I really don't know what the heck happened or what to think. Yesterday, I rode her for a good while and no problems, whatsoever.
Earlier today, I rode to a buddy's house, he's about 27 miles away. The ride there, was fine, I did about 70-80 MPH all the way there. Again, no problem.
I left his house and realized that I was low on gas. The ride to teh gas station was fine--It was a BP station. I pulled in and filled her up. Almost immediately as I was pulling out, she started sputtering, sounded as if she was coughing, she started jerking heavily and then knoked out.

Long story short, I was able to get home (the ride took me about an hour and 20 minutes) but I had to ride with the choke out. There was a heck of a lot of smoke coming from the exhaustAmd a few times, she would shut off.

I don't believe that it's anything electrical because everything electrical works fine. For the life of me me, I don't know what it could be.

We're in a recession and I really don't want to pay the shop the #90 hr fee to figure out what's wrong.

Please help. It's an 05' Roadstar. I haven't used it much over the summer, I don't know why this problem just started (I can't tell you how scary it was in teh middle of no where in the pitch dark).

Sounds like you got some water with that gas.

BigBoyinMS wrote:
Sounds like you got some water with that gas.
The problems didn't start until I added the gas. So you may be right. How do I pull out all of the gas that's currently in the tank?

Turn off the petcock and remove the hose then put another piece of hose on the petcock and put the other end in a catch can and turn the petcock back on to reserve. You also need to drain the carb float bowl. There is a drain bolt and tube to make it easy.

I think BigBoyinMS is right. I'd just pull the fuel pump hose off the petcock, put another hose on it and let the tank drain into a gas can or whatever you have. Be sure to switch the valve to Reserve to get as much out as you can. Use it for your lawn mower. Be sure to drain the float bowl too.

Doh! BigBoy beat me to it.

You also may have a dirty fuel filter.

Sounds too much like fuel, Save a sample to get some money back on your repairs from that station.

BigBoyinMS great diagram , I forgot about drain tube

Good luck
Mike

You may also have clogged jets. I was heading to work a few months ago with the main fuel low expecting it to run out. When it quit and I switched to reserve it didn't restart. I found that with the choke full on it would start and idle; but if I touched either the choke or the throttle it would quit. So a call to a friend got a rescue mission. At the shop I found that the low speed jet was completely clogged, cleaned it and all was well! Now we have a real fine screen on the fuel valve, an inline filter, and another screen at the carb inlet. HOW DOES TRASH GET TO THE JET?

Clifford

Would also like to add that if you follow the above instructions, you may want to use a glass container to drain the first couple of pints, If you let the bike set over night, the water will separate and go to the bottom of the tank, so it will be first out when you turn the petcock on. use the reserve setting only, not the normal, the reserve tube is shorter and will get the most water out..you will be able to see the gas when it starts filling the jar as it will separate and settle on top of the water....)If you don't see this happening, then you have another problem and not water in the gas..

Check to see if you put diesel in it. I know its easy to do at the Some of the BP stations. Don't even ask how I know this....