Running out of fuel

I decided to take the 'Strumpet' (my motorbike) for a spin the other day. A few years ago I had an issue with what I think was stale fuel stuffing up the engine so I try to go for a ride more often to ensure it doesn't happen again - it also helps keep the battery charged (I have had a lot of trouble with flat batteries in the past as well). The aim was to use as much fuel out of the tank as possible so that I could get a full tank of the fresh stuff when I got back into town.
I checked the trip meter (this gets reset everytime I fill up so I know how much fuel I have based on how many km's I do) so with 98km's on the clock I thought I had enough for about 125 - 150km. Definitely enough to hit the hills and twisties near where I live and come back.

Trip out was awesome; hardly any traffic & beautiful weather so I got to my destination with a massive smile on my face and not a care in the world. Once there, my trip meter was telling me that I would still have a bit of fuel left if I were to turn around and head home so instead, I decided to head a bit further out. This turned out to be a bad decision.

After heading further out for a bit (a few more hills and twisties), I decided to turn around and head home. I live in a fairly rural area so there are only so many places to fill up - it was only after I had passed the last village that my reserve light came on. I was quite surprised at this as I thought I had a lot more fuel left. I asked myself "do I turn back and fill up or can I get home on reserve?". My reply was 'I usually get about 50km on reserve so I should be ok'. This would be another bad decision.

As the kilometers passed by, my reserve tank (indicated by 4 bars) started dropping alot faster than I thought it would. As each bar disappeared, my panic ramped up and it then dawned on me that the '50km reserve range' is for when the low fuel lights up in my car. Too far to turn around and too far from home, it hit me - I was definitely going to run out of fuel. It was an odd feeling at that point - knowing that something bad was going to happen - seeing an impending doom and not being able to do anything about it. But that growing dread suddenly gave way to a feeling of resignation and in that calm I had clarity! I decided to pull over and call home for a rescue (thankfully I had reception).

Luckily my wife agreed to drive out to deliver a small Jerry can of fuel. I was embarrassingly only 10km from home so I might have got home ok but I'd rather go for the damaged pride instead of a damaged engine (definitely cheaper in the long run!). Sadly, this is also not the first time I have run out of fuel along that road so now that I have completely cemented the fact that I am an idiot when it comes to planning rides, I will hopefully remember to do a visual check on how much fuel I have in the tank before I ride out into the middle of nowhere.

Stay tuned for when it happens again!