Run Out Of Gas? Got A Buddy Riding With You?
Posted by Mike Werner on Oct 23rd 2016
| Running out of gas in the city is usually not a problem when riding a motorcycle. You can easily push your bike to the nearest gas station. But when out riding in the country, away from cities or towns and their convenient gas stations, then when you run out of gasoline you have a problem. | ||
| If you are riding with some buddies, help is closer than you think. Obviously one way would be to have your buddy ride to the nearest gas station, fill up a jerry can or other recipient, ride back to you and fill up your motorcycle’s fuel tank. | ||
| But this can take a lot of time, and it’s not easy riding with an extra fuel bag (I actually carry a small plastic bag with is totally deflated and compressed, and made to carry fuel). But all you need is a small hose and to make your life much easier, a small hand pump and a recipient. | ||
| The idea is to have the recipient positioned lower than your buddy’s fuel tank. This will allow gravity to do most of the work. Because siphoning fuel from one tank to the other is going to involve real siphon pumps. And even if they are hand-actioned, I bet you don’t have one on you? | ||
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Place the recipient lower than the source fuel, typically on the ground. Put the hose (a clear one will make it easier, but it doesn’t need to be transparent) in the source fuel tank, into the siphon pump and onto the recipient. Start pumping the fuel over, and once it flows you can stop pumping, since gravity will do the rest of the work. Do leave some fuel for your buddy! | |
| But What To Do If You Don’t Have A Pump? | ||
| And even if you don’t have a siphon pump, you can still siphon off fuel. The most common way, but also the least nice way, is to suck the fuel through the hose using your mouth. Your mouth is now the siphon pump. | ||
| It’s guaranteed that you’ll at the very least get the fuel fumes in your mouth, but most probably a dash of gasoline. Which means nausea, vomiting and a bad taste in your mouth for hours, and on top of that, it’s not healthy. But in an emergency, it works. | ||
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Alternatively, put the hose as much as you can into the source fuel. Once in, place your fingertip on the end of the hose that is outside, keep it tightly on, and place that end in the recipient. | |
| Normally, there should be enough fuel inside the hose to start the gravity system working. It’s the straw principle you maybe played as a kid (I still do it), placing a straw in the glass with liquid, putting your thumb on the top of the straw, removing the straw, and you’ll see that the straw is still full of liquid. Letting go of your thumb, and the liquid spills out. | ||
| So all you need to do is make sure you have a hose long enough. Something to carry with you when going on longer motorcycle trips? | ||
