1260 Fuel Tank Capacity

My 1st gen low fuel warning light routinely comes on with 7 or 8 litres in the tank. I judge the time to refuel on the mileage, usually about 150 miles if touring and about 120 miles if scratching. Andy

 

The 1260 has a 20 liter tank including a 4 liter reserve. Red starts to flash once below the 4 liter reserve.
Your numbers seem to coincide with this. Most likely, you have more fuel left (2.6 liters) than the "0 miles remaining" would indicate?

 

Mine started to stutter as soon as it reached zero which was a surprise, was expecting a bit of leeway. Luckily, by rocking/swerving/braking I made it off the M4 and to a Sainsburys with a petrol station, only about another mile further on.

 

Something fishy going on. I was on the M25 returning from a Alps trip when my tank range hit 0, as i was only 3 miles from Mimms services thought it would be OK, then the bike started to stutter and pop so managed to get off at Potters Bar and find fuel 0.5 miles away. Having filled up i only managed to get 17 litres in...

 

Ah but are the metric, imperial or US litres?

 

Temperature changes the size of petrol also I believe. Anyone done that math?

 

Most I have ever put in the 1260 is 18 litres (UK ones) and that was when it was on red and 5 miles showing to empty.
Be aware that the fuel sensor and fuel pickup is at the back of the tank so going uphill is fine - going downhill and braking can push any remaining fuel forward and the engine could cut out, not good on downhill hairpins!

 

Oh and pressure.

 

Are you sure about the positions of the sensor and pick-up? I am pretty sure I remember my dealer saying that the pick-up was in the front LHS of the tank where there is a deepish "well".

 

This is from a 1200s but I’d imagine the 1260 is the same. Fuel pick up would appear to not quite be at the bottom.

 

There might be a couple of factors at play here .

One is that the fuel pump doesn't scavenge from the "bottom" of the tank ,
or even near to it , and probably for good reason .
The pump is inside a rubber outer cover which has a filter "basket"
clamped to the lower end of it ,
so the pump intake will always be slightly higher than that point .

Second is that the pump assembly is mounted on a flange
which is higher than the lowest points in the tank .

And the added uncertainty is that the lower end of the sender unit
may also be some way above the actual fuel level .

Bike tanks are like saddle bags , hanging down either side of the centre ,
and those points are lower than the flange ( and the level sensor ) .

Newer models may be different of course , but I'm still surprised to read
that some folks barely made it to a petrol station after seeing the warning
on the instruments .

Just my two shahis worth ......

 

I ran mine at the weekend to 4 miles beyond zero on the range indicator. I filled up with 16.90lts. So if this is a 20lt tank why does it show zero at say 16.5lt and can I run it to 19lts? I had 3.5lt left from zero. Easily another 25mls with a margin.

 

For those who didnt have the pre DVT 1200's they had/have dodgy fuel senders. I used to panic at 150 miles when touring till one day in Scandinavia we struggled to find fuel and my bike was reading zero range at 150 and flashing empty but still made 175 miles and didnt require a full 20 Litres. Once the sender was replaced i generally got 175 miles a tank if commuting and about 40 less when out to play but even then still had 3 litres at least in the tank.

My second one has had the sender replaced judging by the receipts but i am still dubious of its accuracy but havent done sufficient long runs to accurately figure it out yet. I might give in and bung a 5L can on the pillion seat and run it till it coughs just to see.

Is there a common part to the sender on the 1260 or has Ducati fixed the earlier ones

 

You were lucky. On my 2010 bike I ran it dry 7 miles after it read zero. My 2012 is pretty much the same.
By contrast, i have managed to get 33 litres in my 2018 enduro (meant to be a 30 litre tank)

 

I think transparent tanks are the future....

 

I experienced a similar issue this morning. Wheeled the bike out of the garage, where the drive is fairly flat. Fuel range showed two orange bars and something like 20 odd miles. Free wheeled the bike down my fairly steep, downward slopping, drive and watched the fuel range go to one flashing red bar and 4 miles range Rode 4 miles to the nearest garage and squeezed 16.5 litres in. Temperature was about 4 degrees.

 

The Mutli fuel sender and tank set-up are notoriously unreliable, almost always giving false indications of fuel use and amount left in the tank.

One simple way to ensure you can become more confident when using the bike, amongst others, is to try to remember to zero one of the trip meters at each fill up. Then working on a sensible average fuel use per litre of circa 10 miles, you won't go far wrong, unless that is, you are constantly hammering the throttle, when perhaps you might go slightly lower.

The most I've ever put into my 1260, was earlier this year when on an EMM tour in Spain, filling up with 18.50 litres, with just about every warning light lit up like the proverbial Christmas YKW!
There were at least five of us out on a ride, all in the same position, needing fuel like crazy, and yet we all ended up in pretty much the same situation, on 1200's + my 1260 and one of the guys was on a BMW S1000XR.

 

As someone else said, petrol does change volume quite significantly with temperature.

 

Is this including filling the "neck" of the tank?

The pump clicks off, but then I dribble some more into the "neck", if that makes sense?

2019 1260