Gas mileage

At lunch today, instead of going for my usual walk in the woods behind the office, I went to fill up the gas tank on my new scooter. The gas gauge showed that I was down to a quarter tank after all. This was the first time I'd put gas in the tank since I bought the scooter. I knew how to get to the tank but I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to see the level of the gas. The first obstacle was that you have to pay first. Since the tank only holds 1.6 gallons, I gave the attendant $5 knowing that would cover the full 1.6 gallons if necessary.

As I slowly filled the tank (I didn't want it to overflow and ruin the nice new finish), I kept checking the readout of the pump. I got a shock when I saw "1.70" at one point. I thought the tank was supposed to only hold 1.6 gallons. It turns out I was looking at the price and not the number of gallons. I carefully put gas in until it reached the bottom of the filler tube (as stated in the manual). When I looked up, I saw that I'd put in 0.843 gallons! I'd put 84.9 miles on the bike since I bought it with a full tank. That means I got 100.7 miles per gallon! The scooter dealer may not have been as careful as I was and maybe he'd filled the tank up to the top of the filler tube. So, I may not be getting mileage that high. Now, the next time I fill the tank, I'll fill it to the same level and I'll get a better estimate of the mileage.

The other nice thing I learned was that when the gas gauge shows only a quarter tank of gas left, I know I've really got almost a half a tank of gas left. If the mileage is really about 100 miles per gallon, that means I could still go another 76 miles. We'll see. It sure was nice to get $2.65 in change from my $5.