Your Nightster comes stock with a 3.3 gallon tank. If you are filling up and only getting 2.2 gallons in it (and you are filling it all the way up) then you still have 1.1 gallons in the tank.

The light is like an electronic reserve, it is telling you that you are down to about 1 gallon left. It is not telling you that you are going to run out right away.

Depending on if I am in the twistys or going uphill or downhill, my light comes on between 70 and 100 miles. But I know at minimum I can go 120 miles, even if I have been hammering it. Most of the time I can go 135-145 miles on a tank regardless of when the light comes on.

 

That light is useless. After my first custom paint I started ignoring it because it would come on after filling the tank

 

I only get about 70 miles per tank on my 1991 with 2.2 gallon tank. And remember, you'll never get 2.2 into it, I think 1 mostly only get about 1.5 gallons before I hit the bottom of the filler hole. I stop there to limit possible overflow.

John

 

Had you even bothered to read your owners manual you would at least know how much fuel your bike holds. You would also know what the fuel light means. You have halfway modified your bike. If you were really interested in finding out about your fuel consumption you would take the time to record your mileage and precise quantity of fuel added and reset your trip odometer at each fill-up, so you could calculate MPG.

Then you would promptly ignore your fuel light and know exactly how much range you have left, based on odometer--read it like a fuel gauge.

 

lo-rider is correct, after filling up reset the trip mileage and ride it, next time when you fill up again Note: how much fuel you add and then look at your trip and see how many miles you rode example: 1.5 gallons added Trip 70 miles on a 3 gallon tank - would mean you could go 140 give or take a few miles per full tank to empty..

 

Well I have read it but have terrible memory. I do usually track the mileage to calculate and on average get about 38 mpg maybe a little more. I am paranoid about when the light comes on because one time before I started paying attention to the mileage etc I rode for a while after the light came on and ended up stranded about a half mile from the gas station and ended up pushing... like I said this was before I started paying attention so no idea how many miles I had or how long the light was on. But thank you all for the insight

 

I'm certain that there's something wrong with my bike. My daily commute is 50 miles round trip, all but 5 of those miles is open highway. Each day, I pump in approx 1.5 gal., which means I'm in the 33-36 mpg range.

Before I put on the V&H Straight Shot slip-ons, the SE breather and the PC3 with a map that matches my configuration, I was getting just about 50 mpg. I'm pretty sure that most of my problem is the PC3, although I'm going to give the bike a thorough going over when the temp hits bearable outside.

 

06 883. I get mid 40s around town. Upper 40s to lower 50s on the road. I put a stage one A/C on the bike a while back and the mileage did go down a bit. But the performance came way up and more than made up for the drop in MPG.