How to Measure Mileage of a Motorcycle With a Reserve Tank

A reserve tank is a convenient feature if you're trying to measure your motorcycle's fuel efficiency. If the motorcycle has a manual device for switching from the main tank to the reserve tank, you can measure your motorcycle's gas mileage by refueling in a consistent manner and by keeping a few numbers in a log.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Fill your motorcycle to full. To help ensure that you're putting the same amount of gas in each time, squeeze the handle on the fuel pump only until the first "click."
2. Keep track of your miles traveled, starting from when you leave the gas station. If you have a trip odometer, set it to zero; otherwise, write down in a log book (or just on a piece of paper) the number of miles on the regular odometer before starting.
3. Ride until your main gas tank is empty. The motorcycle engine will then stop.
4. Write down the number of miles on your trip odometer or the current regular odometer reading. Then switch over to your reserve tank and find a place to refuel.
5. Refill your main tank until the first click of the pump handle. When you finish fueling, write down the number of gallons from the pump display.
6. Divide the miles (either the trip odometer reading or the difference between the two regular odometer readings) by the number of gallons it took to fill up the main tank. This is your motorcycle's fuel efficiency in miles per gallon.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to measure highway mileage, make sure you do the vast majority of your riding for the measurement on a highway at a typical highway speed.
• By doing this measurement a number of times and averaging the results, you can reduce the influence of errors.
• You don't need to run the main tank empty to do this measurement. Just ride some distance and then return to the gas station and fill up the tank.
• If possible, use the same gas station and the same pump for each refueling when doing this measurement.
• Try this measurement for different fuel grades to see if using a higher-octane fuel might actually save money in the end.
• Different regions (and even different gas stations) may have different additives in their gasoline. These additives can affect gas mileage, so use the same station for refueling during the measurement, if possible.