No FUEL GAUGE?!!

[galahs]

I always reset my odometer when I ill up and then look to get more petrol when it reaches 300kms. My bike can do about 350k's before I need to switch to reserve.

[facepants]

you two must have obviously never met my GF...

Best thing to do in this situation is get one of those little plastic gas cans.  Fill it up and strap it to the back.

Just check it for her and make sure it's always full.

Don't forget to tell her what it's for.

[Killermarmot]

Yup watch the trip odometer. Sometimes I still run into the reserve when I'm trying to push it and get home . I found switching to reserve on the freeway a hairy proposition so now I just get gas before I hit it   

Speaking of which...The clymer manual lists the GS's gas tanks as 5 gallons so that would mean my reserve is nearly 2 gallons (when I ran out and had to switch to reserve I put in 3 gallons.) Is this correct seems a little....big for a reserve. What do you guys all think? mine's an '01 by the way.

[Wrecent_Wryder]

S5

[Wrecent_Wryder]

[4

[pandy]

Some of these folks seem to get a real charge out of being rude, try to ignore it.

+1 Being scared in the beginning, and having to LEARN things is perfectly normal. I wish *I'd* been born knowing everything! 

My '92 would only go 100 miles between fill ups. It was one of his quirks. There'd be plenty of gas left in his tank, but he would cough, sputter, and refuse to go on unless I filled him up, but he was a cranky ol' man. He's was(is) a character!  Your gf will just have to learn the idiosyncracies of her bike. It's cool if you learn first and then teach her the gas stuff, etc, but definitely spend time teaching her so that she doesn't get stuck w/o gas somewhere.

[werase643]

don't ever go to the ford Falcon site if you can't handle Rude....they are some evil MFers

....MSF
I know it's your GF....but we all learn the little tricks of riding
I may come up with a rude comment, but I'll help ya any way I can also...with the exception of bling stuff....I have a hard time with shiney
but it works for others.

[callmelenny]

My 79 GS850 has a gas gauge

Looks kind of silly and bouces around frequently.

[WREX]

....MSF
I know it's your GF....but we all learn the little tricks of riding
I may come up with a rude comment, but I'll help ya any way I can also...with the exception of bling stuff....I have a hard time with shiney
but it works for others.

gotta agree.  bikes without gas gauges are a lot more common and manageable then people who aren't accustomed to that, think.  monitoring the mileage to get a feel of the range is not beyond anyone capable of managing a 2 wheel machine in all the situations they'll be faced with when riding.  If it does become too much to manage, we'd really need to re-look at the decision to ride, imo.  msf is a great place to start building the confidence and know how.  besides, the worst that could happen is the bike starts to die, and the rider carefully pulls over, flips the reserve switch and off to the gas station (if they can't do it without stopping) - again, not too much to manage considering all the other things that riding brings.  it'd be like getting intimidated when first learning to drive stick and years after having learned, looking back and thinking - that was really no big deal.  I know I'm echoing what's been said, but thought I'd add anyway.

it's true there are a hundred ways to say the same thing, but just to qualify, werase has helped out a lot of folks over the years - myself included a few times when I needed. 

and you know that secretly you love the bling... 

[werase643]

I like a different kinda bling...

i'll post pics shortly of some of the kewl bits I have aquired over the years
not shiney....but i think $500 Yosh rearsets will look right blingy on my turd

[pandy]

I could buy 2.5 ratbikes with $500.00!!