Some general riding questions

[kerrfunk]

I put 500 miles on my bike this weekend and wondered

1) Does anybody carry gas, like even 16 ounces or something with them? How?

2) I have a night guard for grinding teeth, and decided to ride with it, thinking it might be one more level of protection in a crash. Anybody ever ride with a mouthguard? I found it actually pretty comfortable.

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Kerry, here's one way:

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle...-fuel-bottle?gclid=CPXC36vzuNQCFQyAfgodUzAKZg

 

[kerrfunk]

Fine idea. I believe I'll get something like that (I saw a 500mL one on ebay for ten bucks).

Yeah, guess who ran out of gas on Thursday? Five miles from a gas station.
It was drizzling.
At least I made it to a ride&park at an interstate exit.
I waited about half an hour for a wrecker to arrive with a 5gal can. Twenty bucks and I was rolling again. I think that wasn't bad.

 

[JTGS850GL]

Never ran out of gas on a bike with a reserve. I always head to the next station once I flip the reserve on. I always remember to flip it back while filling the tank. Has worked for me so far. Been doing it for over 35 years. My ST1100, on the other hand, has an idiot light that comes on when I only have a gallon. It's dim and hard to see in bright light. With that bike, I just fill up when it's near empty. It does have a 300 mile range though.

 

[80GS850GBob]

Never ran out of gas on a bike with a reserve. I always head to the next station once I flip the reserve on. I always remember to flip it back while filling the tank. Has worked for me so far. Been doing it for over 35 years. My ST1100, on the other hand, has an idiot light that comes on when I only have a gallon. It's dim and hard to see in bright light. With that bike, I just fill up when it's near empty. It does have a 300 mile range though.

The old CB750s had a turn signal buzzer...at least mine did. You could wire in a small piezo tweeter to that low level light....under the shield somewhere...

 

[80GS850GBob]

I put 500 miles on my bike this weekend and wondered

1) Does anybody carry gas, like even 16 ounces or something with them? How?

2) I have a night guard for grinding teeth, and decided to ride with it, thinking it might be one more level of protection in a crash. Anybody ever ride with a mouthguard? I found it actually pretty comfortable.

Been there, done that on my 1st cycle....they don't push well...
Back in the day you could get a set of panniers that held a gallon each....you'd swing it over the sled's seat, strap it to the rear hand rail or somewhere, for extended range. You think it's hard to find a station when your cycle is empty....try that on a sled!

 

[kerrfunk]

There's a stretch or two on I-79 that doesn't have a gas station for 20+ miles... I switched to reserve at first sign of shudder. I think my mileage was adversely affected by the addition of a windshield. At least that's the story I'm stickin to.

 

[Guest]

I've never run out gas but I have run out of electricity.

 

[Guest]

I carry a piece of hose, 1/4- 3/16, coiled up under the seat. works every time...

 

[76_Mike_82]

Never ran out of gas, after 120ish miles I need a stretch anyway so gas stop and stretch.

 

[hillsy]

I carry a piece of hose, 1/4- 3/16, coiled up under the seat. works every time...

Not much help if you're by yourself....

A lot of ADV guys carry these:

 

[eil]

I ran out of gas, once. Out riding with the wife, low on gas. Thought there was a gas station where we were going, and there wasn't. Had to double back to where I knew there was a station. The engine stalled just as we made the turn into the station.

 

[Eli69]

did you try tipping the bike over to the left to get that little bit that's stuck on the right side of the tank? doing that has got me a few extra miles more than once.

 

[Guest]

Not much help if you're by yourself....

A lot of ADV guys carry these:

wrong. People stop. or I stop for others,
If i was planning on running out i would take an MSR bottle

 

[sam000lee]

A couple weeks ago I had to remove my tank on my GS450 and `prime' my buddies GS550 on the side of the highway...

 

[hillsy]

wrong. People stop. or I stop for others,
If i was planning on running out i would take an MSR bottle

Wrong? Depends entirely on where you are. You're assuming you're going to run out of fuel where there are other people....and that they are going to stop for you. A piece to hose won't get you moving again without someone else to give you fuel.

And nobody I know plans to run out of fuel - you plan to not run out of fuel by taking extra.

 

[Burque73]

The mouth guard has crossed my mind but I haven't used one. Mainly since my helmet fits so tight on my cheeks and I pretty much always have my jaw clenched and grind teeth a bit in stressful situations.

Fuel shortage was a problem over the weekend but didn't run out. I did run out once or twice on other bikes but as mentioned tipping to the left saved me once and another time I was blessed with a long downhill stretch to the pump.

Check out this mod. Ugly but effective if you're planning a long trip in an area with few gas stations.

http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/index.php/topic,54366.0.html#.WT_fLGjyuUk

 

[tom203]

I carry a piece of hose, 1/4- 3/16, coiled up under the seat. works every time...

I carry 3 feet of hose in a flat 1.5 liter plastic bottle under my rear rack- I got 60 years experience at siphoning gas and I don't want to lose my touch

 

[Guest]

I used to keep a 1 gallon fuel can strapped on my bike for all my long GS trips when I had the 650L, the tank is just so tiny and you end up filling it even after 50 miles for fear or running out again... especially coming back from Moosehead lake in Maine at night when lots of gas stations are closed and it can easily be 100+ miles between stations and fully loaded going a bit too fast my range was sometimes 80-100 miles. I also disliked having like 1/3 my tank "reserve" so always rode using the full tank so an external backup was important.

 

[TxGSrider]

We use the Rotopax on the atv's and they make a little 1 gallon that you could try. https://rotopax.com/1-gallon-gasoline.html

I had thought about mounting one on my bike for that "feeling of security" on long rides.