Can someone show me a pic and the settings for our petcock. I think that I am running on reserve as I have run our of gas a few times with you any warning.

 

Reserve is up. Closed is to the side and on is down.

 

2nd'ed

 

One end of your petcock is pointed, the other is flat. Like an arrow. When the arrow is pointed down, you're on standard. When it's pointed up, you're on reserve. Sideways is closed.

 

Thanks guys.

 

yea, im pretty sure mine is broken on the on position, because no matter if its up, down, or to the side the bike stays running, revs all the way and drives fine. Should i fix it so i can turn my fuel off for the winter, or is it not that big of a deal if i just start it every week or so and dont leave alot of gas in it.

 

Fill up your tank and put stabil in your tank. Let it run through your system so you have mixed gas in your carbs. you should be fine that way.

 

That's normal. Your carbs have bowls in them which hold a decent amount of gas, so even when you cut off the tank, you still have to let them burn through what's in them. Depending on my riding style that day, I've gone a couple miles before the bike started to sputter because I forgot to turn the fuel on, and it took that long to get through the carb fuel.

Turn the petcock off, and drive the bike HARD for a mile or so. if your bike doesn't begin to sputter at all, then yeah, your petcock is stuck on. The question there is: is it stock on ON or RESERVE? Drive it until it dies out from running out of gas, then look in the tank. If there's still a gallon of gas in there, you're stuck on ON. If it's dry, you're stuck on RESERVE.

If you're stuck on ON and ignore the problem, you're reducing the actual usable amount of gas in your bike, and will have to fill up more frequently. Also, you won't even know when you're low on gas, and you risk being stranded.

If you're stuck on RESERVE and ignore the problem, you can always use the whole tank, but you still won't know when you're low on gas.

Many people don't ever turn their fuel off. Part of your winter storage routine should involve draining the fuel from your tank, and draining the float bowls on your carbs (little screws you can get at without removing anything besides the fairings). Then throw some in some stabil, and run the bike until you see it all sucked out of the tank. Then throw in a half gallon of gas mixed with stable into the tank to prevent the bottom of it from rusting. You are now winterized.


My advice: fix your petcock, just so you don't get stranded.

Also: don't threadjack

 

thanks for the advice, im sure im going to put up a post more near winter about storage just to get some opinions on what people do, or how to drain the carbs and all of that.

didn't mean to thread jack, but thats just how i roll haha. thanks for the replys guys