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Running out of Gas!
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Posted by: atc3434`
Today I decided to hop on the YZ and head down to a little riding spot/track type area near my house. So I checked over the bike real quick, including the gas. There was a little, I figured 45 minutes worth, since I probably wouldn't be pushing it hard. Rode to the spot, 10 minute ride, and rode for like 20 minutes. Rode pretty hard too, it was muddy, but the burms were good, and they had a couple of real sweet jumps. I'm a serious noobie to jumping, but they had a few that only kicked maybe 6 - 7 feet up if you didn't go nuts, so I had fun flirting with that... didn't want to try anything huge by myself and die alone in a muddy field. 
Anyways I came back, and wouldn't you know it I burned up all that gas, and ran out right as I got to the road closest to where I was riding. Thank God for cellphones. I called pops, he brought me 2 gallons of gas (He bought 87!! though... guess I'll be mixing that in with my regular 93) and my oil, so I mixed it up right there and rode her on home. That one was no big sweat.
I did run the KDX220 out in the middle of nowhere once... my partner and I tried towing it with what is now my YZ125, but that wastn't working out too good. So we double rode the YZ through about 4 miles of decently rough trails to go get his truck. And then when we got back, we both suddenly remember that the stupid KDX has a RESERVE!!! GRRR! :silly: What a bunch of idiots.
OK, so I want to hear all the crazy out of gas stories you guys have... I'm sure they are out there. Somebody must have done worse than my with the KDX! 
Posted by: justql
I broke a clutch perch in an enduro at mile 17. Rode like crazy for 30 more miles with no clutch to the gas stop, which was at camp. I grabbed my son who was zipping around on his kx 60. I yanked the perch of the 60, with the help of a buddy I had it quickly installed on the RMX. I hammered it as I left camp ran down a rode a few miles adjusting the clutch as I was heading down the road. The dropped us back into the woods a few miloes from camp, I was back on myu minute now and breathed a sigh of relief. At mile 66 the bike died. I knew instantly why. I had forgotten to fuel up at the Gas stop. 
Posted by: mx547
i was at a motocross race once and my bike quit on the last lap of the first practice. i thought, no problem, fouled plug. i walked all the way back to my truck (which was at the opposite end of the track) and got a new plug and wrench. i changed the plug-still wouldn't start. i opened the gas cap, oops, out of gas. i walked back to the truck again and got my gas can. i walked back to my bike, gassed it up and it immediately started. i had to ride it back to the truck carrying the gas can between my legs while everyone laughed. the flagger just shook his head.
Posted by: MX2_motorex
I was doing the Donnie Hansen motocross training in Colorado. It was the last day of training and we were going to put all of our training together with 2 motos. I was dumb and figured since I was riding a four banger I didn't have to worry about gas, when I went to start the bike it wouldn't start. so I started freakin out with out even seeing if there was gas in the bike. We tried starting it by pulling it around with the truck for 30 minutes. The guy driveing went to me opend my gas cap and said "this things out of f****** gas!!!". I went back my pit feeling like an ideot.
Posted by: mx547
boy, i really feel stupid now. out of 26,000+ members, we four are the only ones to have ever run out of gas. :silly:
Posted by: gixer
Does a street bike count?
I was running late and have to judge my mileage. No gas gauge on a GSXR and I was getting close but I knew there was reserve so I thought no big deal I can always switch over if I need to even though I don’t like to. So after doing what I had to do I headed out to a gas station. Sure enough she started to die. I reach down and guess what? I was already in reserve. I never use it so I had no idea what was up. So after pushing to a gas station and filling her up I was off and running. A week later a guy at work gos to me so did you have fun trying to start your bike the other day when I asked why he said he flipped this switch on the side to mess with me. After beating him to a pulp I let him know that it was for my reserve tank and thanks for making me push the bike. But I now know exactly how many miles I can get to a tank.
Posted by: Jonala
Funny you should ask.
Yesterday I rode the Polecat enduro. First make I didn't fill up at the gas stop for the second loop. I only had to ride another 35 miles. I left gas with a half tank. :o On a XR250 should be plenty right?
I go through the last timed check. I heading down a fire road on course having a great time. After about 15 minutes I finally notice there are no more arrows. So I turn around to get back on course when the bike dies.
I put it on reserve, but not knowing how far reserve will take me, I make the second big mistake. :flame: I ask a local logger a quick way back to the area I thought we were. So instead of going back to the spot where I got off course I started what turned out to be a 2hr adventure of trying to find my way back to the start area.
Dumb luck was on my side. The reserve on a XR250 is good for 40 miles, and I met two local riders who escorted me back the last 2 miles back to the start area. The Honda ran out completely 1.5 miles from the gas stop. My new friends gave me a ride to the gas stop and back to my bike.
My adventure could of easily been motorcyclist lost in the mountains news bulletin.
Lesson Learned.
Posted by: FireLily
I read an article about Mike Laffety running out of gas 4 times during Quicksilver in CA....apparently it happened not at regular gas stop. I knew it was one of the toughest Enduros, but I thought that was unusal. Then I read another article about him. He had choke on during the race and didn't know until later. 
John, good thing you were riding XR250. If not, you would still be a missing person!
Mini
Posted by: MCassle
Lost gas just a mile from the finish of last years Hungry Valley Qualifier, thank goodness for reserve. I didn't fuel up at the gas stop because I knew I could get 90 miles out of the tank. But that is 90 miles of trail riding, not racing. The worst part was kicking over a bike I just ran out of fuel at mile 75 of a race, I was already dead tired & that certainly didn't help. Could of been worse I suppose.
Posted by: atc3434`
Few.... definatly not the only person that thought I could stretch my gas just a little further. Should have know better on a hungry 125 than to trust it!
Posted by: kdxkid141
ya, i have ran out of gas, its glad to know that i am not the only idiot to run out. I was ridin my bike, we had gotten out about 4 miles from our truck on the trails, and it started running kinda funny. i figured that it fouled a plug, so i change it, won't start. i kick it for about 10 minutes with my friend even putting in a couple of kicks, then he looks at the gas. "well your out of gas" he says, then he goes "who checked it before you rode." I did, and it was in bad light, so i thought that it was full. what an idiot.
Posted by: tx246
justql, justql, justql...........just couldnt bring it on to tell on yourself could you? its this weekend at the annual spode ride at justql's heavenly trails bonanza. finally got a group of "big kids" together and justql is leading the bunch...........for about 70 yds. we all figure its the gas gas natural ability to foul plugs (so does justin). he tinkers with the plug and tells us that it is loose and that should do it as he tightens it up. kick, kick, kick, .........nothing. well, he pulls the fuel line and no gas comes out. ahhh i have a reserve on this thing and ive got four inches of fuel according to the clear tank inspection. we get cranked and get hauling. justin has a six mile loop on his place and figures he can do that on reserve. well, we get to the other side of the ranch and bwwwaaaa the gas gas dies. we all giggle at him when he announces that he has just found out that the reserve is good for three miles. bswift the good samartan that he is volunteers to go get him some gas. we all sit around and bs ......then we bs some more........its getting dark now.........here comes a 4 wheeler with someone laughing there butt off. turns out on the way back bswift managed to run out of gas and was pushing his thumper back when he ran into the 4 wheeler. the 4 wheeler guy ran gas two both of them and we continued on our loop.
Posted by: justql
I was so happy to ride that I actually ran out once and ran low a second time and has to use reserve to get back. The second time I headed straight back to camp. 
Posted by: mx547
muhahaha, what a spode! 
Posted by: tx246
jay, you mean what a Sopde!
Posted by: mx547
Quote:
Originally posted by tx246
jay, you mean what a Sopde!
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i hadn't noticed that.
...and he's a high school principal. 
Posted by: BSWIFT
Well, I ran out of gas myself while on a rescue mission. That will give you guys an idea of how much we rode this weekend. I feel muscles I forgot that I had!
Posted by: dead
my first time riding by myself i put the bike on reserve...well after riding around my grandparents property for a few hours the bike dies.. zero gas.. that was a long walk back to the garage.
Posted by: JasonJ
Street bike, sevral times, the worst, I was on vacation and we left from SE Pa, up through NY, into Canada, down through Detroit and back through Ohio and Pa. Canada was awesome, nice rodes, We were 2 up on my Honda VFR 750 with camping gear so we were heavy, We had to go from Niagra falls, to a state park in Michigan so I was hamering averaging 105. Last gas stop the best fuel they had was 87 octane and I alwuays run at least 92 if not 94. Well between the low octane fuel, the exsissive speed and heavy weight I hit my reserve tank with about 35 miles to the next exit, I know I can get about 40 miles usally on my reserve, but this was going to be close, I ran out about 4 miles shy of the gas stop. I started walking in the summer heat and thank goodness a dude on a Silver wing stoped, picked me up, took me to the gas stop, filled up 2 snappel bottles and he rode me back to the next exit down, and back up to my bike. Thaks Canadian Dude!!!!
I dont recall running out of gas on a dirt bike before last weekend . Last weekend I was out with my girl frined and we headed back in and I turned right back around to head out with some friends never even checking the tank! I ran out of gas about 30 mins out. A bud filled 2 beer cans he so graciously emptied and we dumped them in the WR. I said that should be more than enough to get be back to camp. Go back? he says, no way, your coming wiht us! If it runs out again we will just dump some more in, we had more than enough machienes in the group. I rode gingerly for 2 and a half hours on those two bottles of gas! I ran out about 1/4 mile from the camp as I finally left the group on the way back in to make a sprint for camp. I still had a tunnel with a foot of water in it to go through and a narly rocky hill to get up. Thank goodenss for my Clarke 3.3 gallon tank that holds about a half pint of gas down in the non valve side of the tank, I layed the bike over, picked it up by the rear wheel to get the last drops of gas out of it and rode her back into camp.
I made it back but I could not rip around in some of the areas we stopped at to play, I had to sit and watch 
serves me right though.
Other than that, I think Tree Jumper should get honorable mention for the May 3-4 Paragon ride for shutting his fuel valve off on top of Howie Hill and forgetting to turn it back on, spending about 8 minutes kicking a YZ 450 on the trail before some one mentioned checking the fuel valve and documenting the whole ordeal with his helmet cam and not editing that part out of the tape he so graciously copied and sent out to us .
Posted by: yzguy15
I've run out of gas in 2 different races. Both in hare scrambles races. See, apparently, I own the one 250 that gets terrible gas mileage. We're talkin 25 miles in a race is pushing it on gas. The first time I ran out was about a mile form the finish, and I was runnin way behind anyway. Just barely beat the sweeper as I recall. The second time was one of my greatest races to date. I was actually going to get my first trophy. It was the second to last lap, still in 4th place after a holeshot start (trophies through 5th) when I fell the clutch starting to go. CRAP!!! Burned up clutches are hard to ride with so I manage for about a lap (6 or so miles). At the end of that 3rd lap I should have pitted, and I don't really know why I didn't. But just as the clutch finally went with about 2 miles to go till the finish... I ran out of gas. And, it was my birthday. That really really sucked.
Posted by: padrutt199
one time i was riding at my house and i pulled off to fill my tank up and eat some lunch so i park my bike go in to eat and come back out and start riding again. i was riding for maybe five to ten minutes and was going up the face of a big double when my bike bogs out right at the bottom. my bikes front end dropped so fast that my rear fender hit my back when i bailed. luckily i made it to the downside of the landing but my bike landed upside down on the backside of the landing and snapped the left side bar off. thats the last time i forgot to fill up.
Posted by: jaypro55
What about the old leaving the petcock turned off after you stop? My buddy left his off one time, goes down into a valley to climb a hill and it dies on him. First question we ask is is the gas on. Of course he says. So we were thinking plug foul. He rides slow and doesn't get on it real well, a newbie, so we all figured hey it happens. So after 5 of us pushed his RM250 up quite the hillside. We sit and kick and kick and then try to bump start it. Nothing, doesn't want to stay running at all. So we sit around, try everything. Get it all the way pushed up another huge hill near the road. And we see, the idiot left his gas off, and we were just as dumb for not actually looking at it. Sure enough, turn it on and kick her, she comes to life. After a small gangbeating on him, we went on our way lol. But me, being dumb forgot to turn my gas back on after I left my bike on its side. So I stall out about 2 minutes later, but that's the first thing I grabbed for. And we were fine.
Only ever ran out of gas once on my bike. Intentionally though because I was switching to a new oil and wanted to run it dry.
Posted by: NIPZ_799
I'VE BEEN LUCKY ENUFF TO ALWAYS HAVE TANKED UP B4 GOING OUT...BUT ONE TIME MY DAD AND I HAD JUST GOT THE BIKES LOADED UP ON THE TRAILER AND WE DECIDED TO TANK THEM UP AND WE HOPED IN THE BLAZER AND BOUT 2 MINUTES LATER I COOD SMELL GAS REALLY STRONG AND I LOOKED IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR AND I FORGOT TO PUT MY GAS CAP BACK ON THE CR!.......SO WE PULLED OVER, SLAPPED THE CAP BACK ON, AND GOT LECTURED BY MY DAD.........LOL......THE GOOD TIMES:d
Posted by: mx547
Quote:
Originally posted by jaypro55
What about the old leaving the petcock turned off after you stop?
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i did that once in a motocross race. i got the holeshot, made about a quarter lap and it died. i immediately knew what was wrong. i turned it on and got going pretty quickly but i was only able to make it back up to fifth. i won the second moto so my goof cost me an overall win. :scream:
Posted by: High Lord Gomer
I was racing a good friend of mine in the +30 class for $20 and a bottle of Geritol. I made a big deal out of turning off his gas while we were in staging. I didn't realize mine was still off. I don't usually get that good of a jump out of the gate, but usually pass some people coming into the first turn. This time I got my best jump out of the gate *ever* and was clearly in front for the first 50 feet until it died.
He actually incorporated the label from the Geritol bottle into a rear fender sticker. People used to ask him all the time how he got a Geritol sponsorship.
Posted by: GeoffM24
When I was at Southwick on Sunday a guy in the 1st 250 moto on a KTM had his bike die right in front of me on the LAST LAP. He ran out of gas! Now that sucks.
Posted by: Rannoch
Im seein how far I can go till I hit reserve. I wanna see my XR400's MPG
Posted by: kd7akn
I ride with guys on 2 smokes. When they start running out, I start taking it easy so I don't.
Posted by: KenR
The BITD Nevada 200 is a three day trail ride out of Caliente, Nevada. On Day 2, the skies were overcast and we knew we were in for some weather when little snowflakes started falling on all of us at the riders meeting.
In their usual, sadistic fashion, Casey Folks and Scot Harden began the ride with mile-or-so jaunt up a creek, ensuring that all the A-B riders would start the day wet. As we climbed into the mountains, it began to snow harder, eventually collecting so much that the trail was completely covered. MAN, was I having FUN!!! A little wet, but this was AWESOME!!
After what felt like just a few miles, we came to the first gas stop. I peeked at the tank and saw plenty of fuel, at least half a tank, probably more. My buddies topped off their desert tanks while I dug out a PowerBar.
We continued to ride over some of the most spectacular terrain you'll ever find, climbing still higher into the mountains. At some point the Big Man really turned on the snow maker. Now the stuff was 3-4" deep and falling in big clumps off the trees. The no-fog goggles were pretty much useless now, fogging not being as much of a problem as the rapid build up of wet, slush on the lens.
Dropping into snow covered sand washes, and climbing back out to tree covered ridges, things were beginning to get uncomfortably cold. My enduro jacket was completely soaked, gloves frozen into and icy mass, fingers and toes long since loosing feeling. We carried on, praying that the lunch stop was "just over that next hill".
Then I heard that disturbing sound a two stroke makes when it's sucked it's last drop of fuel, you know, that super smooth delivery of power followed by a slight increase in rpms, then a baaaaaaaahhhhhhh.
Now two of us (Timster was off on a determined run to lunch) were standing in the middle of a blizzard, somewhere around 8000' above sea level in the middle of the mountains with no idea how much farther my much-needed gas can was, not to mention a campfire and hot lunch.
I tried not to panic, and suggested to Rusty that he go on ahead and save himself - attempting to ride two-up in the deep sand wash wouldn't have worked anyway. I found a tree to stand under and wondered what my dried out, frozen corpse would look like when it was found next spring as I watched him motor away.
After about ten minutes, the greatest sight and sound I've ever experienced appeared just up the trail - Rusty's KX250 with my gas can wobbling between his knees, on his way back. Turns out, the lunch/fuel stop was finally just on the other side of that hill. When I got there I spent two hours trying to dry out and warm up over a campfire. Casey and Scot wisely decided that the halfway point of Day 2's ride was a good place to head back to Caliente considering the weather. 100 or so of us headed to the highway and rode 40 miles back to town behind a 70 mph KTM box van escort.
What a ride!!
Bought a BIG desert tank soon after and fill up at every stop now.
Posted by: Neil Wig
Our GROUP has never run out, several individuals have. We got in the practice of all running the same oil ratio, and brand of oil (MC-1). Troy has a chunk of gas line wrapped around his bars. We just park the bikes side by side, unplug the fuel lines, install Troy's fuel line from tank to tank, and transfer the fuel thru the shut-off valves. Quick, easy, and no syphoning.....
YMMV
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