On yesterday's ride I came close to empty for the first time on the Pikes Peak. The fuel light started flashing along with the smaller red fuel symbol on the LCD dash. The range to go became a series of dashes rather than the countdown. There were moments when normal service was resumed but these were only for a minute, if that, at a time. Is this a symptom of fuel strip failure? Filling the tank resulted in the fuel gauge working as usual again for the rest of the trip. Ironically the day before this ride I'd added the Motorex Ethanol Treatment as recommended by @freshage for the first time.
When I had a fuel sender unit fail, it simply registered incorrect levels of fuel (on my first 1200). How much fuel was left? As I think at < 10 miles it will not register the level which could be what you was seeing on the dash. As I have ridden to almost empty and got dashes (---) as a range estime rather than a figure. I've never had any odd behaviour from the ethanol treatment and only put it in amongst a fresh tank of fuel and I only do this once, maybe twice a year (mostly when I store it for winter).
On my old 1260 I ran it to zero once, not intentionally but was on a motorway and just made it off to a nearby petrol station, thankfully only a couple a miles further on. Bike was definately showing signs of running dry There was nothing but a countdown to that zero reading. Odd thing was the bikes only took 13.9 litres despite showing close to reserve on the gauge prior to the anomaly I experienced. I've had this issue of perceived reduced range with the PP since buying it. However, I'd done 150 miles by the time I filled up. This was a splash and dash as my riding buddies were waiting so maybe not brimmed, even so 13.9 litres is nowhere near the 21 litres of an empty tank... I did follow the instructions on the bottle for a shock treatment of 20ml per 10 litres. I'll plug in the OBDStar when I can find the time to see if anything was logged.
mine started playing up recently too and would work one minute then show empty or what I thought was incorrect next. I got sick of it playing up and just ordered the latest G ref fuel sender. really easy to replace and cost me £150 for the sender, all been great again last few rides. will only keep playing up more over time so just replace it buddy with latest unit.
