ETZ250 Outfit Fuel Reserve

June the 24th and my stepson and myself set of for Greenodd and the MAG demo. We were in need of fuel but I figured the 12 miles to the petrol station would be no problem and was not concerned when I had to go on to reserve. Unfortunately 4.5 miles down the road she stopped completely. I looked in the tank and the left side of the tank where the fuel tap resides was dry but the right side had fuel in. But being an outfit I could not just lean the bike over to access it, however Quinn and my self managed to lift the whole outfit up enough to get some fuel in the left side and made it to the petrol station.

Fueled up and riding along again I figured that even if I could use both sides of fuel tank it would still only give me 9 miles of reserve capacity. Not a lot in Cambria. A larger capacity reserve was a necessity.

Thankfully the solution is pretty straight forward, just lengthen the main fuel feed tube inside the tank. I found a bit of petrol proof tube (from another fuel tap) that slipped snugly over the existing tube. I then lengthened the filter by cutting it in half using some sharp scissors and then used a bit of brass tube sourced from a modal shop of just the right outer diameter for the two end of the filter to slip over. I cleaned the ends with emery cloth and tined with solder using an electricians gas soldering iron before slipping the ends over and sweat soldered (heating the solder on the tube and letting it find its own way into the mesh of the filter) them in place.

I lengthened the tube by 1.62 inches (42mm) which when tested has given me 1.21 gallons (5.5 liters) of fuel. With the outfit loaded up returning between 40 and 45 mpg should give me at least a 48 mile reserve which should I think be enough.

This page added..26/08/12

Reproduced in MZ Rider ..... Issue 203, May/June 2013