03 Chopper No Reserve / Broken?

[stonestone]

hehe well I ran out of gas saturday. luckily it was just getting on the highway from my parents house before the big 20 15 mile stretch in a canyon. Had to hoof it back.

Anyhow the reason I had to hoof it was reserve seems to not work. I never had reserve on sport bikes but on dirtbikes you'd ride around until your bike started dying, flip the switch to reserve and then ride to go fill up. I'm Assuming big dogs function the same way? I don't know the actual mechanism on the petcock but is it possible its broken and I always have reserve on? The petcock seems pretty obvious so I don't think I'm using it wrong (although plausible).

Anyone have a similar issue?

 

[Bobby Schulz]

It should have given you almost a 1/2 gal to go a little further.
All the way to the right is normal, middle is reserve, and left is off.

 

[silver09]

Yeah it shoulda gave enough gas to get to a gas station i usually run mine till it starts sputtering and switch to reserve.

 

[1BADK9]

It should have given you almost a 1/2 gal to go a little further.
All the way to the right is normal, middle is reserve, and left is off.

Mmmm, My 07 K9 has:
back=on
middle=off
forward=reserve
I thought.

 

[woodbutcher]

DO NOT COUNT ON A RESERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it varies from bike to bike but some will crank you back up and then shut off. some may get you 10-15 miles. best thing to do is to have a chase vehicle with a can of gas and run out on purpose, switch to reserve and find out for yourself how far yours will go. as far as the direction the lever points for on-off-reserve, there were several different petcocks used with different lay-outs.

 

[aspen874]

07 mastiff, same as 1BADK9

 

[NYchopper]

I have the same bike, 03 Chopper RT. About 3 miles on reserve!

 

[stonestone]

Hmm I'll have to look at it. I was set to on, driving down the highway it lost power and as I was coasting to a stop flipped to reserve and got nothing. Never started again until I had the rescue squad come fill me up.

 

[gonebroke]

A simple rough check--with the valve in the off position remove hose and hook up another hose long enough to drain into a 5 gal. can assuming the tank is full. Hold the bike straight up and turn valve to full on, when totally drained take another can and turn to reserve should tell you approx. how much you have, if any that cks. the valve also. good luck!

 

[Staffy]

It should have given you almost a 1/2 gal to go a little further.
All the way to the right is normal, middle is reserve, and left is off.

Mmmm, My 07 K9 has:
back=on
middle=off
forward=reserve
I thought.

07 mastiff, same as 1BADK9

VERDICT....
1BADK9....you would think...Wrong - I found out the hard way
WITH THE K9 and I "presume" the Chopper BOBBY is correct

ASPEN - You are correct when it comes to the MASTIFF (NOT the K9) the petcocks ARE DIFFERENT.

 

[Bmarchant]

I reset my speedo every time I get gas. Then you can track your miles between full ups. I get between 150 to 160 miles on a full tank. I full up before that. Its a pain, but it beats walking.

By the way, my reserve is good for only a few miles too.