Tank Reserve Compartment

[Chessiegolf]

Ok Steve,

I understand what you are saying although I did ride 78 miles on Thursday afternoon, it was dry and sunny on the east coast, so a bit of winter enjoyment was called for.

I suspect draining the tank in the garage may give a false impression as the fuel isn't slopping around then, effectively reducing the reserve compartment. What I think I need to do is carry out a practical test , equipped with a gallon of petrol in the topbox, and deliberately letting the compartments run dry.

I will post the results, but seeing as I refilled the tank two miles before home it may take a while to get to a near empty state.

[Chessiegolf]

A quick update if anyone's interested.

I've now managed to get out enough to use the fuel in the tank - 260 miles before needing reserve. I didn't then carry on to see what the useable reserve was though, but will try next to go out with some spare fuel carried in another container when I get near the limit again.

260 miles seems pretty good to me as the bike is still being run in after a complete engine rebuild (its now done 687 miles) and the compression is improving all the time. I have to say that for a standard 7.5:1 compression ratio its getting quite a job to swing the kick start, funny how that wasn't a problem 50 years ago!

The running in was carried out using the instruction manual suggestion of disregarding indicated speed and only opening to 1/3 throttle, this meant that I've been cruising at 50-55mph most of the time, at 1/4 throttle, and still leaving a bit in reserve for hills and head winds.

The head has been re-torqued, tappets reset, chains adjusted and oil changed so at long last I think I'm getting somewhere.

John

[MalcW]

Glad to hear that you're making good progress,and getting some miles in. One advantage of motorcycling in these difficult times is that it's a relatively solo activity, so you can still go for a ride and retain your sanity. At least for the moment...

Malc

[Rob Harknett]

No sure if what I am about to say has been mentioned about running in an engine. I see talk of speeds, throttle openings and number of miles. Which is not all you need to consider when running in. There is a 4 speed gear box. So depending what gear you are in, speed means very little. What ever gear you are in, you should not allow the engine to Labour. So change down a gear. On the way up through the gears, do not open the throttle forcing the engine to pull. Number of miles running in will depend how tight the bore may be. Cars are easy to test bore tightness when running in. I had many new cars to run in. One car I had, got up to a couple of 1,000 miles. I said to an old mate, that car still does not feel like ts run in. He said start it up. He ran the engine till it was warmed up then switched it off. He said to me, its not run in yet ???? I was a bit puzzled. So he said you start, now listen to the engine and switch off. I said it stopped dead when I switched off. Yes he said, you've got a tight engine there. It took a few 1,000 miles to run that car in. Once run in that engine was the fastest and most economical of all the other new cars I had. It also pinked a lot on low grade fuel.