gz250 mileage
 

I was just wondering since the gz250 doesnt have something to show you how much gas you have if someone knows the range is when the motorcycle is almost empty

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Most of us reset the trip meter eveytime we fill up. Do that and when you switch to reserve, you have your tank range. Most of the people on here are getting 60-70 mpg. I get around 55. Just depends on your location and riding habbits.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Not exactly sure I understand the "almost empty" part of the question but.......
I was able to go 150 miles without hitting reserve; since I never ran it completely empty, I don't know how much reserve is good for. My guess is 30 miles, minimum.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

The gas tank holds 3.4 gal. total volume, reserve capacity is 0.8 gal. If you're getting 60 mpg, that translates to 45-50 miles 'till empty when it quits.
To be safe, you should refill it at 30-40 miles after switching on reserve, or, even better, at the next gas station. Then you're good for another 140-150 miles and then you have to do it again.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Refill as soon as you hit reserve. I get usually 150 miles in the "on" position. Don't forget to put the valve back to the "on" position.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Actually my advice is to do that once or twice and THEN watch the trip odometer and fill up just a bit BEFORE that mileage. That eliminates the second problem and gives you a little extra cushion should there be a problem finding a station. :tup:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

I'm running mine dry on this tank of gas to see what my real MPG is. So far, I have 244 miles on my 2001 GZ250. I haven't had to switch over to reserve yet. I'm kinda nervous about it running out of gas and stalling on me, will it give me time to reach down and switch to Reserve?? or do I have to pull the clutch in and shift to Neutral to be able to use that arm?? LOL
http://s4.postimage.org/ReALr.jpg

Love this forum, been reading it for a month. I bought my bike a month ago and it had 1,490 miles on it, I've put 500 miles on it riding back and forth to work everyday. I have to admit though that I'm seriously wanting to upgrade to a bigger engine, mine only gets up to 70 going downhill!! LOL

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Welcome,With a little practice you can reach and switch to reserve when you feel the bike stumble and keep on your way to the nearest service station.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Absolutely agree with the practice suggestion. Start with being able to find the petcock while you are stationary.Learn just where to reach without having to look down. Once you have that, then head out on the road and practice switching back and forth main to reserve and back again. No need to change gears or anything else.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

I find it hard to believe that you have gone 244 miles and haven't hit reserve yet. Like I posted before up above on here, the total capacity of the tank is 3.4 gal, reserve is 0.8 gal, that means 2.6 gal used before you need the reserve. 244 miles on that 2.6 gal would be 93.8 mpg. Nobody gets that except coasting downhill in neutral.
Maybe you didn't reset your odometer correctly, you should be running on reserve at about 150-170 miles if you're getting 60-65mpg like the rest of us on here. If you are already on reserve and are getting 70 mpg you will be pushing the bike to a gas station pretty soon.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

I thought it was a 3.7 gallon tank with .7 as a reserve.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

It's 3.4 gal total capacity for the GZ250, 3.2 gal for the TU250.
And 224m/3g (before you hit reserve) = 81 mpg, which is still way over what most people are reporting on a consistent basis. What is advertised and what is reality often do not match.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Service manual says: 14L(3.7/3.1 US/Imp gal) Including reserve.
Reserve:2.9L(0.8/0.6 US/Imp gal)

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Likely that he is already on reserve and doesn't realize it.

It has been a LONG time since we mentioned how the petcock lever is mis-leading.
I suspect that when he is out, there will be no recovery.

There is a tiny arrow on the lever that points to the active position; it is also the long part of the handle, which should "cover" the label for the position you are on.

[NOTE: the above has been corrected to avoid giving out bad information to future readers of this thread. That will make some of the following posts seem rather strange. Sorry for the confusion. ]

Re: gz250 mileage
 

He may not have it set on reserve ER, the other possibility is the tube fell of the petcock like it did on mine and was sucking straight from the bottom the whole time, (it sucks how you find that out too).

Re: gz250 mileage
 

WRONG!

The "tiny arrow" IS on the longest part of the lever, :roll:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Your right, the arrow is pointing toward the longest part I went and looked. Pic is kinda grainy(cell phone) but its there.

http://s1.postimage.org/HuCYA.jpg

Re: gz250 mileage
 

From the Suzuki site, (and I don't think the specs or size of the tank has changed), and this is what it said in my '99 owner's manual if I remember correctly--

Final Drive DID 520V, 110 links
Fuel Tank Capacity 13.0 L (3.4/2.9 US/Imp gal)
Ground Clearance 125 mm ( 4.9 in)

The number quoted here as 3.7 gal is in the service manual on this site and that manual is dated 1998. I don't know when or if anything has changed since then.

And let's not do this fuel petcock thing again forever - the LONG ARM points to where you want to go and it has the arrow on it. Look in the owners manual, page 7, and on multiple posts on here for diagrams and pictures. ER is wrong on this one (again).

Re: gz250 mileage
 

You are right as the back side of the petcock cannot point to prime.I read specs on 2009 ad.It has 3.7 and3.4 on the same page.It also states the G.Z. as having 2 valves insted of 4 valves. W.T.f.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

And the manual for mine (european) says 13.0 litres, 14.0 litres for Canada. Seems someone in Japan doesn't realise that a litre is the same all over the world. :oops:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Well, I finally ran out of gas last night at 274.9 (See picture) then switched to Reserve and only got about 1 mile before it started sputtering (Thank god, I was right at a gas station, so I whipped it in and filled it up with 3.7 gallons)

Soooo, if I reset the odometer correctly the last time I filled up, which I believe I did, then I got 275 miles out of that tank of gas... 275 divided by 3.7=74.32 MPG...woohoo!!! :2tup:

BTW, This is a 2001 GZ250 if that tank size is different from other years.

I'm going to try this again with the full tank of gas I have now, I DID RESET TO ZERO when I filled it up with 3.7 gallons of Chevron 87 with Techron ;)

BTW, I'm a WOMAN :neener: but I haven't been driving downhill in Neutral, but I haven't been Driving It Like I Stole It either, just normal city driving back and forth to work (30 miles each way)

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Switched to reserve, then only got 1 more mile out of it?

This seems to firmly point to the fact that the pipe has come off the petcock (in the tank)

What happens is that inside the tank, the petcock has a pipe (open at the top) When in "run" the bike uses fuel until it drops level with the top of the pipe, when no more fuel can go into the pipe. Switching to "reserve" opens an outlet level with the bottom of the tank, which means that the fuel sitting under the top of the pipe can now flow. So,you can see that it's more of a way to let you know that you're low on fuel. If the pipe come adrift, then you are using all the fuel in the tank before it cuts out. You were lucky to get that extra mile. It seems like it's a common fault with the GZ. It's not a difficult job to repair it. It just means removing the petcock, retrieving the pipe out of the tank, & refitting it. You might want to wait until the tank is nearly empty, then set the petcock to "prime" to empty the tank into a suitable receptacle.

BTW if you want to take the tank off to do the job, again, it's really simple. :2tup:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Wow thanks alantf. I was wondering why I only got 1 mile out of the reserve? I've removed the gastank twice already - once to replace the sparkplug, which I later learned I could have done with the gas tank on and the other time to get the carb off so it could be cleaned. Would that have caused the pipe to fall off?

Re: gz250 mileage
 

We have smaller liters so we can buy more of them at an inflated price. :lol:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Quite possibly :)

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Your mileage is really good, at the upper end of what everyone else is getting, probably because of your conservative riding habits. which is good. Just use up most of the gas, I would say 200-225 miles, then empty the tank and remove the petcock and fish out the tube that came off and refit it back on.
Search on here for this problem and you'll see what it looks like or use this diagram from the Ron Ayers parts fiche --
http://fiche.ronayers.com/Index.cfm/Mod ... /FUEL_COCK
If you don't fix that, one of these days you will run out of fuel and be stuck somewhere.
And use your odometer to refuel at every 150-200 miles or so to be safe, just make sure you reset it each time you fill up.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Wish I'd said that.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

The worst thing is...no filter.

Fix it now to avoid trash problems.

BTDT

Re: gz250 mileage
 

thought about not having a filter earlier. crossed my mind to put a small in line filter on there.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Admitted that my memory failed me on this one......but the point was made anyway.
I am sorry that I am not perfect; never claimed that I was.

AND you and I have been pretty cool lately; the (again) was totally unnecessary and served no useful purpose except to inflame the discussion.

Since I saw no smiley, I then must assume that you are just being a PRICK again. Do you REALLY want to do this again ?????? :skull:

I sure don't. :cry:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Others have commented on the proper position of the "switch" (some not so nicely) but you have not. I assume that means that you WERE doing it right ????

We've had several folks come here who were not. :)

Re: gz250 mileage
 

"You will, my dear Oscar, you will!" Attributed to a friend of Oscar Wilde :roll:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

[quote=Easy Rider]Others have commented on the proper position of the "switch" (some not so nicely) but you have not. I assume that means that you WERE doing it right ????

We've had several folks come here who were not. :)[/quote:2nh7f9ri]

I'm assuming that if I DIDN'T have it in the proper direction, that I wouldn't have got 275 out of the Reserve (opposite direction) :tongue:

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Slow down - relax a little.
There gets to be something lost in the written word compared to voice communication. And I left out the friggin smiley - whooo - That makes me a PRICK? WTF is wrong with you? There was no intent to "inflame" any discussion, what I meant (and what I said) was that you were wrong about this for the second time - we had this discussion once before on here about a year or so ago, you got it backwards then as you did now. That's AGAIN. OK? Nothing wrong with what I said, something wrong with your perception of reading it. Sorry you misinterpreted my intent and you chose to react this way. Peace to you anyway - go out for a ride. :) :) :roll: :cool: :cool: :) :) :) :) :) :) Enough?

Re: gz250 mileage
 

No, wrong assumption.

The main and reserve are NOT two different tanks or different sections of the tank. The ON position draws fuel through a pipe that sticks up from the bottom an inch or two.......so that when the fuel draws down to the top of that pipe, and starts sputtering, there is still some fuel left in the bottom of the tank. Switching to REServe bypassed that extra pipe and draws gas directly from the bottom of the tank and uses the remaining couple of inches.

SO......if you leave it in REServe, that's exactly what will happen: you will use up ALL the gas in the tank and when you then run out, you are completely OUT.

Getting that much mileage without moving the switch means either that the "ON" tube is loose OR that you had it on REServe all the time.

MANY riders mis-interpret what the correct position IS......and some don't remember it after they know (me) !! The tiny arrow points to the active position.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Well, I certainly don't remember THAT. Reference ??

Sorry if I over-reacted. It is somewhat of a conditioned response.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Help me out here.

I went back and looked; searched for "petcock" and "Easy Rider" (yes, you can do that with ONE search by filling in both boxes) and did not see any posts where I got it wrong before.

Am I overlooking something ??

Re: gz250 mileage
 

I finally remembered to look at my petcock (I don't know why I laugh everytime I type or say that word) and I WAS riding with it in the RESERVE position. Soooo, I switched it to the proper position, my question now is...I've got 180 miles on this tank of gas, I want to run it dry again to see if I get 75 MPG like the last tank...sooo, does the reserve fill back up when I switched to RUN? or is my Reserve tank now empty?? Hope that made sense?? I just don't want to get stranded on empty.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

No separate tank. Run lets you use the 2.6 gals to start, once you turn it to res. you are running on the remaining .8 gals of gas that is in your tank. If you run out on res you are OUT of gas. Riding on run,then runing out of gas and then switching to res lets you know you need gas real soon.

Re: gz250 mileage
 

Reserve is just the bottom of the tank,not a separate tank.At 180 miles you should soon run out and need to switch to Res.Res will give you plenty to get to gas station