After all these years of riding, I finally pulled the N00bIe$t of all moves...

[gixxerjeff]

That damn old Magna DRINKS gas like a fiend. I love that old 80's fast motorcycle, but gonna have to keep an eye on that tank for sure!

Yep. Each one of my bikes sips the fuel differently. My old school GSXR 750 has carburetors (remember those?) that are tuned for the track. To call that bike thirsty is an understatement. It's a candidate for a 12-step program to say the least. My Ninja on the other hand seems to generate it's own fuel and the bikes in between have their own schedules and desires as well. The primary function of the trip odometer on each bike is a fuel gauge more than anything else. Surprisingly I've never gotten their independent ranges mixed up.
And as I mentioned before, the only bike I have ever run out of gas on is the only one I have with an actual fuel gauge.

 

[OaklandF4i]

That's me in my flip flops with the cowboy hat strapped to my back on the far right. I've run out of gas after a day of boozing at the beach during a rest day on our annual Baja trip.

The red arrow to the left denotes the location of the gas station 400 yds away and I have a 5.8 gallon tank.. that's gone bone dry after all ready doing the bike tip tank slosh. Sasquatch was chasing in the Taco and needed to relieve himself before sharing some gas.... which allowed the rest of group to gather, heckle, and take picture for posterity's sake.

It's not an epic fail unless 20 of your friends have been drinking and share the moment, some one needs to relieve themselves, a picture is taken, and you are the deserved butt of their jokes for a number of days....... :toothless

 

[kneedraggeroldy]

Well...never REALLY RAN out of gas, however did forget to turn the petcock to "ON" once on the old T'76 T500 thumper....went tearing off from camp at the bottom of a HUGE hill in front of all the peeps....only to run the bowl dry before getting to top of said hill.....sputter, stall, fell over and over and rolled and rolled almost to bottom of hill....beers were on me for AWHILE :wtf

 

[boney]

While trying to nail down an unreliable gas gauge on my current BMW, I've run out of gas several times. Once on the Bay Bridge. : |

Turns out there are two "gotchas" in this tank... One is a bad fuel strip that stops working altogether eventually, and the other is a worn fuel pump that can't support the transfer of fuel from one lobe of the tank to the other...

 

[Blankpage]

Once in the middle of nowhere, luckily the guy I just overtook knew something was wrong, pulled over and even suck-siphoned gas from his tank, getting a mouth full of 87 in the process. Wouldn't take a cent in payment... I still feel guilty about it,

I got a mouthful a few times when younger, messing with dirt bikes and stealing gas from my fathers car.

A dude in the community where I grew up was always working on old cars, changing engines, transmissions, and everything else. Dude was probably siphoning gas from one car to another several times a week and seemed he was getting a mouthful half the time. His hands were always covered in old oil, grease, or gas, never wearing gloves.
He died fairly young from cancer. I wondered if there was any connection to all the petrochemicals that would have seeped into his skin.

 

[rcb78]

Ran out of gas on my wifes bike once and had to call her to bring me a gas can. When she showed up, she looked at the bike and pretty much said, 'dumb ass, you didn't flip it to reserve'. This after I waited on the side of the road for almost an hour for her. Whoops...

 

[Beanzy]

The reserve just means half a gallon or less of gas is left in the tank. Almost ran out of gas twice on a bike (leaned the bike over to displace the fuel in the tank) and once in the car right after I pulled into a gas station.

 

[ejv]

My dad ran out of gas once in the family truckster when I was maybe 9 years old. Pushing a station wagon a few hundred yards in a foothill town when it weighs nearly 100x your own weight leaves an impression on a young one. The embarrassment combined with the workout was enough that I have never run out of of gas in anything ever since that experience.

 

[2strokebendejo]

my hypermotard gas light doesnt work ive run out of gas at least 5 times luckily theve all been in the city only downside of that bike cant do the ole shake the tank to tell when i need gas

 

[nebulous]

Isn't dropping your bike at Alice's the Noobest move of all ??

 

[Ducati geezer]

Dropping my bike at Alice's? On a super busy motogp trip? Yup. Done that too. As it was happening I was just praying it didn't start a domino effect with the very expensive machinery lined up to the left of my Ducati. Always make sure your kickstand is fully deployed before going and running to get in line for a table!

 

[SVsick50]

Welp. Ran out of gas on the old bike pulling in to my condo complex :laughing. I thought something was wrong with the bike, I mean, 97 miles on a tank? Switched to reserve and she woke up. The 1987 Super Magna drinks gas like crazy I guess.

 

[one_fungi]

My first bike was a Vulcan 500 with no gas tank indicator. I never ran out but the incline Eastbound 580 from lakeshore two or three times seemed to render the last bit in the tank useless, forcing me to pull over precariously and switch to reserve. I never got the hang of reaching for that petcock while riding.

 

[ScottRNelson]

My first bike was a Vulcan 500 with no gas tank indicator. I never ran out but the incline Eastbound 580 from lakeshore two or three times seemed to render the last bit in the tank useless, forcing me to pull over precariously and switch to reserve. I never got the hang of reaching for that petcock while riding.

If you can reach it while riding, you should practice until you can switch while still moving. It's not that hard.

I almost never run my XR650L to reserve, but I have lots of practice turning the fuel on while moving. I pretty much always turn it to off when I shut the engine off, including at gas stations. I can't count the times I've pulled out of a gas station after filling up, felt the carburetor starting to go dry and had to hurry and reach down to turn it on. I don't think I've ever actually killed the engine doing that, but have come close. :rolleyes :laughing

 

[boney]

If you can reach it while riding, you should practice until you can switch while still moving. It's not that hard.

I almost never run my XR650L to reserve, but I have lots of practice turning the fuel on while moving. I pretty much always turn it to off when I shut the engine off, including at gas stations. I can't count the times I've pulled out of a gas station after filling up, felt the carburetor starting to go dry and had to hurry and reach down to turn it on. I don't think I've ever actually killed the engine doing that, but have come close. :rolleyes :laughing

Did that more than once on my old KTM too. The rubber tip of the float valve would wear ever so slightly from the vibrations of being attached to a paint shaker like engine, resulting in a very slow drip from the overflow when the engine wasn't consuming gas.

 

[Bzwrthy]

First and only time was on my new-to-me DR-Z 400SM coming from from the Pride parade and BARF gathering after. Miscalculated how much it went thru while idling before the parade started and ran out on 580 just before the MacArthur exit in full leathers with a 4' sock monkey in chaps and studded chest harness riding cupcake. Got a few looks while pushing past Lake Merritt to the gas station. :laughing

 

[budgie45]

Happened to me one time I was riding my TL1000
I could never judge the stupid flashing light,instead of a fuel gauge,kinda embarrassing

 

[JimE]

Haha yeah I ran out of gas way back when. You learn. I have a better "ran out of gas" story though.....

Years ago I got my cousin into riding when he came back from Iraq. He decides, rather wisely I thought, that a BMW Airhead was to be his first road bike. So he finds one at a decent price way out in BFE central valley someplace. Will you go with me and check it out? Sure, 'cuz. That's what family is for.

So we go out there and it's these hillbillies who got the thing in some sort of dipshit deal with an Airstream they were going to fix or..... something. So I check the thing over real quick and not really wanting to hang out get underway pretty quick down this long straight farm road. Get about a mile out then the thing dies right off. WTF? Check this, check that.... finally rattle it around and the tank is empty. Well shit. Start walking back.

Walk down the gravel drive and the hillbillies start jumping up and down and their kin come pouring out of the ramshackle shack the call home. "You wrecked it! Keep his truck for collateral! We're going to hold you responsible! We'll sue the living shit outta you!" My cousin starts easing off to the side looking for a weapon of some sort. I'm like "Chill the fuck out it ran outta gas you have nobody to blame but yourselves." We discuss, a deal is made, paperwork is signed and we get the bike. On the way outta there. Down the road.

Of course that was my fault (according to them). I should have checked to see there was more than a cup of gas in the thing. And paid for it too. Brought my own gas for a test ride. Yep. That's how it works....

I always check the tank before I test ride a bike. Funny how you get these odd habits in life, ain't it?

 

[rudolfs001]

I was once on King Ridge Road when the evap. tube in the tank broke off, and shorted the fuel pump. Realized that's what happened after using my spare fuses and getting a looooong tow home (thanks AAA!).

Twice I've had a bike run out of gas and die right as I was pulling into a gas station.

Another time I forgot to switch the petcock from RES to ON and ran out after a kart track day.

Another time, I had just bought a SV1000S, took it for a spin, and it died with about 120 miles on the trip meter. Turns out the low fuel light was broken.

Many a time I've babied the throttle the last 20 miles of reserve to make it to a station when carving canyons.