Dry Duke

This is not about the Duster but my other vehicle. The KTM Duke 390. I don't ride it often. In more than a year and a half I have barely clocked 4K plus. I will write down a unique experience I had with it recently. I do not know the technical reason for it. Will have to find out. But here goes the story. 

The other day while going somewhere with Monisha I noticed the dash initially showed low fuel level. It has an electronic, LED back lit fancy dashboard. I was a little worried and thought to fill up the tank at the first pump. But soon the number of bars picked up and the low fuel level alarm was also off. So I thought I would fill the tank later. 

Last evening, one day after Modi banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, I thought I would spend a Rs 500 note at the pump to fill up my tank (in the morning I had used two Rs 500 notes to fill the Duster tank). Petrol pumps are still allowed to accept those big notes (I guess till tonight) and I have a few of them. But the bike wouldn't start. It was showing low fuel level once again. I tried my luck a few times but it just did not start. The ignition was working but clearly there was no petrol. 

The only good thing about this was I took the bicycle out and went for a 10 km evening ride to and from Buro's shop in Jadavpur. Here is the activity

Later I read somewhere that the trick to start the bike is you open the lid of the tank and keep it open for some time, like half a minute. Then lock it back and start. It should work. This morning I did that and lo and behold - it started !!!

Apparently when fuel level is low air gets locked somewhere and the sensor is fooled to think there is no fuel. By letting fresh air in this problem is solved. Incidentally at the pump, I told them give me petrol for Rs 500 but please ensure the tank does not overflow. From Rs 460 I started getting tense. I could see the tank filling up fast. But the last drop went in exactly at Rs 500. I think around 7 litres of fuel. The Duke tank, incidentally, is ridiculously small.

But this means, when the dash was showing low or zero fuel there was actually about 5 litres of fuel in the tank !!!