MZ/MuZ Riders

i always check this even on a new bike
some times where i live it is .5k to a station
other times its 50k
and in the dark of the night even further
dave

Like you Puffs, I have also a brand new (well a few years old now) pattern petcock the same as yours and I often ran out of fuel on touring holidays.. It was a surprise to me to be stuck in the middle of nowhere a couple of times after realising the reserve was only 6 miles .... 6 miles! Not far enough!

You have just reminded me that this is something I have been needing to do. My usual commute of 15 miles each way pass several petrol stations so I don't think about it when I find myself switching to reserve, but alas whilst touring could be problematic as i've experienced..

I probably won't go for 50 miles reserve. 30 should suffice I think.

Yes, I haven't made a science out of it (yet), maybe that 5mm OD pipe was a bit tall. We do not live in the WA emptiness.But that's what I had, a few of, and they are 50mm long. Maybe 1½" suits better; next time I'm there, I might take a bit off. But for me the important thing is that I have some distance left after I get the warning.

This time I got the warning going uphill, after leaving a small village. And for the live of me, I don't think it did more than 5 miles, if that. Put the bike on it's side & got another mile, maybe, and then it was walkabouts. Till the next village, where I bummed some.

I saw these and I really do need a new petcock. Are the quality of these any good?

I'm mainly curious about how they will hold up. If not I'm looking at Japanese bikes to see if they have anything similar. I like stick. But if I can replace it with something better I will.

Ever ran out of fuel?

Yes about 3 times.

2 of my modern bikes have low fuel warning devices, and I keep a close eye on those that dont

Many years ago I ran out of fuel at night - well about 3AM in the morning during the summer. Luckily it was near a garage, and I managed to find a length of pipe which I used to syphon some fuel out of one of the cars on the forecourt.

Could not do that now as just about every car has a locking fuel cap, another time I ran out it was a very hot summers day and there was a filling station about a mile away - pushing a Triumph Trident for a mile in the afternoon sun is not something I want to do again and probably could not given my age !!

Huge story about the 3rd time - it would take me too long to explain, save to say that it involved tipping the bike on it's side and running the front wheel up onto an embankment...........

I once had a DNEPR sidecar bike. Switching on reserve gave me 600 meters of fuel ! then the tank was empty

That's about as much as I got from a KTM I once had. Switched it to 'reserve' at the beginning of the street I lived in, but didn't actually make it back home...

I've run out of fuel with various bikes, all offroad - and with this MZ.

Now lets go out, burn some fuel.