Extra petrol

[Oscar]

Man, been there. Coasted into a garage once. How lucky can you get.

I wondered if my TDR could get across the desert road once. Only gets 140km to a tank. Thirsty shit. But did a trip in a car and it was only 40odd kms between fuel stations.

I once did a whole tank of gas on my RD400 (3&1/2 - 4 gallons?) in 70 miles (AKLD - Te Rapa). Took me 55 minutes...

[unhingedlizard]

Arnt the worst times when you lean down to check its not on RES, only to find it is, so you turn in to ON and it starts to stutter straight away. Find it helps to reset the trip meter when you fill too. quick visual indicator of how far you've gone.

[Wolf]

Find it helps to reset the trip meter when you fill too. quick visual indicator of how far you've gone.

Only a couple of my bikes had functioning trip meters (if any at all) so I never got into that habit. Those that had working ones I did try a few times to make sure I reset at every fill but that quicklly fell by the wayside and I'd get readings like I'd done in excess of 600km since my "last" fill. No wonder I was running out of gas...

[Eurygnomes]

I always do the tripmeter thing anyway...and have started recognising the 'fill er up' distances. I've not run out of petrol in a car (though it cost me $79 to fill the other day...and it's a sodding sedan, not even a truck, running on 91!!!) yet and I don't want to do so on a bike (no roof/radio!) so I'm figuring it out.

My on/reserve switch is 'straight up or down' but I can't yet distinguish between the two and neither do I feel comfortable leaning over to look (whilst riding on motorway - for instance).

I guess it's like the pre-ride check huh, just something you should check when you put your petrol tank lid back on.

[Wolf]

My on/reserve switch is 'straight up or down' but I can't yet distinguish between the two and neither do I feel comfortable leaning over to look (whilst riding on motorway - for instance).

The positions should be labelled on the switch. Once you sort out which is which, put your gloves on, sit on the bike with your foot on the peg and practise locating the switch and determining what position it's in. You should be able to tell by feel if it's on main or reserve.

Once you have it worked out you should be able to switch modes (or check if it's on main) without taking your eyes off the road.

[vifferman]

Man, been there. Coasted into a garage once.

I did it at least three or four times on my first bike (CB175), as it was quite predictable in that it got a very consistent mileage on every tankful. Only once had to push it, and that was from a few metres from the driveway to the forecourt. Plus when it started to run out, it was so miserly that it would cough, splutter, and fart for quite w while before it actualy conked out. When the FahrtSturm did the same thing, I foolishly thought it could run on alternating cylinders for as long as the CB used to. Wrong!! The distance between telling me it was running low and stopping was a matter of less than a minute, and when it ran out, there was less than no gas - there was a small black hole.

[phaedrus]

I have a 17l tank, and my bike has a fuel gauge (no reserve). Yeah, it has a great range consequently, but my paranoia has a shorter range .

how far do you get before your paranoia starts? i've been testing to see the range of mine. the fuel gauge showed empty at about 300km i'm at about 400km now and from what i can guess there's about another 30km in the tank, this is all commuting style riding.

[number33]

Used to cart a steel 2 gallon tin on my mach111 kwaka(15 mpg@90kph) back when Muldoon closed all petrol stations on weekends, imposed carless days, and knocked the the open road limit down to 80 goddamned kph. No way to get from Turangi to Palmy weekends without a tin. Would have been 'The Flame' had I arsed off.

[Pixie]

You may actually need to do it while riding, especially if you're on the motorway. Good idea to practice doing it while sitting on the bike, even if it's not going. Otherwise you may find you switch it to "Off" instead of "RES".
Can be a bit dodgy though (depending on where the tap is) - can look like you're playing with yourself while riding along, especially if the easiest way to reach the tap is between your legs!

The VFR750 had a big knob thingo (technical term) on the lefthand fairing, connected to the tap via two cables (push and pull). Made it easy to see what you were doing.

Most modern bikes that still have fuel taps don't have an off position.The taps are vacuum operated and close automatically when the engine stops.The positions on the tap are:On;Prime and Reserve.On and Reserve are vacuum operated and Prime is on all the time so you can fill the float bowls after the bike has been drained,without cranking it on the starter for minutes on end.

My latest run out was at the bottom of the Wellsford hill,but a nice young lady let me up-end her lawn mower and drain the two stroke mix into my tank,to get me up the hill.

[Bonez]

Most modern bikes that still have fuel taps don't have an off position.The taps are vacuum operated and close automatically when the engine stops.The positions on the tap are:On;Prime and Reserve.On and Reserve are vacuum operated and Prime is on all the time so you can fill the float bowls after the bike has been drained,without cranking it on the starter for minutes on end.

Just remember to turn the tap back to "On" otherwise you could end up with a sump full of petrol. Trust me.