Low Fuel indicator and poor performance
Twice now, I have gone about 100 miles on a tank of gas and the low fuel indicator came on as expected. What was not expected was the back firing and poor performance of the engine after the indicator came on. I notice that if I did not accelerate the engine ranfine. But if I twisted the grip, It sputtered and backfired?? After filling the tank, it ran great.??
Both times, I only put about 2.8 gallons of fuel in the tank, it should have had a least ½ gallon left.
What is going on???

 

How new is the bike? Your bike will not get optimum gas mileage until after the break in.

 

mine kinda did that......it less now when i run a higher grade gas and after break in.....its like it doesnt like suckin off the bottom off the tank......

 

my low fuel light came on at 90 miles until i hit about 600 or so miles on the odometer.. now i get about 130-150 miles before it comes on and can still only squeeze in about 2.5 - 3 gallons...

never had a problem of being sluggish tho.

 

Just over 3000 on my 1200C. Was averaging right at 42 miles per gallon, indicator came on averaging right around 125 miles, and it took about 2.5 gallons to fill up. Noticed that on extremely hot days when I drove it to work, let it sit all day, and then started home, it sputtered at idle, and a couple of times died when taking off from a start.
Living on gravel roads, a buddy suggested taking the air filter off for a cleaning. It was pretty dirty, now have a spare that I can swap out a clean one with, clean the one just removed, and set it up for the next use.
During the Sturgis trip, we filled up at a wide variety of stations, and with different grades of gas. It ran better, with better MPG at the Mobil stations with 91 octane, was so-so with 89. At one stop, the highest they had was 87. I carry fuel drops for situations like that, dropped some in, and it actually ran great.
Drove it in to work on Monday, and after sitting all day, it sputtered again at idle/take offs until I had it "warmed up".

 

re sputtering; could you have a bit of water in your tank causing the problem? maybe you got the bottom dregs of some gas at a station with a bad water separator. Just a thought.

 

I have over 3,000 miles on the 07. My milage varies a lot. It is from around 40 to as high as 54 mpg. I live in Phoenix and in the city on a hot day, the milage sucks. But on the hwy, I can get in the low 50's. It never misses a beat until the low fuel light is on??

 

My '07 has never done that with or without the low fuel light on. I use the highest octane available wherever I'm topping off and I'm probably mostly broken in with 800 miles on it. I'd totally drain the tank, refill with recommended octane, and if it happens again, get it to a mechanic. Good luck!

 

This is a good post:
This week we have been in the tripple digit temps and my stock 1200N really dropped off in performance andabout 20 milesbefore the fuel indicator light came on the bike developed an occational"miss"that would occur only while idling at a light and only a couple of times.Once I filled up, the miss went away but the poor performance continues..the kick in the pants accelleration fells more like a "giddy up and go" feel. I expect this, its an air/oil cooled engine sucking in hot air..its bound to drop off.I also have to say..the quaility of fuel has really gone down hill in the past year...not that it hasn't sucked for years but here lately I have noticed my performance from tank to tank is different everytime.
When I start the bike in the morning and let it idle, I let it idle for a minute and wait for it to do its single "back spit" through the intake before I ride, otherwise it will "back spit" while I am ridingand it will damn near toss you off the bike.
I accept this as the nature of the beast...if I want perfect I would go drive a Lexus. But these little idiosyncracy's are what make me love my bike.

 

I've got 900 miles on my Nightster and the low fuel light has come on and when I filled it up it never took more than 2.3 gal of gas. It's usually around the 90-95 mile mark that it comes on. It's a bit annoying and I thought of getting a bigger tank, but was ridiculed here on the forum for even thinking that.