Friday, October 28, 2016

Two-Up


Log Item - My daughter, Emilie (princess of the 'selfie') is in town and wanted to go out and fetch lunch. So we rolled out on the She-Devil and roared away. 

I do a pre-ride check in much the way that a pilot would check his aircraft. Everything looked solid. But about two miles from the house, the bike began to sputter. 

The gauge showed 2/3 of a tank of fuel, but since motorcycle gauges are notoriously quirky, I smelled a rat. The bike died. I had spark, but likely no fuel. I popped the tank and since I couldn't see to the bottom, I couldn't tell. 

So I pushed the motorcycle (up hill) to the nearest gas station, with Emilie cheering me on. The tank took 4.1 gallons...yes, I had a bone dry tank, but the gauge still showed 2/3 full.

We continued on the trip, bought lunch, ate it, drove to a gun store, looked at toys, and then drove home. The fuel tank still showed 2/3 full...

Two-up riding is fun and when something goes wrong, it's a story that you can both tell.

5 comments:

  1. I never knew bikes had gas gauges. Just reserve switch on the tank valve (which everybody switches to reserve and leaves it that way). Best way to tell if you have gas in the tank is to rock the bike back and forth and listen for sloshing.

    Old school, sure, but it has never failed me.

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    Replies
    1. New bikes, even HD's, no longer have tank valves with reserve switches. You must rely on the gauge...which made no sense to me and makes even less sense now.

      I rented a HD in Hawaii two weeks ago to ride around on and the fuel gauge on that beast was every bit as screwy as the one on my high tech Italian machine.

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  2. "I had spark and no fuel" That's a bit like how I feel.
    Oh such a girl , running out of fuel! Tut tut! I hope that push up the hill taught you a valuable lesson! ;)

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  3. It's always good to have a cheerleader when pushing 450 lbs up a hill. You are so lucky.

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  4. Somehow I get the sense that "Don't Mess with Emilie" is a very wise policy decision.

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