Classic fuel tank

[mickm]

Can anyone tell me the capactiy of the fuel tank on the classic? I managed to run out yesterday and could only get 16.6 ltrs in. I thought it was a 20 ltr tank. Thanks Mick

[Mick Taylor]

The handbook shows the capacity as 18 Litres.

Mick.

[johnbirchjar]

You mean you ran out of the reserve as well?.
The reserve on my Classic was good for about 30 miles,(150 on the main tank),I did a "Full to run out" on the main tank,switched to the reserve and carried on till that ran out(with a gallon in a can in the Top Box of course )I did this on mixed riding just so I would know what the old girl did on a tank full.(this was about fifteen years ago)I expect I will do the same thing with the Water Cooled engine once I have the carbs tuned to my satisfaction,(not done this with the Honda yet though)J.B.

[mickm]

Thats right J B empty zilch buggerall.fortunatly only 250 yards from the pumps on the exit road. Se had been running at 80 pmh. So they are thirsty at 5000 rpm. It's just I had expected more than 6 miles on reserve. Mick.

[johnbirchjar]

Only 6miles on reserve ,sounds like your old girl is running well rich.
What sort of colour are your exhaust pipes?(If you have been blasting along at 80mph for any sort of milage they should be a nice pale greyish colour )With that sort of colour you will get a similar sort of mileage as I did with my Classic J.B.

[johnbirchjar]

Adding to my previous post,I found that irrespective of whatever sort of speed I traveled at my Classic returned about 45 miles to the gallon,the only time this differed(that I can recall) was on one occasion traveling to a rally in Devon when we were governed by the slowest bike at a steady old 55/60mph(boring!!)then the mileage crept up to about 50mpg,(not something it did very often )J.B.

[johnbirchjar]

Continuing on,Had a bit of a run down to Devon this weekend and was well surprised, the water cooled engine returned about 50mpg over all mixtures of riding ,(There you go guys,some figures for you to compare with,45mpg for your air-cooled bikes,and 50mpg for the water-cooled jobbies ,)ride safe,J.B.