firstly, the fuel gauge only comes on when there's about 3.5 liters (0.925 gallon)left according to the manual.

next i want to take this chance and share my experience with all of you

my bike, 2004 600f4i, has a 18 liters (4.755 gallon) tank
filling up the tank with the bike on its center stand/fuel gauge appeared
usually takes about 14~15 liters (no more than 3.962 gallon)

from a full tank, i can travel about 210 km (130.49 miles) before the fuel gauge appears
and by the time i have reached the bottom bar..
total traveled distance is about 240 km (149.13 miles)

because price of fuel is differ around the world
so maybe it's more meaningful if we compare
mileage traveled on a full tank or miles per gallon

 

my theory is that if the bars start to show and you have .98 of a gallon. just base it off your avg mpg as its only 2 tenths from one gallon. and thats how much you have left.

 

So if you take the .98 gallons and then add the .2 gallons back in and then multiply that by your average miles per gallon which is the miles gone after filling up your tank then you divide by the square root of pi......Is that the right way?
J/K normally i just fill up if i get to the reserve bars.

 

After my reserve bars come on just the other day i made it about 45 miles before i made it to a gas station, scared me and never expected to make it but i did of course all my bars were flashin by then and they had been for about 15 miles. someone said u had about 12 miles left that aint even close.

 

It looks awesome when ur stoned & ur friends hair is on fire. It's more funny when u meet him the next day & he's missing half an eyebrow[sm=laughat.gif]

 

hey mang, pass the crack pipe! dude you can get over 40 miles when ur reserve comes on. ive gone over 10 miles after all the bars are blinking.

 

All I know is I have had my reserve come on when I was halfway into the Hoosier National Forest. NO GAS ANYWHERE. It usually comes on between 125-130 miles. I had all bars flashing when I finally got to podunk USA gas station that charges $3.25 a gal. And I was happy to pay it. I can't remember what the actual mileage was when I stopped for gas. I just remember that I couldn't see fuel in the tank.

From then on I plan on gas at 125mi.

 

There is no guarantee that the fuel system will feed every last drop of fuel to your engine. Your engine could die with fuel still left in the tank...

 

When my bars come up I figure that I have 30-35 miles left to be safe. If you take it easy you could get over 45...maybe. Its not good to run it down to the last drop unless you have to because all the little sediment and particles at the bottom of the tank will get sucked into the fuel system. I usually fill up as soon as I can when I see the bars.

 

I believe this is another urban myth. The pump on the F4i feeds from the lowest part od the tank. The fuel pickup does not move. No matter if the tank is full or empty it still pulls from the same spot. If you have sediment in your tank, it dosent matter ir the tank is full or not. Hopefully your fuel filter will take care of anything large enough to foul the injectors. It's not good to run it empty because the fuel pump uses fuel to cool itself. No fuel means a pump will burn out quicker.