Fuel tap on or off?

[SMOKEU]

Do you turn your fuel tap off every time you turn the engine off? What if you leave the bike for a week or 2 without riding it?

[tamarillo]

No need. If you have an old bike it is usefull if you have leaky carb or such but on newer bikes no. Would you add one to a car? Actually why do we still have them on bikes? I think just to access reserve and for maintenance issues so you can cut feul off from its gravity feed.

[glegge]

my bike has no fuel tap. so it's always on.

my older bike has a fuel tap. when it's off the road (IE not my main bike and off the road holed up in the shed) the fuel is off (eventually - when i remember to turn it off in passing).

no biggie, all that will happen is if the float needle and seat is worn, fuel can get past, into the bowl, over flow and either exit out the overflow or fill up the cylinders(!).. but if all is well - there should not be a problem.

[george formby]

Until time & wear take the toll on your rubber bits it's fine open.

[bogan]

I do on my dirtbike, not on roadbikes, some roadbikes have a vacuum valve in there anyway which means fuel only flows when the engine turns over.

Easiest way is to leave it on, if theres a puddle of fuel under your bike, start turning it off in future! Simple aye?

[Mom]

Never turn my fuel tap off, mind you it has a vacuum hose so wont let fuel out unless the engine is running or it is turned to prime.

[SMOKEU]

I've never bothered turning the tap off on any of my bikes unless I'm taking the fuel tank off or doing carb maintenance. I've just from people that they always turn the tap off as soon as they turn the engine off, especially on dirt bikes.

[ukusa]

My old 2007 Triumph America (last of the carby ones) had a fuel tap, and from memory the owners manual said to turn it off when not in use or something similar. Personally I used to only do it if not in use for quite a few days.

[nathan.read]

Vacuum hose on my fuel tap (as I discovered when I hooked up the over flow and vaccuum hoses the wrong way... definatley no fuel flows unless the engine is running so I leave the tap on.

My GN250 (back in 1987 when I owned it) was only 3 years old but leaked fuel if left on, overflowed the carb, so rather than get iy fixed (poor student) I use to turn it off when parked

[onearmedbandit]

It was common practice when I was growing up to turn the fuel off on our two stroke dirt bikes, but not on the four strokes.

[hellokitty]

I always did on dirt bikes but never on the road bikes we have now.
We always had to turn the fuel off on my Dad's bandit - if you left it on, it was nearly impossible to start, especially for a clueless girl...

[scumdog]

Do you turn your fuel tap off every time you turn the engine off? What if you leave the bike for a week or 2 without riding it?

Never.

On any bike I've had.

[Hans]

Turn it off. Just out of habit from ages ago.

[munster]

What's this fuel tap & carb of which ye speak? My bike has neither :innocent::yes:

[Kickaha]

I didn't use to bother but one fine morning I hit the starter on the Ducati I used to own and what seemed to be a litre of fuel fired out the exhaust pipe, it was caused by a needle and seat letting fuel leak past and filling up the bottom cylinder head, I was damn lucky it didn't hydraulic

A few years later I was watching a couple of guys trying to kick start a 250 2 stroke of some kind (RGV, NSR or something similar)at Ruapuna and not having much luck so they decided to try push starting at, about a second after he dropped the clutch fuel started pouring out the pipes and they stopped and stared in bewilderment while I pissed myself with laughter, same problem

But I still don't bother turning the fuel off:shifty:

[FruitLooPs]

I always turn it off these days, after bending a rod on my GSXR750 from bad floats and non vacuum petcock I learnt the hard way.. Pulled engine and replaced rod reassembled it, replacing the float valves all for two seconds to switch it off. I know what i'm doing. But yeah, if you aren't aware of a leak but have one, its probable you won't hydrolock it like me but you still end up diluting your oil pretty well which is bad for bearings, overpressure crankcase etc

I turned the taps off on my 2-strokes too, same reason - don't want a crankcase full of gas. :yes:

If you have a vacuum assisted tap and know your float valves are sound I wouldn't bother, and I would think that new fuel injected bikes are pretty much foolproof.

[fliplid]

I didn't use to bother but one fine morning I hit the starter on the Ducati I used to own and what seemed to be a litre of fuel fired out the exhaust pipe, it was caused by a needle and seat letting fuel leak past and filling up the bottom cylinder head, I was damn lucky it didn't hydraulic
:eek5: Had a similar mishap with me ancient 400/4- kicked the fekker over and oil/fuel pissed out of the crank breather... Pretty rainbow splash over the pavement outside me house... D'oh!

[Old Steve]

I turned my fuel tap off a couple of weeks ago when I removed the tank and checked the plugs. Didn't check my manual when I turned it back on, and set it on 'reserve'.

Couple of days ago my motor spluttered and stopped, I'd known I was low on fuel but thought I would have the reserve. Couldn't start her after turning the tap the other way. Luckily I was just outside a service station, so pushed her across the road and filled her up and set the fuel tap to 'on' and carried on my way.

But, no, I don't turn the fuel tap off.