took exactly 6.0 gallons of
gas to fill it back up. Figure I had at least half a gallon of reserve,
and then the "hidden reserve". I don't think my KLR would make 300 miles
on a tank of gas, but 250+ miles is still further than I'd want to ride in
one go anyhow.
Yes, 43mpg sucks for a KLR. But that's on what laughingly is referred to
as "gasoline" here in California, and is either stop-and-go traffic on
surface streets (and the wrist of my throttle hand gets a *lot* of
exercise, I don't hang around for cars to rear-end me!) or 80+mph
(indicated) on the freeway, mostly while shoving tank panniers and side
bags through the air in full burro mode loaded down with the booty from my
latest shopping spree. From a mechanical point of view everything's fine
with my KLR (clean air filter, fresh spark plug, all valves in middle of
their adjustment except for front left that is approaching too tight but
not there yet). The plug looks fine. Power is fine -- when I can shove all
that frontal area down the freeway at an indicated 90mph, there's nothing
wrong power-wise. Oil is fine -- Rotella 5W40 synthetic, changed
regularly. Dunno, what do other California KLR riders get, MPG-wise?
I still wonder about those folks who claim to get 55mpg+ (U.S. gallons) on
a KLR. Do they ride at 55mph with no luggage on the bike other than their
gut? Or is gas outside of California really that much better?
-E