Fuel’s gold
Blackstock finally figures out the fuel gauge
I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT the Tracer’s fuel-gauge ‘issue’ before; with the last bar flashing frantically at me, I’ve only ever been able to squeeze 13 litres to the very brim of the — quoted — 17-litre tank and wasn’t sure why. Now I know…
Matt suggested draining the tank and re-filling to see what it would take. So I did. The last run when testing the budget kit for this issue (page 84) I deliberately ran it as low as I dared. I bought a drainer and managed to get another mouthful out before re-filling.
Using a measuring jug, I then put 17.2 litres back in, one litre at a time. So I’d say this means a capacity of, indeed, 17 litres (though in reality, it’s clearly a little more).
But what surprised me was how long it took the last bar to stop flashing; I checked after every litre I put in and it was five before the final bar went solid. So the potential issue here is the safety margin built in by Yamaha. When the bar starts to flash, there’s still five litres — or at least 60 miles-worth — of juice still in there. It’s worth knowing.
Something else I discovered this month is how effective the Yamaha Touring screen is. Measuring in-helmet sound levels for the same feature, I found it was 6db quieter on the higher position. That might not sound much but it’s a logarithmic scale, so a change of -6db means 1/4 of the sound pressure. It’s quiet a difference (see what I did?)…