Do you turn the fuel off...

[N3FOL]

Have a friend that burned his house down along with car and dirtbike that he had ridden that afternoon.

 

He always left the fuel on too

You started to make me think more about shutting off the fuel petcock. As mentioned earlier, I also turn my petcock time to time just to give me a peace of mind that it still turns. I may start to turn off my fuel petcock once parked inside the garage. Better be safe than sorry.

[Seaking]

You started to make me think more about shutting off the fuel petcock. As mentioned earlier, I also turn my petcock time to time just to give me a peace of mind that it still turns. I may start to turn off my fuel petcock once parked inside the garage. Better be safe than sorry.

 

Just an "aside" here.. every time I hear the word "petcock" it makes me chuckle, but not quite for the reason you may be thinking of..

 

I teach motorcycle safety here and one of the instructors, being french, speaks fluent english but with a thick accent.. I'm french as well but barely any accent on me.. eh?

 

Anyway, while showing new students the various components of a motorcycle, he refereed to the fuel shut off valve as the Pet Cock.. (not petcock).. "Me I show you now where my pet cock sits on the motorcycle.." Needless to say, it was quite innocent but when you get a bunch of adults eager to learn about biking, the mind doesn't require much to get it giggling.. We had to explain to him that the word isn't two words but a single word.. petcock.. not pet cock..

 

Hence why today we refer to it as the Fuel Shut Off Valve.. and not his Pet Cock..

[LilBeaver]

...

Hence why today we refer to it as the Fuel Shut Off Valve.. and not his Pet Cock..

 

So there really isn't a small rooster that controls the fuel flow???

[RandyR]

I turn mine off when parked. I use on when riding and generally don't switch to reserve until the engine starts to sputter (usually 7-10 miles after the F odo comes on). Then I ride 20 miles or so on reserve and look for a gas station. That way I know everything is working.

[Hummingbird]

Do you turn off the fuel petcock on your bike when you are not riding?

 

No

[SilvrT]

Just an "aside" here.. every time I hear the word "petcock" it makes me chuckle, but not quite for the reason you may be thinking of..

 

I teach motorcycle safety here and one of the instructors, being french, speaks fluent english but with a thick accent.. I'm french as well but barely any accent on me.. eh?

 

Anyway, while showing new students the various components of a motorcycle, he refereed to the fuel shut off valve as the Pet Cock.. (not petcock).. "Me I show you now where my pet cock sits on the motorcycle.." Needless to say, it was quite innocent but when you get a bunch of adults eager to learn about biking, the mind doesn't require much to get it giggling.. We had to explain to him that the word isn't two words but a single word.. petcock.. not pet cock..

 

Hence why today we refer to it as the Fuel Shut Off Valve.. and not his Pet Cock..

 

 

:rotf: :rotf:

 

I used to live in Sudbury, Ontario and there's a lot of French Canadians there ... some of that "backwards english" sure can be funny. And they often start such sentences with "Me.." and then end the same sentence with "me" LOL

[KiteSquid]

Don't forget to run the bike on reserve from time to time.

 

You want to get the water out of the bottom of the tank before it rusts out your tank.

[N3FOL]

Just an "aside" here.. every time I hear the word "petcock" it makes me chuckle, but not quite for the reason you may be thinking of..

 

I teach motorcycle safety here and one of the instructors, being french, speaks fluent english but with a thick accent.. I'm french as well but barely any accent on me.. eh?

 

Anyway, while showing new students the various components of a motorcycle, he refereed to the fuel shut off valve as the Pet Cock.. (not petcock).. "Me I show you now where my pet cock sits on the motorcycle.." Needless to say, it was quite innocent but when you get a bunch of adults eager to learn about biking, the mind doesn't require much to get it giggling.. We had to explain to him that the word isn't two words but a single word.. petcock.. not pet cock..

 

Hence why today we refer to it as the Fuel Shut Off Valve.. and not his Pet Cock..

 

The term makes me :rotfl:time to time. It sure is funny everytime I read something about it. Well guess what, I arrived home from work last night and long behold...I turned off the fuel petcock. I just have to make sure to turn it back On before I ride today.

[N3FOL]

Don't forget to run the bike on reserve from time to time.

 

You want to get the water out of the bottom of the tank before it rusts out your tank.

 

I'm not so sure what you mean about water on the bottom of the tank. Please enlighten us on this phenomena. I rarely go on Reserve, but it has happened to me a few times on the interstate. If the intention is to at least empty out the tank as much as possible until you put in fresh gas in there, this may be beneficial.

[KiteSquid]

I'm not so sure what you mean about water on the bottom of the tank. Please enlighten us on this phenomena. I rarely go on Reserve, but it has happened to me a few times on the interstate. If the intention is to at least empty out the tank as much as possible until you put in fresh gas in there, this may be beneficial.

 

 

Look at a bunch of vintage bikes and a lot of them will have repairs to the bottom of the gas tank, on kick stand side.

 

Water will get in your gas, either from seepage into the underground tank at the gas station, or through condensation from humidity in the air.

 

Look at the inside of your gas tank. MOST of them are bare metal.

 

The water will rust out the tank over time.

 

 

One way to get water out of your gas tank is to put alcohol in it, like adding Seafoam, or most gasoline manufacturers add up to 10% ethanol to earn points from the EPA.

 

water that bonds to alcohol will settle to the bottom of your tank. It may or may not corrode your tank, but it does not burn well, so if you last gallon of fuel is this mix of water and alcohol, you wont get very far.

 

Another way to get the water out of your gas tank is to run your bike on reserve.

 

 

Or bikes have a fuel gauge, and an "idiot light" type mileage counter when the computer in the dash board thinks you have APPROXIMATELY one and one half gallon of fuel in the tank.

 

 

I normally run my bike on reserve, until the idiot light comes on, then I switch to on. this way I have a secondary reminder of low fuel.

 

It also exercises the petcock to keep it from freezing in one position.

 

 

So my goal is to use the fuel from the bottom of hte tank first, to try to keep clean fuel there.......

 

I hope this explanation helps.

[hillrider]

Water in the tank is not nearly the problem it used to be. Seems ethanol absorbs water, hence very little to no settling.