When I first bought my Blast, I was interested in knowing how far I could go on a tank of gas. Being there is not a fuel gauge or low fuel warning light, it’s kind of critical to monitor the mileage to understand how much fuel is left in the tank.
Let’s first understand how the Blast’s fuel system operates. Since there is not a fuel gauge, the Blast is equipped with a reserve tank. Now this isn’t really a separate tank, but it’s a portion of the main tank that is accessed from the Fuel Switch mounted underneath the tank. Think of two straws sticking straight up from the bottom of the tank, one of which is slightly longer than the other. The Fuel Switch determines which straw is used to access the fuel in the tank. The longer straw is used when the switch is on “main”, the shorter staw when the switch is set to reserve. The reason the engineer’s designed it this way is because there is not a fuel gauge. So if you’re riding along and the bike starts to sputter, you can switch over to reserve and continue on your merry way and get yourself to the nearest gas station.
It’s important to reset the trip odometer at every fill up so you can determine how far you’ve driven on the current tank, and estimate how much gas you have left until you need to switch over to reserve. So, let’s talk some specifics, how far can you go on a tank of gas?
- Buell Blast Tank Capacity: 2.8 Gallons
- Reserve Tank Capacity: .55 Gallons (keep in mind this is part of the 2.8 gallon capacity)
So your main tank will hold approximately 2.25 gallons. If you average just under 60 mpg as I do, you can get approximately 120 – 125 miles out of your main tank (give or take based upon your driving style for that tank). Once you switch over to reserve, you’ll have about 30 miles to get yourself to a gas station. After you fill up, be sure to reset your fuel switch back to the main setting and reset the trip odomoter.
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I learned this information the hard way after stalling many times and then seeing gas slosh around in the tank and think there is some other issue. The issue was I get about 100miles on my main tank before I need to switch to reserve. That’s with Jardine exhaust and carb jetted to match + K&N filter. Bike runs great but I have to remember the limited range. This post you did should be helpful for folks that own a Blast….thanks for posting it.
Thanks DL, glad it helped.
My reserve switch is rubbed off i cant read it where is reserve and where is on and off i got no words
Hey Nicol – It’s been over 5 years since I’ve had the bike, so I’m going off of memory here. I believe there are 3 positions on the switch. Straight up was off, forward was the normal tank, and back was for the reserve. Hopefully someone else can weigh in here and confirm.
Based off of my 2001 Buell, this information is correct.
Craig – Is it something that we can use the Reserve when we ran out of ON ? I tried to do this however it didn’t start after I ran out of gas in ON position. I turned it to Reserve and tried starting it many times but it didn’t help. What am I missing here ?
Should be able to. I’ve switched over in the middle of a ride previously when the bike started sputtering. I simply reached down and flipped the switch to reserve and I was on my way again. Are you sure you flipped it to reserve and not off? Might sound like a stupid question, but I’ve done that before as well. 😀
Straight up is off left is on right is reserve