Is pingel the ONLY aftermarket petcock?

[tkent02]

Generally I agree, especially if you are coming off many years riding with a vaccum tap. Last summer I came across a bike parked on the pavement downtown with a manual tap in the on position, fuel was leaking from the carb overflow pipe onto the pavement. Mid summer sun and lots of smokers walking around, could have ended very badly.

That said, my GS is my first vaccum tapped bike, so it's a question of what you are used to,

If I rode only one bike I would always remember to turn it on and off, but that's not the case. Some are fuel injected bikes, some are vacuum petcock bikes, some with manual petcocks. Guess which ones I forget to turn on and off?
I don't like gasoline fires.

 

[850 Combat]

Good article in the Concours owners club newsletter this month on bent rods caused by vacuum petcocks letting fuel run into cylinders and creating a hydraulic lock when yoy hit the starter. I actually had this happen on a new (not 20 year old) GS 850 in the 80's. The very worst problem I ever had with a GS850 was caused by a bad new factory installed vavuum petcock. Yes, a manual petcock left on could have caused the same problem, but it did not.

No fan of vacuum petcocks here. No fan of carbs with no overflow either.



The solenoid is interesting, but I like reserve, too.