Fuel gauge behaviour, new Owner Question

[jc_bromley]

Hi, I've recently bought an 1150GS. yesterday the fuel gauge went from showing 80% (ish) full to no bars at all and the orange fuel light showing. It did this just after I'd turned the ignition on, and hadn't even started the bike!
The situation now is that there are no bars showing and the orange light is on. I'm guessing this may be due to low fuel and the fact that the bike seems to lean to the left a lot on the sidestand.
The manual says that there should be 2 bars showing when the light comes on, so I'm confused as to whether this is normal behaviour or if there is something amiss.

Am I not understanding how it should work or should I start looking at something?

Cheers ;-)

 

[sproggy]

The fuel gauge is designed to work with the bike upright. It will always read low when the bike's on the side stand because, from memory, the sender is on the right hand side of the tank. They read quite full for a good distance before the gauge starts to drop, like most bikes - it's not linear.

Put the bike on the centre stand (or ride it) and try again.

 

[Steptoe]

Have you tried putting some fuel in it before you start delving ? My gs shows no bars and the orange warning light doesn’t come on until a few miles after the bars disappear. But bare in mind no two GS’s read the same way. but I’ve never seen a GS where the light comes in with two bars showing.

 

[Paul Young]

This is normal for the GS tank as there are two distinct sides and they only connect at the rear of the tank. When driven, the pump in the right side draws fuel and it balances between the two sides until the fuel level gets low. Then the fuel in the left becomes isolated and cannot be drawn by the fuel pump. Leaned on the stand, some from
the right will move across to the left and the fuel level sensor in the right side cannot read it. The GSA tank overcomes this to some extent by having a crossover pipe

 

[jc_bromley]

Cheers all, I now know what to look out for when the tank gets low....;-)