Gas Tank Questions

[lragan]

Egad, Curtis, it never occurred to me that sitting on the bike whilst filling it was dangerous, but I see your point! 

It would be terribly ironic to survive the misjudged curves, soccer moms on cell phones, punctured tires, etc. only to be burned to death at the gas pump!!

Think I will go back to the old way. 

Thanks,

Lawrence

[TLRam1]

On a post somewhere, it was mentioned to run your tank dry. I did that with my larger tank. Ran it dry to reserve than dry to the bone and I have on other bikes shaken it back and forth to get to a station.

[Curtis_Valk]

Egad, Curtis, it never occurred to me that sitting on the bike whilst filling it was dangerous, but I see your point! 

It would be terribly ironic to survive the misjudged curves, soccer moms on cell phones, punctured tires, etc. only to be burned to death at the gas pump!!

Think I will go back to the old way. 

Thanks,

Lawrence

Yes ............terribly ironic!

Curtis

[hootmon]

On a post somewhere, it was mentioned to run your tank dry. I did that with my larger tank. Ran it dry to reserve than dry to the bone and I have on other bikes shaken it back and forth to get to a station.

Sounds like a good way to get trash into your carbs... ALthough, since I just put 3.5+ gallons in my bike, I must have been pretty close...

[TLRam1]

In-line filter, next...... You keep trying to catch me slipping up, ain't gonna happen.    You have a way of making me look like I'm on the top of my game, keep it up!

[dgc67]

    OK, no offense Terry, but I would think you have enough projects on your plate to make this one a waste of time and effort.
Now, Hootman on the other hand....  well enough said. 

[L J VFR]

When I ride with my uncle and he is on his valkyrie, my eyes seem to start floating because he wants to go a rediculous distance like 150 miles   without stopping.

He wouldn't go 150 miles on my Valk, (I'm getting about 28 mpg) I have to fill up before my wife does on the Magna.

Charles, my uncle's bike is a 98 as well. It has the hard side bags on it.  He was at MOOTmag6 with me but we left before you came in on Friday.  Anyway, he was having carb issues on his bike as well.  I pulled the carbs with help from Greg C. and they were terribly corroded.  Cleaned everything up and did a sync on the carbs. 2 carbs were out of sync pretty significant, but I don't remember which one's.  I do remember the air cleaner was pretty onry to get off.    Anyway, he was the second owner of the bike, and the bike had sat for 1 year.  When he started riding it, I told him to run seafoam in the carbs.  It ran fine for a while until the seafoam started breaking all of the tarnish loose in the carb bowls.  Then it plugged his jets up.  When I pulled his carb bowls, it looked like mud in there.  I drained the bowls and cleaned everything up.  If i were you I would go ahead and clean the carbs.  That way you won't have to go thru the same problems he encountered. [/color]

[Charles S Otwell]

I tend to agree that it's probably the carbs, but it only cuts out at lower speeds, seems to run pretty good at higher speeds. I notice it most when I'm easing around in slow traffic, and even then not all the time just occasionally. I do smell strong fumes when setting still which convinces me it's the carbs, but the plugs look clean. I'm planning on having another wrenching session this spring and hoping some our Valk Gurus will attend and give me their input. If the gas milage doesn't improve I'll probably end up removing the carbs for a good cleaning. Until then it runs like a bat ooh at higher speeds so I just won't slow down till I have to stop . Thanks for the in put on your uncle's Valk, gives me hope. It did improve his mpg didn't it?

[L J VFR]

Charles, to be honest he  has never mentioned the fuel mileage difference.(and I never asked him).  He never reset's his odometer, just rides until he has to put it on reserve. He did say that it is a lot smoother and runs a lot better due to the carb cleaning. Greg C. and I came to the conclusion that he had a dynojet kit in the carb's because of the notches on the needles when I had it apart. I richened  it up one notch.  I will ask him if it helped though.  I do know that he can easily go 150 miles before a refill though.  I don't remember if he went on reserve or not though on that 150.  You have a great bike, I really enjoyed riding the Valk.  The uncle  has aftermarket exhaust on his, and it sounds awesome above 4000 rpm..   

[Charles S Otwell]

I'm more concerned with the mpg right now, I went from 50 mpg on the Magna to about 28 mpg on the Valk, I was expecting from 38 to 40 at least. I'm not even sure which size Valk tank I have, guess I need to do a little research. And thanks again, let me know what he says about the mpg.

[Greg Cothern]

Charles, I would check the air filter, muffler/header bolts, plugs, etc.  That will give ya a good starting baseline.

[Charles S Otwell]

I just got the heater going in my shop again so it's fixing to get a good going over. I'm removing several parts for cleaning and polishing so it will be a good time to check those things you mentioned, thanks..

[hootmon]

[Here are a couple of threads I talked about this, one has Charles measurement in theory  what could be gained

Terry I done told you it weren't no theory, I filled the top of the tank up to the bottom of the neck and it held 1 and 1/2 quart ( tank was upside down with no bottom). That is the absolute most it will hold with no air pockets, so just drilling a hole in the neck won't even net you that much.

OK.. I filled my tank so that there was gas all the way around the neck at the bottom.. I then proceeded to fill the neck (and surrounding tank behind the neck). The additional amount was 0.365 gallons.. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it is an additional 14+ miles to reserve.. If I had a tank that went 160 - 200 miles, I'd say Big Deal..
But with a tank that only gets me 100 miles, then an added 14+ miles is 15% farther.. That's pretty good..
As to the note above.. Even if you fill it to the top of the gas cap hole, there is still air space in the tank but .365 gallons would come pretty close to 1.5 quarts...

[dgc67]

I have to agree that an additional 14 miles is a HUGE plus.  Having pushed a bike out of gas before, just an extra 5 miles would have been a Blessing.

[TLRam1]

Good info Hoot, correlates well with Charles's measurement. I have not drilled mine but I will.....one day, little doubt it will help, how much faster, we will have to see.