I had the same experience when I first got the bike. I had 1 bar left and could only get 13 litres in. The next time I went onto 1 bar I filled further up the nozzle and got 15 litres in. On a long run I let it go on the last bar for about 25 miles and then the bar and the icon started flashing (odometer read 230 miles but I had been giving it some on the motorway) - I think at this point you have 7 litres reserve. When I pulled into the garage to fill up I got 16 litres in! So if you let it run until the guage starts flashing I estimate that you have about 80+ miles to go.

sounds good - thanks for the info.

I plan to strap a fuel can to the back of the bike and ride till it splutters out - i'll post the results.

gas gauge
 

According to the manual, page 3 - 12, "Fuel reserve amount (when the fuel level warning light comes on): 6.7 litres, 1.47 imp gallon", so there's nothing wrong with your fuel gauge. It just seems like Yamaha being a bit conservative. Personally, I'd like to re-calibrate it so the last bar flashes with 2 or 3 litres left, I think that would be more realistic. As it is, you could probably do about 70 miles on reserve, with an annoying light flashing at you!

Ah...

I guess i should have read more than one paragraph of the owners manual then. Suitably embarrassed now, but at least i know my guage is right!

my question is - is it just my fuel guage which is crap or are they all like that? a shame if they are all bad as it occupies quite a bit of space on the display and if i end up using my trip meter to guage the fuel then its a right waste of space.[/quote]

In my experience all fuel gauges on bikes are crap:incon_aargh[1]: I always ride to the odometer.:icon_thumleft:

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2668/hpim1618kp0.jpg

i am Tony, 48 y old and live in Belgium and here is a foto of my bike.

the feul level warning was blinking for 75 Km so i did a refeul and put 19 liters in the tank with a total of 470 Km. that makes me happy .

tony

You've got some cool looking luggage on your bike! :headbang:

Well, another Tony! Hi there, I'm from Antwerp and my tenere is to be delivered in 2 weeks. Whats the make of the luggage (zijkoffers) as I ordered the Yamaha topcase. And is that a Yamaha tankbag?

hoi

The luggage is from Hepko-Becker, the tank bag is from Hein Gericke.
The luggage carrier was used on a Triumph Bonnevile but with a little bit of welding we made it to fit on the tenere.
good luck with your new tenere

One problem with bikes in general and especially with the Tenere's oversize and odd shaped tank is that it is almost impossible to physically place a guage inside the tank that can read the fuel level from the top to the bottom.

If you think about it, when full the level starts dropping from the area around the filler cap. When half full it is somewhere at the level of the internal hump below the filler cap and when low it is down in the lower flanks. To measure all these areas would take a very special guage/sender.

This goes some way to explain why the guage does not move for the first 70 miles or so then drops rapidly until the reserve. To put an accurate guage inside would probably include either more that one sender unit or a very complicated one that would shove the price through the roof.

Just my 2 cents worth of dribbling..