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I ran out of fuel today.... ..and had to do the 'walk of shame' with the bike.. ..

I've got over 300 klms on a tank many times before and I was only at 290 klms..I guess I've been gassing it too much..

I was on the freeway and heading home and thought I had enough fuel to get home..I thought wrong..Lucky I was almost home and near an off-ramp.

I tipped to the right but it didn't do anything..and after a bit of tipping left and right..and left again..it started up..But just up the road it conked out again.

When I filled up I only got about 18.5 lts (5 gal) in so there must have been some left in there.

My question is...Should I have tipped the bike to the left..or to the right..to get the last bit of fuel to the fuel pick up?

DJ

I believe the bike should be tipped to the right(fuel pump). Though I could be wrong

A friend of mine here in GA who got over 125K on his Roadster, ran out of gas in Texas collecting court houses. He said he laid it down on the left side and picked it back up and rode another 30 miles or so. I thought it would be the right side also, and I asked him again later which side he laid it down on. He re-confirmed it was the left side.
He now has a Triumph Tiger which he says is almost as good an all-around bike as the Roadster was.

Down Under, it should be tipped the other way.

Last year when I tried that experiment, I can confirm that tipping it to the right doesn't help.

DJ,
You have been into the throttle a little too much. Bad Boy.

I hope that I never have to do that walk of shame.

My kingdom for a camera.

I nearly did it coming back from the Bash this year. Rolling at 75 or so in the rain, after looking for a gas station for the last several exits, the bike sputtered and died. Brian pulled in behind me, I sloshed the bike some and it fired back up. Made it to about a mile to the next exit where there was a gas station. It would have been an embarrassing walk in the rain for me!

R4R&R wrote:Last year when I tried that experiment, I can confirm that tipping it to the right doesn't help.

I don't really understand that. The pump and pickup is for sure on the right side.

Never mind DJ it happens to all of us sooner or later ...

I think that tipping the bike needs to evaluated by the "Mythbusters" as i have ran out three times
and it hasnt made a scrap of difference and always had to walk or dink...

Last one was in front of The Thunderdome with the BP service station in sight it just wouldnt make it
and just spluttered to a slow stop (disappointed i said )at the time it felt like i missed it by 100 yds
but in reality it was nearly a mile.

DJ - have you modded the tank filler neck??

Some time ago I read a short description of how the fuel pickup could be modified to collect from both sides of the tank. The concept was simple and a small part of the fuel line in the tank had to be shaped/welded. The design would suit all bikes that have a tank that straddles the frame and only has a fuel pick-up on one side of the tank.
I will do a search and see if I can find it.

I searched around (see previous post) for a thread on this topic but can't locate it. It worked something like this diagram.
I have only included the return line to the tank and omitted things like strainers, pumps etc.
The design involves a venturi on the return line. The venturi draws the leftover fuel from the other side of the tank making sure that most of the fuel is useable.

I remember seeing that years ago linked to a post at the AdvRider site. An excellent, very clever idea copied from routine aircraft design, where they have the same problem -but- with more life threatening consequences. The ability to suction-up and transport all the isolated fuel supply pockets to maximize range, using only the fuel flow of the return fuel line has many advantages:

--requires only simple, lightweight, inexpensive, maintenance-free fittings with an embedded venturi and hoses attached to the low point fuel "pocket(s)".
--venturi "pump" can run "dry" without damage (= important !!).
--requires no measurable power to pump the fuel from other location(s).

All you need is the carefully hand crafted venturi pump, a length of hose and a weighted pickup for the left side wing of our bike's fuel tank. I'm feeling inspired and challenged.

The aircraft designer(s) that thought of this should be proud. These kind of low cost, simple yet functionally vital mods are my favorite things

.

CycleRob wrote:I remember seeing that years ago linked to a post at the AdvRider site... .

Rob, this is very likely the same place where I saw the link. It's your reference to aircraft that makes me think it is so.
If I ever chose to design one, I would incorporate a way of closing the venturi so that I could turn it off and on and use it as an emergency reserve.

CycleRob wrote:I remember seeing that years ago linked to a post at the AdvRider site. An excellent, very clever idea copied from routine aircraft design, where they have the same problem -but- with more life threatening consequences. The ability to suction-up and transport all the isolated fuel supply pockets to maximize range, using only the fuel flow of the return fuel line has many advantages:

--requires only simple, lightweight, inexpensive, maintenance-free fittings with an embedded venturi and hoses attached to the low point fuel "pocket(s)".
--venturi "pump" can run "dry" without damage (= important !!).
--requires no measurable power to pump the fuel from other location(s).

All you need is the carefully hand crafted venturi pump, a length of hose and a weighted pickup for the left side wing of our bike's fuel tank. I'm feeling inspired and challenged.

The aircraft designer(s) that thought of this should be proud. These kind of low cost, simple yet functionally vital mods are my favorite things

.

I remember that post; it was very interesting how it worked.

Man, reading these posts from some of the orginal members really brings back some memories

Tony

re tipping the bike over. I have just changed my fuel filter and ran the fuel as low as possible before doing the job. I can confirm that you would need to lay the bike over to the right but it would need to be VERY low - almost horizontal - to get the fuel over the hump. I actually did this with the tank off to drain the fuel from the filter side to the left whilst I did the job. Ideally you also need to tip the tank forwards at the same time. Work that out!! So if you could get the front pointing down a slope and lay over to the right you should get a few litres through.

Croc

riceburner wrote:DJ - have you modded the tank filler neck??

No..I never did do that mod..but it does seem like a god idea.

Thanks Croc..I did lay it over so the head was almost touching the ground but maybe even that's not far enough.

Thanks for everyones replies.

DJ

DJ Downunder wrote:

riceburner wrote:DJ - have you modded the tank filler neck??

No..I never did do that mod..but it does seem like a god idea.

Thanks Croc..I did lay it over so the head was almost touching the ground but maybe even that's not far enough.

Thanks for everyones replies.

DJ

I think you can get up to 2 litres more into the tank with it.

riceburner wrote:

DJ Downunder wrote:

riceburner wrote:DJ - have you modded the tank filler neck??

No..I never did do that mod..but it does seem like a god idea.

Thanks Croc..I did lay it over so the head was almost touching the ground but maybe even that's not far enough.

Thanks for everyones replies.

DJ

I think you can get up to 2 litres more into the tank with it.

The reason that I never drilled the holes (is that what you mean) is because the metal has a rust proof coating on it and drilling hole might cause rusting to start from the edge of the holes where the coating is gone.

What do'ya reckon?

DJ