If a speedo is off it could land you a ticket, or put you in the bad graces of a Peterbilt behind you that is trying to do 75 in a 75.
If your ammeter is wrong you could be on the verge of electrical meltdown with no clue.
Oil pressure gauge looks good while the pump is failing? There goes a few grand in motor rebuild.
I can't understand why we put up with gauges lying. I'd rather have old school no gauge than pay for something that gives bad info.
It's Pavlovian in Americans anyway to be forgiving of fuel gauges that are all over the map. Car companies told us for decades the favor they were doing us making sure we had a "few" gallons left when we started bumping up against E. Before the advent of data point collection systems when it was a float on a wire hanger doing the reporting I could understand the inconsistencies but it's become gospel that fuel information is supposed to skew on the side of having all kinds of spare gas. If that malarkey weren't bad enough here we are making excuses for a manufacturers failure to deliver and not only excusing that kind of shoddy workmanship but defending it.
I call BS. I'm a big boy and can do my own math. I sure don't want or need Victory or Ford to babysit my fuel fill up habits. As far as protecting the pump, bigger snake oil salesmen than Victory have dragged out that old saw. If that pump is that dicey, what the bejeezus are they doing putting it in a gas tank? It needs its own little coolant jacket or at the very least it shouldn't be relying on continuous immersion in boom juice to keep it functional. Pop was born, just not yesterday. Look here Vic. Either give it to me straight or don't waste my time.
A product manufacturer should understand that the place not to screw the pooch is the user interface. If Victory can't engineer a solution to the relationship between a gauge the user reads and a tank that contains what is between the user and a walkabout, then they need new engineers not mumbo jumbo. I don't tell my customers that "close is good" or " that's just how it is". I tell them that if it meets spec but they are not happy then I will find out what it's going to take to meet expectation and will give them options, or if it doesn't meet spec, I'll fix it on my nickel. Period.
Maybe this is one of those " it would cost us an extra fifty dollars a unit to implement a programming algorithm to correct for typical tank profiles" to which Pop says "OK, tack 100 onto the price. I'm good with you boys making a half a yard extra for providing me accurate data instead of feeding me crap for chump change."
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I got a Cross Country Tour. It's a 2012. It's red. I done some stuff to it and will do some other stuff, but there's a bunch of stuff I don't care to do.
I know some stuff but there's a bunch of stuff I don't know. There's a mess of stuff I don't want to know but gratefully I have forgotten a lot of that.
Show me a bike manufacturer that has accurate gauges. When I get to 3/4 empty is time for a break as well as a fillup. No big deal. Lots of gas stations around. I'm certainly not getting stressed out over the accuracy of my gas guage.
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2012 Cross Country Tour, Pearl White
I have run my tank down to the low fuel light 3 times now and the tank took about 4.2 gallons to fill it up each time. This was around the 170 mile mark on two of those fill ups but one was at about 135 miles but still roughly a little over 4 gallons to fill it up so go figure! My cheap little suzuki has no fuel gauage but the low fuel light comes on at around the 170 mark every time (bike gets about 52 mpg's).
This might be by design because the fuel pump is cooled by the gas in the tank. Run it too low too often and the fuel pump will fail.
Mine does about the same thing and I know to use both the mileage and the gauge to determine when I should get gas. The gauge is consistent so it is reliable for me.
I also use the mpg gauge to determine how many miles I have left on a tank of fuel. If I have been hot rodding it too much or just doing mostly in town riding; my mileage has gone down.
what did you guys before they had gas gauges on motorcycles?,, i dont need some dumb ass light to tell when i need gas ,lol , simple 40 mpg, 160 miles, gas time, i can go extra miles if i have to,
i dont like xr gas gauge. drops way too fast, so i dont use it
spoons
People talk about having a $20K bike and the gas gauge isn't accurate.
People who buy a $150K Porsche Turbo get a gauge that won't move from empty if you only pump a few gallons. (this anomaly is written about in the owner's manual) The gauge is absolutely accurate from full to empty, but doesn't move at all when 3-4 gallons are added at empty. (and, that's nearly a quarter of a tank!) Anyone care to explain why a company with the engineering credentials of Porsche designed that?
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2011 CrossRoads (D&D, PCV w/AT, Lloydz filter/cams)
2012 Can-Am Spyder
Twin Turbo Porsche 911
FFR 1965 Cobra 427
Mini S convertible
6.75 HP Toro mower
1941 Chevy hotrod truck
People talk about having a $20K bike and the gas gauge isn't accurate.
People who buy a $150K Porsche Turbo get a gauge that won't move from empty if you only pump a few gallons. (this anomaly is written about in the owner's manual) The gauge is absolutely accurate from full to empty, but doesn't move at all when 3-4 gallons are added at empty. (and, that's nearly a quarter of a tank!) Anyone care to explain why a company with the engineering credentials of Porsche designed that?
Dunno. Might go on the Porsche forum and ask to get an answer to that one.
what did you guys before they had gas gauges on motorcycles?,, i dont need some dumb ass light to tell when i need gas ,lol , simple 40 mpg, 160 miles, gas time, i can go extra miles if i have to,
i dont like xr gas gauge. drops way too fast, so i dont use it
spoons
Yep, I do the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drummer12345
I used a petcock. It was always accurate.
I completely agree.
In my mind, if the biggest issue I have with my XR is the gas gauge/speedometer, I walk away a winner. I had so many issues with my old Chief, I'm ecstatic when I can walk out to my Vic at 20 degF, press the start button and go for a 500 mile ride and only need to concern with where I'm filling up with gas and grub.
Ride safe.
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2011 CrossRoads
nascar6 pipes, PCV w/ AT, Llyodz performance filter, Llyod's timing wheel (set +4) and various other visual do dads.
Victory it's red
2004 Victory Kingpin
Big Blue
Little Blue
2011 Victory cross roads
Linear Mode
