ZZR600 people - anyone ever run to empty?

[Russell]

Today I ran the bike to the bottom of the red on the fuel guage and still only put 15.8L of fuel in... anybody know how many L's the tank holds? (I know the spec says 18L, but I also know that some tanks don't draw from absolute bottom so you can't necessarily get 18L out of them)

Just wondering how far I can push it without actually having to do the walking myself

[Colette]

Don't forget you have reserve fuel, or did you mean that you ran it to empty on reserve?

I think Ty did some figures on this earlier this year and might have some info for you.

[ty]

I've never ran it dry - but I have filled up with 17.5 ltrs
Mine tends to hit reserve a bit past half way into the red on the fuel gauge (ie bit less that half way into the red from E) - and it shows empty at about 16ltrs consumed (ie 2ltrs left). Reserve is at 13.7 I think

I generally get around 230-240kms before reserve (used to get 260, so I guess I'm pushing it harder ) After reserve you should have a good 70-80kms at minimum after you hit reserve before you're pushing it.
ty

[Russell]

I don't ever bother with reserve anymore.... I leave the fuel tap on reserve all the time now.
Before I started doing that, I needed to switch to reserve right on the start of the red line - about the 14L mark, so that lines up with ty's 13.7L reserve pretty well... for me that was about 290 km's
If you've put 17.5L in and it wasn't dry then, I've still got room to move even when I hit the bottom of the red section - another 30 odd k's...

BTW, I got 341km's out of my 15.8L yesterday... 21.6 km/L - roughly the same as what I got out of my 250 which is very surprising given what I'm doing to the poor thing

[Quarkz]

Its makes it sound like you putter that thing Russel! My mum left the choke on for a ride with me once and ran it dry, was funny as hell cos we had truckies tooting at us while we were stranded at an exit ramp roundabout to the highway. She would get about 270km before it would run out and she was not pushing that bike.

[Russell]

Sorry Quarkz, definitely no putterin' happening under me! I've lost count of the times I've hit the stupid rev limiter on the thing...

As I said - the fuel economy is very surprising considering how I ride...

[Duane]

Well that beats my 17ltrs to 180km

Spose the zzr is a sports tourer though!

[Quarkz]

Rev limiter! I would take my ZZR250 to the redline everytime I rode it but on the 600 that's insane! Wow, you get seriously good fuel economy. Wish I got that on the ZX6R, I have to fill up before I get to 200 clicks!

[Duane]

I have to fill up before I get to 200 clicks!

Sucks doesnt it!!

[Russell]

Rev limiter! I would take my ZZR250 to the redline everytime I rode it but on the 600 that's insane! Wow, you get seriously good fuel economy. Wish I got that on the ZX6R, I have to fill up before I get to 200 clicks!

On the roads I ride on (mostly crappy NSW country roads) high speed simply isn't an option... so I just get to "appropriate" speeds in the shortest possible time

I'll admit that I don't ride like that ALL the time, but often enough that I didn't expect to be getting 21.6 km/L

[ty]

When I first got the bike I was getting around 21-22km/ltr - bout the same as the GPX 250.
Lately though I've been getting around 17-18 though that could've been the worn cam chain and shims etc, it could also have been the weather. I'll find out how it goes from now on.

I've only ever had to switch to reserve right at the start of the red section once - that was going downhill
ty

[Mizz ZZR]

The book says the total tank is 18 litres, and 4.2 of those are reserve.

I've only ever run it to reserve twice, first time I got 314 km, second was 294.

Both times, never had a chance of turnin the bloody switch while I was mobile, so hadda pull over.... The design of them sucks!

[Russell]

Both times, never had a chance of turnin the bloody switch while I was mobile, so hadda pull over.... The design of them sucks!

Which is why I now leave mine on reserve (although the times I have switched I did it while moving )

The way I figure it, why do you need reserve when you've got a fuel guage? Fair enough if you never LOOK at your fuel guage, but that isn't me...

On my particular commute, I usually hit reserve within 10k's of leaving home... 20k's from the nearest resonably priced, clean petrol. So if I'm going to be switching to reserve every third day I may as well leave the bugger there because I'm not filling up every second day

[Colette]

The fuel gauge isn't always 100% accurate I have found, especially as the fuel gets towards the bottom of the tank. It'd be good if it had one of those low fuel warning lights like my car has!

[MickLC]

Fuel gauge? What's that?