I had my first experience with this today.
The situation was,..
Only about 1 gallon of gas left in the tank. Took 3.95 gal at the fill up, less then 3 miles down the road.
Petcock still on the main, the low fuel light came on right after this happened.
I had stopped on a slight incline...maybe 15 degrees, needed the brake to stay put.
Made a right hand turn onto the highway, with alot of lean on the bike(no boards dragging).
I was rolling on the throttle good coming out of the lean, and had good revs in gears 1 thru 3 with no issues, when I slipped it into fourth, was when I noticed the miss. I didn't hit the rev limiter in 1 thru 3. Maybe 3800 tops.

I figure between the slope at the stop sign, and the wait for traffic, combined with the low fuel. Not being on reserve yet. The right hand turn, and goosing the throttle good, I managed to starve her for fuel. No issues after switching to reserve. I don't know if the pump would have prevented this or not .

Anyway, I know this is a concern for some who are pondering the mod, and this is the first time I've had an issue in 500(edit, 733 at the fill) miles.

Have you vented your gascap?

Gram wrote:
Have you vented your gascap?

Yes, and I have an inline filter oriented vertically.

That is one of my biggest fears of going pumpless that's why I haven't done it yet. I just carry another fuel pump and extra fuel lines with me just incase.

You've done better than most. Before the filter mod mine would run out at 1/4 tank with the petcock on normal. The stop on the downgrade probably helped a lot by keeping the fuel over the petcock. The hard right hand turn is what finally starved it out. And no, it wouldn't have happened with the pump.

The pump will pick up any air and send it on its way with the fuel. With gravity an air bubble tends to block the fuel from flowing.

texasscott1 wrote:
You've done better than most. Before the filter mod mine would run out at 1/4 tank with the petcock on normal. The stop on the downgrade probably helped a lot by keeping the fuel over the petcock. The hard right hand turn is what finally starved it out. And no, it wouldn't have happened with the pump.

The pump will pick up any air and send it on its way with the fuel. With gravity an air bubble tends to block the fuel from flowing.

Actually, the stop was going up hill.

BlackRain, I'm not going back. I'm not as convinced as Scott, that the pump would have saved me with the stacked odds. I think just the petcock on reserve, would have made the difference. the bike never died, it only skipped a beat twice before I switched to reserve.

I think it was you I was thinking about regarding the low fuel light. Mine seems to show up around the 3.7 or 3.8 gals down mark. Always when the needle hits the pin on mine.

Sounds like it just ran out of gas because of the incline. Once you switched it, it ran fine so I would not worry. Its still a mystery to me why these bikes have fuel pumps in the first place.

Haven't figured out why you want to go pump less. That's the way the bike came and I leave it alone. Carry fuel line incase the pump craps out but really can't see the advantage to doing away with it. IMHO

LIGHTNIN wrote:
Haven't figured out why you want to go pump less. That's the way the bike came and I leave it alone. Carry fuel line incase the pump craps out but really can't see the advantage to doing away with it. IMHO


+1 Lightnin I'm all in for alot of mods...just can't seem to get comfy with this one....so I leave well enough alone...imho
as an aside..I am reminded of the message that I gleamed from Curt's post some days/weeks ago....If it
's not broke...don't fix it...

Pumpless here also and I think you nailed it in terms of the incline, lean, throttle up combo given the fuel level.

Some leave it on reserve all the time (including me now also).