Embarrassing Event Turned Comedy of Errors

[cowboyup3371]

Helena, Cheyenne, and I went into town today with the intent of getting to the recycling center to drop off cardboard, getting gas in the bike, and taking Cheyenne for her second ride with me to gramms and gramps house. When we left I was sitting at 105 miles on the odometer and had just swapped over to my reserve tank on Thursday evening (didn't ride Friday). By all figures I had enough to get into town to the gas station next to the recycling center so I didn't stop in at the base or at the only other gas station on my highway.

Well, I seriously miscalculated how much gas I had used this past week to also run the bike at the house looking for an issue with my chain since I'd adjusted it wrong. I was no more than 3 miles from the recycling center and gas station when suddenly the bike started losing power. Oh crap, I ran out of gas. I pulled it over and Helena pulled in behind me, grabbed my money, and ran down to the gas station to buy ANOTHER (I have three now) can and a gallon of gas while I waited on the side of the road. I would have pushed the bike to the station but it's got about threehills I would have to climb in both directions so no...no way.

When she got back I started filling up the tank when lo and behold...the dang hose nozzle fell off into the tank. She ran off to Gramms house to get her brother-in-law and I tried figuring out every way I could to get the dang nozzle out. I tried sticks from the side of the road, shaking the tank all over the place, using a wrench and even my pliers with no luck. Fortunately, a stranger pulled over and had a hanger as well as a few different types of slim jims in his trunk and helped me fish it out. So by the time the brother-in-law showed up we had the tank back on the bike, refilling it, and taking off.

Next time, I just won't pass up the first gas stations no matter how well I think I MIGHT make it.

 

[chuck hahn]

Soon as i hit resereve the only priority is the gas staion...been where you were and learned the first time.

 

[Redman]

Yah, thats fun.

I would have thought you could have left the can nozzle in the tank and get it out later.

My first bike didnt have a gas guage, so I would run it to the reserve fairly regularly.
More than once I was going down the road, felt it startt to sputter, reach down to put it on reserve -daoh- already was on reserve -doah-.
Second time it happened, I got the idea to take the tank off and somehow take it to gas station.
Third time it happend, I used the same idea, but this time only put in about a gallon of gas. Duh!

I have enjoyed having gas guage on bikes since had a GS650G in 1982.

.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Yea Redman, I probably could have waited but I'd only put in a little bit at that time so I figured I'd get it out when I could instead of a couple of days from now.

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Oops! Yes, it's really inconvenient to run out of gas. So far, knock on wood, I haven't run Jessie out of gas. And I've gotten pretty good at guessing when I'll have to hit reserve. It varies according to how much twisting the throttle I've done. If I take it easy around town and commuting I usually hit reserve at 150 or 160 miles. If I've been having more fun than usual on that tank, more like 135 or 140. On extended rides at a stead pace, more than 170 miles.

I'm glad gas wasn't too hard for you to acquire. But it sounds like it was a Three Stooges effort trying to put it in your tank.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff