New Rider and Loving It! QUESTION

i was riding my 2001 Suzuki Marauder VZ800.

I put about 100 miles on a full gas tank.

I needed to fill up soon but decided that i'd ride it as much as i could till the fuel runs out just to see how long i could last on one tank.

So i come to a stop light. The bike now has 104 miles on the gas tank.

all of a sudden it stalls and i couldn't start it back up.

You think it's because i ran outta gas, right?

well... all of a sudden, the electrical system goes haywire on me. I turn the bike on (the lights come on) but when i push the starter, the lights go out immediately.

After a while, the lights don't even respond. So now i'm stuck.

I push the bike into a gas station and fill up the tank BUT THE EFFING LIGHTS STILL DON'T COME BACK ON!!!!!! No electricity and the bike won't start.

push starting didn't work either.

Finally, after a while i found someone with Jumper cables. i connected it to a car battery and after about 2 minutes... the bike started back up.

i left it in neutral to thank my jumper and when i came back, the bike shut off again.

so i jumped it again (2nd time was harder than the last time), and once started, i immediately took off.

Got home and pulled out the voltmeter to check battery charge. Charge = 13.10 V.

When i got home i was able to stop and start the bike again as if nothing ever happened.

Has anyone here had similar experiences? What the hell happened?

Is this what will happen again if i run outta gas on the highway? Please HELP!

Thanks in advance

I understand you wanting to find out what you can get out of a tank, but it's a bad idea, especially on a newer fuel injected bike. The fuel pump is cooled by the gasoline that it's pumping to your throttle body. When it gets low on gas air starts to mix with the flow of gas heading to the pump, thus, less fuel flow, and more heat on the pump.

I'm guessing that you're fuel pump overheated and would not operate to protect itself, this is probably why the bike would not start. After you fooled around and let it cool for a while, everything's fine again.

Running your bike low on gas is bad all the way around, especially on that fuel pump. The best way to determine how far you can go is to pay attention at the pump and figure out your mileage. Multiply that number by the capacity of your fuel tank and voila, that's how far you can go. Once you know that number, try and stay at least 30-50 miles away from it to keep at least a gallon of gas in the tank.

Good Luck, Ride Safe.