Stop! Cock!

[Zapf]

"Panic, now!"

So there I am, tooling along at a heady 75km/h on the Northwestern, heading towards the city and a gap opens up. Not just a little gap mind, but a huge, long gap that stretches and disappears among the concrete barriers that are spaghetti junction. All the cars in front of me had dived for either the Ports or Hamilton ramps (among lots of horns, fists and "friendly" thankyou waves) and I could now make my run into the city. I hadn't hit the 80km/h limited bit yet, so I opened the throttle wide...

...cough, cough, surge. What the HELL was that. Quick check of the odometer, 160 kms, just inside my commuting tank range. Oh shit! Now here's a good time to start running out of gas! What to do, what to do?

Now here's the friendly advice.....when buying a bike do 2 things in addition to the usual kicks and pokes. Number 1, check where the reserve cock is and make sure that you know how to reach it when seated. Next, make sure after every fill to turn it to "On", not "Res". Then check it again. And reset your odo.

As one who practices what he preaches, except to my children, I spent the next few seconds garnering a few strange looks as I desperately fiddled just below my left nut until I had found my cock and turned it (one of those items is part of the bike BTW). Vrooooom. Off I go with the devil at my heels, round the corner and into the queue waiting to get onto Nelson St.

There's only 1 traffic jam in Auckland, and it's following me!!!!!

If you don't mind me asking, why are you running out of gas at 160km? I have done 230km on mine and its still on the main tank. Might want to look into it if I were you.

[Holy Roller]

A mate of mine is still mad at me after 20 yrs as I switched his bike to reserve after work one day. He had a long push the next day going home... funny how some people cant see the funny side even after so long.

[Yokai]

Ah - but I do know what it's like to realise you've run out of gas, and be totally confused by the markings on the petcock (quite different to a wild cock) AND not realise it takes a while for the fuel to come through AND push the bike (which was a heavy friggin CB350 pig) up hill and down dale for about 5 kms AND then have your sister's boyfriend shrug, flip the lever, thumb the starter and roar off into the sunset.

Sorry man, but that's just tooo funny... At least you know now.... I still forget when I'm worrying about other people... :-)

Yo

[vifferman]

Sorry man, but that's just tooo funny... At least you know now.... I still forget when I'm worrying about other people... :-)

Yo

Hey - it was about 30 years ago, and I was young and foolish. And quite obsessed with bikes, and sex.
Quite the opposite of my goodly self today: Oldish, foolish, and quite obsessed with bikes and sex. And I never run out of petrol now.
Well, hardly ever.

[F5 Dave]

Yeah first ride of my TT500, came out of a friends house after watching the Sunday horrors (oops age showing), cough splutter goes bike, reach for reserve, bike stops “Bloody ‘ell it don’t got one!” Long push in the dark.

The RF had a ridiculous tap, you had to stop to turn it. I’ve made an extension & it can be nicely turned now. I also trimmed the reserve pipe giving me another 50k before I turn onto reserve at 300 with still another 35 left in the tank. & I moved the fuel light that came on at about ½ tank which was silly.

Take a small gas can & work out how far you can go on reserve then make up a small label for the dash. Helps when you have a few bikes.

Every couple of weeks of commuting my RG50 would develop a strange stutter on the way to work & then conk out half way home until I remembered that it did indeed run on fossil fuel & I’d need to refill it in a day or so.

The YZF has the very best reserve tap. Just a switch on the fairing below your left hand & the pump fills the carbs quickly.

[MacD]

The RF had a ridiculous tap, you had to stop to turn it. I’ve made an extension & it can be nicely turned now.

The RF tap looks as though it shouldn't be too hard to turn when you look at it while standing next to the bike, but I discovered the hard way that it's nearly impossible to turn while riding. All I managed to do was get it from On to Off, a great help!

An extension sounds like a good idea, did you fabricate a new knob or did you find something else that fitted?

[vifferman]

The YZF has the very best reserve tap. Just a switch on the fairing below your left hand & the pump fills the carbs quickly.

Pump? PUMP?!?!??
The FahrtSturm don't have one of them, and the lines to the carbs are practically horizontal, so at the rate it slurps gas, once it gets near reserve, it starts to suffer from lean surges. Either that, or the tank's got spooge in it. Or both. Either way, I know I'm getting near reserve, as it starts misbehaving due to intermittent fuel starvation.

[F5 Dave]

The RF tap looks as though it shouldn't be too hard to turn when you look at it while standing next to the bike, but I discovered the hard way that it's nearly impossible to turn while riding. All I managed to do was get it from On to Off, a great help!

An extension sounds like a good idea, did you fabricate a new knob or did you find something else that fitted?

What I did was find a bit of ally bar about an inch diameter & cut almost an inch long. Drilled a small hole one side & filed it square so it fitted over the tap (with a small ridge for the locator on the tap). Then I drilled a large hole from the other side ½ way through. With a washer this & the std screw bolts it in place. Cable tie the original under the seat for sell time.

The next thing I did was drill a 5mm hole & thread 6mm & wind in some small bolts that just clear the bodywork & add a heap of leverage, (can't use one long one else you can't get the retaining screw in)

here -I’m making a pigs ear of the description, here’s a pigs ear of a sketch. Oh yeah then I put 1 & 2 dot marks for main, reserve & a x for off. Filled with white paint.

I’ve heard different stories of RF fuel range, but my reserve had 85km on it which was just a waste.

Pull the fuel sender (big hex on bottom of tank) it is soldered to a bar Unsolder it & solder it so the top is touching the bottom tag.

Pull the fuel tap, slide off the filter of the long pipe. Cut the pipe in half & carefully slide the filter back on. No gaskets will need changing & presto much less fafing about with reserve when there’s heaps left & no need to worry.

I have ½ a dozen other RF improvements if you are keen, though I don’t have any solution for the styling.

[MacD]

I have ½ a dozen other RF improvements if you are keen, though I don’t have any solution for the styling.

Thanks for the info!

OK, I may be strange but I quite like the RF's styling!

[Ms Piggy]

When you flick over to reserve you have to remember to flick back to on otherwise you have that problem but have no reserve tank

David

If it had been on "Reserve", when you filled it up, you'd have to flick it back to "On", otherwise when it started to cough/splutter, there's nowt left.

Yeah I know that, what I was meaning is that I always just leave my switch in the 'on' position. I don't flick it onto 'res' or 'off' when I'm filling up. I was asking why he would be doing that.

[Krayy]

Yeah I know that, what I was meaning is that I always just leave my switch in the 'on' position. I don't flick it onto 'res' or 'off' when I'm filling up. I was asking why he would be doing that.

I meant that since I had fiddled with my pet-cock on the motorway and put it on "Reserve", I had to remind myself to turn it back to "On" or else I would be pushing it next time.

[Fryin Finn]

All three of my bikes have reserve taps - but I keep an eye on gas mileages with the tripmeter reset at fill up time. I sometimes forget to reset the reserve tap but it dosen't matter as i rely on the tripmeter.
My SRX gets up to 68 mpg - 300km on 14 litres comuting only
XJR 1300 gets about 45mpg on trips about 250km to reserve.
The WR is tricky but I get 100km before reserve on fast open trails.
My old TRX got up to 65mpg on trips about 360km to a tank but then for some reason reserve stopped working and i had to push it once - fortunately downhill.
On bike trips with McCool on his VTR we could always rely on him stopping first for fuel but now he's got the R1 and it's proving frugal it's gonna be me on the XJR refuelling first. :cool2:

[vifferman]

Don't you love it, when you've got a reasonable sized reserve, and when you switch it, you go, "Hmmm... must fill that up soon; maybe tomorrow morning on the way to work", and then you forget? And then it starts coughing and spluttering a few days later, and you go to switch it to reserve, and...

Or you don't have reserve, just the Red LED Of Doom, and you go, "Hmmmm.... I'll fill up on the way home", but you're tired, and the gas station is too busy, so you don't. Then in the morning, you're running late, and it's threatening to rain, so you go, "Hmmm... I've got enough to get to work; I'll fill up at the Shell after work". And then you forget, so you go, "Hmmm.... I don't want to turn back; I'll carry on to the BP - should be enough to go another couple of km."
EHHHH!!! WRONG!! (cough, splutter, backfire, fart, cough, hasty U-turn, cough, fart, DIE... )

Not that I've ever experienced any of these scenarios.
But it would be funny, eh?

[Ms Piggy]

I meant that since I had fiddled with my pet-cock on the motorway and put it on "Reserve", I had to remind myself to turn it back to "On" or else I would be pushing it next time.

Thanks Krayy - sorry wasn't meaning to sound superior or anything. Yes ya gotta know where your cock is at all times so you can grab & twist in desperate situations.

[MikeL]

ya gotta know where your cock is at all times so you can grab & twist in desperate situations.

Wise words indeed. Once or twice I've found myself groping around in confusion. You really need to practise until you can put your hand on it without even looking. And you need to know which way to twist it - the wrong direction can lead to more confusion or worse, complete loss of power, with consequent embarrassment...