old george wrote:
I appreciate all the feedback concerning mpg I've already received...it has helped immensely, however, if you could include the following info when responding with mpg data it would help even more.

- year/displacement/stock air box?/stock exhaust?/tall, med, short, or no windshield?/any jetting changes from stock.

Thanks guys

George , for your info......all 99-03 Roadstars are 1600cc bikes , 04 to present are 1700cc bikes. 08 began the fuel injected Roadies. BB

With that kind of mileage, and you changed the main jet, have you looked to see if the pilot jet is stock? It should be a Mikuni #35 pilot jet. Hopefully they did not change the air jets, too small an air jet would also cause you to be rich in the pilot ckt. Also too high a float level could also cause it to consume more gas than what is needed.

I'm no longer thinking it's a fuel delivery problem...and now am thinkin it may be electrical related. The reason being that now it won't even go down the road. Starts and idles fine..accelerates smoothly then as soon as I hit 5th gear it dogs out...quits running period...both cylinders now instead of just the back one quit. Hit the starter button and she starts right up again...repeats the same cycle of idling fine..running out smooth and then it just dies. What the heck is goin on? I knew I shoulda bought the harley!
has anyone else had a similar problem with an 06 1700 ? I've got 17,000 miles on it and I'm at wits end tryin to figure this out.

You might want to bypass the fuel pump just to eliminate it from the equation..get a piece of 5/16 fuel line and run it directly from petcock to carb, and unplug the pump...won't take much to try it that way and see what happens...

Sounds easy ...so i'll give it a try ..tks. let you know if it helps.

Took the tank off, gas flows freely from the petcock, checked the fuel filter...looks good...ran a line from the fuel pump to a quart jug and turned the ignition switch on...pump ran out about 3 ounces of gas then quit....turn it on it runs out another 3 ounces of gas then quits ad infinitum. Now this is making sense because when i take the bike out it'll run down the road a ways then quit. i shut off the ignition ..turn it back on and the bike starts and runs fine for another half mile then repeats. I've been focusing on the carb/jets and associating the "bummer mileage" with the "dogging out" problem...then looking at maybe the secondary electrical system as a cause...but now I'm thinkin "FUEL PUMP". This thing is acting exactly like many of the cars I worked on where the fuel pump was the villan.

So I ask....could it be? Is the fuel pump supposed to just cut off like that? Or should it keep supplying the carb? is there a feedback from the float telling it to shut off?

And ...(the million dollar question)will it run ok without the damn fuelpump and no other alterations?

One last question...where's a good place to buy a fuel pump and any other OEM parts if needed...besides the dealer...because that fat bastard ain't gettin no more of my business.

The pump will not run indefinatly, Its a safety feature. What tells it to shut off when connected to the carb is the pressure it builds when the float needle is closed(read full bowl) if it doesn't get that pressure after so many seconds it will shut down anyway as it thinks the line is disconnected and will not pump gas all over the place. . As far as running without the pump, it will run reasonably well under moderate acceleration, but if you run full throttle for any sustained period of time, it will drain the bowl faster than gravity can fill it..the solution is to install a larger needle valve..Many of us run without a pump, it looks nicer and it's one less thing to go haywire..

Yes ... might be a good idea to run direct from the tank ... bypass the fuel pump ... to make sure.

If you're running a full tank and don't try to run higher revs too long you should be OK without the pump.

Doc