Helge Pedersen, famed adventure rider and author of "10 Years on 2 Wheels," took some time during GlobeRiders’ recent ‘Africa Adventure,’ to film a handful of informative ‘Tips from the Road.’ In this installment, Helge gives us some tips on fuel consumption and conservation.
Running low on fuel is worrisome and running out of fuel is never fun. Here’s a few tips so you can avoid these kinds of fuel issues.
– You can use leaded fuel in your motorcycle if you are traveling in a part of the world where that is the only kind of fuel available.
– The catalytic converter can be damaged by using leaded fuel, but it won’t stop you from riding your motorcycle.
– Learn the "range" of you bike, and how far you can travel with a full tank of gas under different circumstances.
– Learn how to use your bike’s trip computer and zero-out the trip odometer every time you fill up with gasoline.
– Carry a siphon tube, or short hose to be able to siphon gasoline when necessary.
"While riding through Namibia during GlobeRiders Africa Adventure, I needed some fuel. I pulled in here to a rather remote gas pump and filled up. You don’t always have a choice of gasoline, but this time I was lucky as they had unleaded 95 available. If you find a place where they only have leaded gasoline, don’t freak out and think that you cannot put it in your motorcycle. Nothing is going to go wrong. The only thing is that the catalytic converter can be coated with lead and it might not work as well, but it’s not going to stop you in your tracks. You’ll still be able to ride. I’ve done it before.
Monitoring gasoline consumption is very important also, because here in Africa we have been going on some rough, rough roads and the other day the gauge just got stuck. It looked like I had a lot of gas and I really didn’t have that much. I made it a habit many years ago to always zero out my trip counter, so that every time I fill up I have a trip counter 1 and 2. I’ve dedicated number 1 to be my monitor system for the gasoline. I really encourage you to learn how to use the trip counter. Learn the consumption of your engine under different conditions and know when it’s getting close to the end and act accordingly and get gas wherever you need to.
Another thing you can do is to carry extra fuel cans. I have some of these Touratech canisters so I can carry an extra gallon of fuel. I can juggle between water tanks and gasoline tanks. Another tip is to always carry a tube and a hose, because if you want to transfer gas it’s very nice to have a way of siphoning it out. If you don’t have a tube it doesn’s matter how much gas someone might have, you can’t get it into your tank.
So that’s a few of the tips from GlobeRiders Africa Adventure about gasoline this time. Have safe riding and hope you never run out of gas."
-Helge Pedersen, GlobeRiders
Stay tuned for the next GlobeRiders ‘Tips From the Road’