Gassing up

[Grub]

This morning as i gassed up with 98 octane at my regular BP station (cnr Kapiti Rd and SH1) using my regular technique of sitting on the bike and rocking it side-to-side so there is no air-bubble blow-back. So many of you know where this is going right.

Forecourt dude walks up and tells me to get off the bike next time. I tell him conversationally that when I do that, the trapped air blows gas out the filler, misses the catch channel around the filler and goes onto the tank where it runs down to hot engine. I tell him that as my bike doesn't have a main stand the way I do it there is no blowback and show him the overflow system that, when the bike is upright, catches the little splashes before they can get to the tank surface.

Dude points to the lil graphic that has a big red cross thru biker sitting on bike (I have really never seen that before) and says ... "don't come back here"

WTF?? This is the station where I had to run in and try and get staff attention (unsuccessfully) the other day when a brainless was standing beside the pumps lighting a fag. Nobody gave a shit, so I had to ask the smoker guy to stop - he was less than friendly about that, thought he was going to stub it out on me!

So what is their beef about sitting on bike and carefully filling it?

[yungatart]

It's not a safety thing - it's to prevent those scummy biker types from doing drive offs!

[crashe]

BOOM !

Should the bike catch fire..... both you and the bike goes up in flames.

Plus should you spill any petrol on yourself or over the bike (which can happen that petrol spills over) and say that dude threw his smoke in your direction....... BOOM !.

It is a safety issue with garages.

[Fatjim]

I'd just keep going there, and ignore the nerd at the gas station. Whats he going to do if your already pouring? He's not going to tell you to piss off without paying is he? He can try and call the cops but you're probably not breaking the law, since the way you're filling is safer than putting it on the side stand.

I always stay on the bike, but I put the side stand down first so that I can hop off in a hurry. I've been told not to do it, but never twice at the same garage.

[Disco Dan]

Take your helmet and gloves off. As soon as you make eye contact with the antendant behind the till inside they usually unlock a pre-payed pump and will let you start filling up.

...your not going to ride off in a hurry if your gloves and helmet are sitting on the ground!

I always fill 'off' the bike though, there is no need to have the bike upright. You should not be filling it past the bottom of the filler cap inside anyway as the first corner you come to it will just flow out your overflow. Enough of us bitch about diesels doing this.... I found this out when I filled up and went straight home - as I am less than a k from the gas station, when I got home there was a small pool of petrol under my overflow pipe from going around a corner and it going out the overflow. Its just a waste of petrol.

I always hate the cell phone sign in gas stations. There is no posible way a modern cell phone can cause a spark. Simply not possible. (saw it on discovery channel) The only time it poses a problem is if someone was talking on one of the 80s "brick" phones - and the huge battery 'fell off' and hit the ground. Even then it would have to hit the ground at just the right angle etc to create even a small spark. All stemmed from some idiot in US back in the 80s (go figure) who did just that ane blew the entire forecourt up. Has not and will not happen since.

[Fatjim]

Hey DD, we're in Welly, Only one gas station down here that I know of that has prepay turned on full time, I don't go there anymore.

[Kwaka14]

if you want to stop air bubble blow back in the spout drill a small hole (3.5mm or so) in the top of the spout at the highest point of the tank (opposite side to your side stand), then you don't need to rock the bike to fill to the brim and you don't get blowback when it's on the side stand...

[Grub]

if you want to stop air bubble blow back in the spout drill a small hole (3.5mm or so) in the top of the spout at the highest point of the tank (opposite side to your side stand), then you don't need to rock the bike to fill to the brim and you don't get blowback when it's on the side stand...

Here is the News ...

A Wellington man is in a fair condition in Hutt Hospital Burns Unit today following an explosion in his garage while he was drilling a hole in the petrol tank of his motrbike. Whitby Police said ....

[Nasty]

Here is the News ...

A Wellington man is in a fair condition in Hutt Hospital Burns Unit today following an explosion in his garage while he was drilling a hole in the petrol tank of his motrbike. Whitby Police said ....

That Whitby man had better not think of following this suggestion ... this Whitby woman hates visiting hospitals!

[Disco Dan]

Here is the News ...

A Wellington man is in a fair condition in Hutt Hospital Burns Unit today following an explosion in his garage while he was drilling a hole in the petrol tank of his motrbike. Whitby Police said ....

haha, well im sorry to laugh at the misfortune at others... but come on!!!

I wont even smoke inside my garage... the amount of flammable liquids stored in there....

You got to be pretty thick to drill your fuel tank with vapours and residual fuel still present....

[imdying]

Just keep doing it. They'll have to get a trespass order if they want to stop you.

Besides which, if you're already pumping, you can spray the git with petrol, that'll slow him down a tad.

[MWVT]

Hey DD, we're in Welly, Only one gas station down here that I know of that has prepay turned on full time, I don't go there anymore.

I'm gonna move to Wellington if you keep saying things like that.

I've been boycotting all the time prepay stations, options becoming very limited.

[NotaGoth]

Mmm funny... Mum was just talking to me the other day about how to fill my bike at a service station... Told me if I'm able to sit on it and hold it upright while filling it, that its the best way to do it.. Each to their own I guess...

They more than likely thought you were gonna ride off.. Maybe they have had a couple of people do so recently...

[scumdog]

Must be a North Island thing.
Never been told to get off the bike - or take my helmet off before going in to pay for the fuel.

[sunhuntin]

i work for bp, and have not yet told a single biker to get off their bike while filling. ive never seen one told either.
i get off to fill... thats just my preference... dunno why.

hell, i dont even mind if you keep your lid on... i prefer it. some cagers get shitty when waiting for a paying customer to get ready to leave. [not me... i like looking at the bikes!!]
if im at a foreign station [out of town] i will push the bike up to the windows before paying, specially if someone is behind me.

and please dont spray the attendant with gas... we cant just go home and get changed again.

grub... i have had customers smoking on the forecourt, near the forecourt, or putting ash out their windows. hell... ive stood inside and watched one guy light up, right in the middle of all the pumps. next person who gets out of their car while smoking will have a windscreen water bucket tipped over his head.