You may have a plugged up petcock. All the reserve is, is a lower standpipe. you valve may be not working or your not useing it correctlly or it's plugged. Take it off and check.

FOG

 

Okie dokie. The petcock is this thing --

Ours looks slightly different, but you'll still recognize it when you see it. It is located on the left side of the bike, probably about where your left knee/shin is when you're riding, hanging off of the gas tank. It is used to switch your gas source. There are 3 switch positions labeled on the petcock: On, Off, and Reserve.
Off = switch pointed towards the rear of the bike
On = switch pointed straight down
Reserve = switch pointed forward

I couldn't find the diagram that I wanted, so I whipped one up to help explain.

Now, as you can see, the reserve gas tank and the main gas tank are the same thing, just with different standpipes. When the petcock is switched 'On,' you have access to most of the gas in the tank, but not all of it. When you switch over to 'Reserve' you can then access all of the gas in the tank.

This is done as a warning to help prevent riders from running out of gas. In normal operation, your petcock should be switched to 'On.' Then, when you're getting somewhat low on gas, your engine will putter out and die. Switch over to 'Reserve,' and you've got probably 30-40 miles to get to a gas station. Having the petcock and the 'Reserve' is thus a failsafe to prevent you from unwittingly exhausting all of the fuel in your gas tank.

Based on your post, it sounds to me like you are not using the petcock at all. It is probably in the 'On' position, and so you are never using up all of your 'Reserve' fuel. This would be consistent with the description of your problem.

P.S. Take the MSF if you haven't already; that's where I learned the function of the reserve gas tank. You'll learn all kinds of useful stuff like that, including how to ride.

 

Thank for you responses. From the previous post I understand what the petcock is and where it is. We can eliminate one reason as I turned the petcock clock-wise to the Reserve mark when I I ran out of gas the other day. As far as plugged petcock, this is very much can be the case. So how I remove and check if it's clogged? Or may be, the reserve stand pipe is clogged. If it could be, how do I check in clean it? Thanks.

 

The other day, when you ran out of gas: when you switched over to reserve, did the bike start back up? If so, then it sounds like your petcock is working just fine.

 

Well, the problem that it didn't.

 

There is another interesting thing I observed. When I was starting to ride I once turned the petcock off and forgot to turn it back on before the ride. I could, in fact ride for about five, ten minutes before bike's battery died. Is this condition normal, should I be able to even move with the petcock off or it is indeed broken.

 

Well, even if you switch the petcock off, unless you've run the engine completely dry already, there is still fuel in the carburetor bowls and in the fuel lines, which will get you some distance, probably a mile or so. So, no, that's probably not it.

 

So the real question is, assuming there is a problem either with petcock or reserve standpipe, how can I confirm what's wrong and fix it. Thanks.

 

Just getting to know my bike: So, on a full tank, at 155 miles my gas puttered out and I had to get off my bike to switch to reserve since the knob was SO hard to turn. Once I do that, how much gas is left in the tank? I'm trying to figure out my gas mileage...

 

Hi, I have a strangest thing with amount of gas I put in the bike. According to the manual the tank supposed to fit total 4.8 gallons of gas, 2.2 gallons of which goes to reserve amount.

nay my friend. the reserve capacity is around .8 gallons.

 

Oooh, lookie what I stumbled across (Okay, so my gal pal in VA sent me this link - she has a 250)!

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_far_can_I_go_after_putting_the_fuel_petcock_on_%22reserve%22

 

So the real question is, assuming there is a problem either with petcock or reserve standpipe, how can I confirm what's wrong and fix it. Thanks.

I dunno if you ever found out what your problem was, but if you run the bike out of gas on the main tank, it will take some cranking to get enough gas to flow into the carbs once you have turned the petcock to "RES".

Just getting to know my bike: So, on a full tank, at 155 miles my gas puttered out and I had to get off my bike to switch to reserve since the knob was SO hard to turn. Once I do that, how much gas is left in the tank? I'm trying to figure out my gas mileage...

Reserve is a last chance mechanism. You realistically have between 25-40 miles before you will run out of gas completely.

Since you claim 155 miles to the main tank, your gas mileage works out to somewhere around 37mpg. Multiply that by .8 (the claimed reserve capacity of our bike) and you'll have somewhere in the range of 30 miles of reserve. Around here gas stations are never more than a half hour apart, but I still make a point of filling up as soon as I can after I hit reserve.

 

I have a similar problem with a few differences. I can switch from on to reserve when I have plenty of fuel without any problems, but when switching at Low Fuel, the bike dies and will not restart for about ten minutes. To counter the problem, I simply take a look in the tank to see how much fuel I have left and switch to reserve early.

I used to be able to switch to reserve while in traffic, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. I was thinking there might be an air bubble being created between the Low Fuel situation and the switch from on to reserve.

Any suggestions? Hopefully this helps the OP.

 

The stated reserve capacity might be 0.8 gallons, but in actuality it is more, and amount available to the "on" stand pipe is less because the standpipe is very tall. My son's EX gets @ 50 MPG but needed to be switched to reserve when he hit @ 120 miles. To extend his "on" range I cut the standpipe down 1/2 inch, and will probably cut it down a little more once he runs a few tanks thru it and we see how far he can go now. I'd like to see it at about 180 miles, which would still leave him with @ 1.2 gallons in reserve.

 

The stated reserve capacity might be 0.8 gallons, but in actuality it is more, and amount available to the "on" stand pipe is less because the standpipe is very tall. My son's EX gets @ 50 MPG but needed to be switched to reserve when he hit @ 120 miles. To extend his "on" range I cut the standpipe down 1/2 inch, and will probably cut it down a little more once he runs a few tanks thru it and we see how far he can go now. I'd like to see it at about 180 miles, which would still leave him with @ 1.2 gallons in reserve.

Something is not right here. Either the bike isn't getting 55 mpg, or you're not filling the gas tank properly. Most of us get 150-180 miles before reserve at least, and that's with the standpipe unmodified.

 

The stated reserve capacity might be 0.8 gallons, but in actuality it is more, and amount available to the "on" stand pipe is less because the standpipe is very tall. My son's EX gets @ 50 MPG but needed to be switched to reserve when he hit @ 120 miles. To extend his "on" range I cut the standpipe down 1/2 inch, and will probably cut it down a little more once he runs a few tanks thru it and we see how far he can go now. I'd like to see it at about 180 miles, which would still leave him with @ 1.2 gallons in reserve.

Something is not right here. Either the bike isn't getting 55 mpg, or you're not filling the gas tank properly. Most of us get 150-180 miles before reserve at least, and that's with the standpipe unmodified.

Maybe his son is speeding when daddy's not lookin'!

 

I was just thinking about the issue my bike has had. Last night after a short ride, I had preemptively put the petcock of reserve because I knew the tank was low. When I was close to home, I switched back to on and let the bike get to a low fuel situation. When I switched over to reserve, I expected the bike to stall. It didn't. Hurrah!

I then thought about it and may have figured out why the bike was stalling when switching to reserve at low fuel. When I made the switch previously, I would keep the throttle opened and switch to reserve. With the throttle opened in the on position (for several seconds), I am effectively sucking air into the fuel system. This air bubble keeps the fuel from the reserve out of the engine long enough to stall the bike. After several minutes, the air bubble is gone and the bike starts.

Solution? As soon as the bike starts to exhibit signs of low fuel, close the throttle and switch to reserve, while pulling in the clutch. As soon as the reserve switch is made, gently open the throttle to keep the engine fed with fuel from the reserve. Finally, when the engine is back to normal idle, let the clutch out.

Comments would be appreciated.

 

switch to reserve, while pulling in the clutch.

that requires two left hands IMO.

 

If you wait until the bike completely dies to switch over, then yeah you're gonna have to wait for a few minutes, for fuel to get to the engine from the reserve standpipe. No getting around that.

Usually you can start to tell before it dies, it'll lose some power and not respond quite as sharply as usual. If you notice that happening, then that's the time to switch over.

If I know I'm getting close to reserve, I'm usually headed towards a gas station anyway so I'll just switch over to reserve prematurely just to ensure the bike doesn't die on the highway or something. Otherwise I'm paying real close attention for the loss of power so that I can switch over and not die completely.

 

If you wait until the bike completely dies to switch over, then yeah you're gonna have to wait for a few minutes, for fuel to get to the engine from the reserve standpipe. No getting around that.

Usually you can start to tell before it dies, it'll lose some power and not respond quite as sharply as usual. If you notice that happening, then that's the time to switch over.

If I know I'm getting close to reserve, I'm usually headed towards a gas station anyway so I'll just switch over to reserve prematurely just to ensure the bike doesn't die on the highway or something. Otherwise I'm paying real close attention for the loss of power so that I can switch over and not die completely.

Last weekend, when I let my gas tank empty (putter to death, hehe) on purpose, I pulled over to change it over to reserve (why is that lever so hard to budge?) ...

After I switched it, it didn't start right back up after a couple seconds, so I pulled the choke and it started right up.

Was that a good or bad decision? Comments?

 

when you let it run that low it was running off the fuel in the float bowls. it takes a little cranking to get the fuel flowing thru the petcock and refill the bowls. using the choke at that point would do no harm as long as you turn it off as soon as possible; leaving the choke on will foul the sparkplugs since the choke enriches the air/fuel mixture.

 

Thank you. I know not to leave the choke on for long - I only used it for about two seconds. I was surprised it worked for my purpose! =)

 

the choke doenst actually "choke" on this engine. most of the time, a choke will richen the mixture by blocking the air flow coming into the carb... so if your air flow is blocked you are choking.

other times, and on this bike specifically, when you open the choke, it sucks fuel from the float bowls into the venturi (or barrel as its sometimes called), and into the engine. achieves the same goal as the other type, which is to richen the mixture, just in a different way.

maybe the lever should say DROWN instead of CHOKE.

 

switch to reserve, while pulling in the clutch.

that requires two left hands IMO.

Lol, OK - we can switch to reserve, then pull in the clutch.