What is the point of having a reserve tank if you can't even use it as a warning to fill up before running out of gas? As you might be able to tell this happened to me today.

I always run the bike with the fuel switch on "ON" and like a month or so after I bought the bike I ran out of gas outright, no warning. I pulled over, switched it to reserve, and no fuel. So every now and then I used to put it on reserve before filling up.

Same thing today, I knew I was low and I was half a mile away according to the odometer from the gas station, had to call my brother to bring some gas.

Why bother having a reserve setting?

 

i would say that your filter in your petcock is broke or has come off because you should have about 20 miles on reserve or so i can run just about that on my 91 and my mom has a 2002 1200 and it will run 25 miles on it ....i would unscrew your petcock and see if that has happend i have had it done to me on my old 79 1000 hope you the best of luck
shaun

 

Are you sure that when it's in the ON position, the long side of the lever is pointed down?

 

+1 The reserve is what keeps me from running outta fuel. Once I flip over to reserve I've comfortably 20 miles to find fuel. Besides, tell me another time you can reach down between your legs, flip your petcock, in public, and not get in trouble.

 

I don't remember off hand which side is larger, but I know that when looking at the thing from the left side of the bike, "on" is on top, "fuel off" is horizontal (at least I think that's what it says), and "reserve" is on the bottom. I turn the switch clockwise.

Last time I was at my indy he said I don't have to keep turning it off since its vacuum sealed, so lately I've just been leaving it where it is, although now that I think about it, every time I've gotten it back from the indy, the switch is on the bottom selection. I figured they just always put it in reserve just in case.

 

i got 25 miles or so in my reserve, i was alone between santa barbara and santa maria CA around 1AM this weekend and i was running on reserve. if that gas station didnt pop up out of nowhere i would have been SOL though

replace your petcock or rebuild it, something inside broke

 

Good one.

 

I've seen more than one person who had the lever position confused. The long side of the lever is not "pointing" end.

 

Make sure you understand the ON and RESERVE settings, look at your manual if needed.

The little tube in the tank *can* break off, so that you're drawing from the lower, Reserve, level always. That's the second thing to check after you've made sure you're trained properly on the equipment.

Proud to be a petcock-fondler.

 

Sounds to me like you have things turned around. The long arm on the petcock should point down for on. There is an indention on the petcock that tells you where you have it set. A friend of mine used to go by the long arm on his '02 sportster, kept telling him he's going to run out, he did on a ride one day, we just left him.