DL1000 Fuel Tank Capacity

[Mep]

I've had my 08 DL1000 since November and after many tank fills and reading a few posts here I thought I'd refresh the issue of the supposed fuel tank capacity.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to push the limit of the tank based on the fuel gauge warnings. I rode 25 miles past the first warning flash and 10 miles past the second warning flash. I could only manage to fill up with 16 Litres when the tank supposedly holds 22. So, where is the other 6 Litres? I thought the second warning was for the last 1.5 Litres? My final reading at the pump was for 167 miles which included a good mix of motorway, open roads and a short stint on some urban roads.

I have read about filling up slowly and that there is a gap at the top of the tank. I fill up on the centre stand and stop when the pump does as the fuel is clearly visible in the neck.

[Barbel Mick]

Mines a '12 650 but it's surprising how much more you can get into the tank if, when the pump auto stops, you keep filling slowly with light trigger pressure and letting the fuel settle for a second or two when the neck fills. It does take a bit more time and it's not 6 litres worth!!! 

[Ambergnat]

Same here - I have a '12 650 which I have run dry on 3 separate occasions whilst testing tank range on my old 60 mile a day commute  - I was trying to stretch 300 miles out of her [I.e. 1 fill per week]  but she didn't want to play.

for the curious - I used to carry a litre of petrol in the topbox on these test runs to get me to a garage, and no, it didn't seem to have adversely affected the injectors or anything else

The best I got was 297, next was 285 and 282 (like most of us she was younger then ) - each time I could only get 18.5 - 18.7 litres in the tank (including the spare litre) standing the bike upright and brimming her - so there's at least a litre and a bit of space in my Glee's tank which is completely useless or nonexistent.

Which does beg the question (for me at least) has anyone on this forum managed to get 20 litres into a Glee tank in a single filling?

I assume that the same issue is true for the DL1000, but to what extent I don't know.

...It sounds a bit like the hard drive thing - they sell them as 1 terabyte, but you only get 930 gigabytes of data on it (yes I know it's 1000 Gigabit, but that's NOT what it says on the tin! and I've never heard of anyone trying to format a Glee Petrol tank...)

[pichulec]

In my KLV1000, the maximum I was able to fill was about 18 litres. But it wasn't completely empty.

[UK_Vstrom650]

I wonder if it's the claimed space filled up from the bottom of the tank without the fuel pump etc, but actual real-world use is much less. 

[Gert]

I think an easy answer to the fuel volume question, is to fill the tank as normal, then pump out the fuel into a suitable 20 litre container, that has the fuel capacity level marked on the side. If the level of the fuel, that you have just transfered to the container, is sub / less than 20 Litres then you have your answer.
How much fuel in the tank is usable vs fuel remaining in tank to cold off / lube the fuel pump, is another story that could be added to the mix.

spelling of cold is auto changed to cold

[mobytrip]

07 - 650, looking back at my records, I know what an anorak!, I fairly regularly get 18L in the tank but the most I have ever managed was 19L and it wasn't empty when I started to fill.
I usually fill until the fuel is at the bottom of the neck.

[jabmotorsport]

spelling of cold is auto changed to cold

Welcome to the party 

[Mep]

As I suspected it's not just me then.