Bike stalled today...

[ryanschillinger_imp]

Anyone else have their bike stall on them? I hopped off in neutral to check google maps and while I was pulling up the destination, the idle started going down and up. Stalled after a few seconds. Didn't want to start right away but started and I rode it to fill up about a mile away. Fuel level said 22 miles to empty. Not enough gas maybe?

 

[LongRanger_imp]

That'd be my guess.

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

Putting on the side stand might have just tilted it enough to draw air instead of fuel I suppose.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Anyone else have their bike stall on them? I hopped off in neutral to check google maps and while I was pulling up the destination, the idle started going down and up. Stalled after a few seconds. Didn't want to start right away but started and I rode it to fill up about a mile away. Fuel level said 22 miles to empty. Not enough gas maybe?

Battery, unless you can determine a problem with either the clutch or sidestand switch. My bike did the same thing and several others had this issue. I had a complete electrical failure the second time.

I have run mine well into the reserve zone, way past where you were. How many total miles and is that a Standard?

Better replace the battery ASAP.

 

[Lord Popgun]

IDK, Wolf, sounds like fuel starvation to me.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

IDK, Wolf, sounds like fuel starvation to me.

Could be. But better check the battery too, bad cells can be tricky. Hard to picture how, with 22 miles left on the reserve calculator, this could be the case. I ran out of gas riding my ZX-10R a while back, I knew I was pushing it but miscalculated, because the California bikes carry less gas by a half-gallon. The thing just died at a stoplight and I pushed it across the street and filled it up. I could not get it restarted at all until it was filled. I knew I was nearly on fumes. So when it ran out, it ran out; no tipping the bike left/right or fore/aft rolling could get any more fuel to the throttle bodies.

These tanks are designed in such a way as to provide the fuel under pressure, and the range is calculated with some margin for error. 22 miles remaing is going to be at least 1/2 gallon, more than enough to immerse the fuel pickup even while on the sidestand.

And he commented it began to die while he was rolling to a stop, upright. He was then able to restart it and ride about a mile without a recurrence. That would not likely be fuel starvation.

I would be interested to know how many miles had been ridden rather than the reserve miles calculated. Mine's a Standard, I've pushed it well past 120 miles and not run dry, so 40 mpg or better is the minimum I'd calculate.

At any rate, given the failures of several batteries, I'd just replace the darn thing for peace of mind. They do fail suddenly.

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

Actually the idle only started fluctuating once it was on the side stand. Sorry for the confusion. The bike cranked normally but wouldn't start for a second or 2 once I got back on and stood it upright. After it started it ran fine to the gas station and started right back up after fueling. Took me by surprise. Bike has about 2000 miles and it's a standard.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Actually the idle only started fluctuating once it was on the side stand. Sorry for the confusion. The bike cranked normally but wouldn't start for a second or 2 once I got back on and stood it upright. After it started it ran fine to the gas station and started right back up after fueling. Took me by surprise. Bike has about 2000 miles and it's a standard.

Pretty low miles, how old is the battery? If over two years, with such a low amount of riding, might be the problem.

Otherwise you could chalk it up to fuel starvation, the Standard doesn't hold much.

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

Well I bought the bike new about 8-9 months ago. Haven't noticed any slow cranking or funny behavior other than this. I'm just assuming the distance to empty was wrong and putting on side stand gave it a chance to suck air and stall. I'll see if anything happens again.

 

[the Ferret]

As I have stated before, if after the time that it started reading miles left the ignition was turned off, and then turned back on again, it will or can confuse the computer and not be exactly accurate

in other word if it says you are out riding and it comes on and says you have 53 miles left and you ride it without stopping until it says 22 miles left it will be fairly accurate.

If however you are out riding, and it comes on and it says you have 53 miles left, and you continue to ride it for 10 miles and then stop somewhere and turn off the ignition. Then come back out and restart the bike and continue the ride, the computer gets confused by the interuption and can no longer be trusted to accurately predict miles left to empty.

At least that is what multiple members of the ST forum have found out about theirs over the years which uses a similar system.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

As I have stated before, if after the time that it started reading miles left the ignition was turned off, and then turned back on again, it will or can confuse the computer and not be exactly accurate

in other word if it says you are out riding and it comes on and says you have 53 miles left and you ride it without stopping until it says 22 miles left it will be fairly accurate.

If however you are out riding, and it comes on and it says you have 53 miles left, and you continue to ride it for 10 miles and then stop somewhere and turn off the ignition. Then come back out and restart the bike and continue the ride, the computer gets confused by the interuption and can no longer be trusted to accurately predict miles left to empty.

At least that is what multiple members of the ST forum have found out about theirs over the years which uses a similar system.

Yep, same with all my bikes. If I am going downhill or uphill, the low fuel warning will trigger early. Then I do another ignition cycle with the bike level, clears the warning so the next time it goes off, the number changes.

I just remembered that I was going uphill on my GSX-R 750 before I stopped riding it on the street (track bike now), and wound it up to redline.

The engine cut out and I was very concerned until I saw the low fuel warning light flashing. I'd starved it because of high fuel flow. Fortunately it was all downhill to the gas station and I made it but only just.

So there is likely a high degree of confidence that it was fuel supply.

 

[pdedse]

On my recent trip from OR to Illinois and back, I had lots of opportunities out west to get familiar with the bike's readings where gas stations can be sparse. I noticed that when the tank was half full or less, as soon as I started a long incline, the bike would very soon drop a bar on the gas indicator, while going downhill would seem to stabilize the "bar of life" for longer than I expected. Were you perhaps on an incline going up prior to your reading?

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

It was pretty flat actually. Surface streets in Orange County. No issues before or since then. I assume it was just tilted enough to grab some air instead of fuel. I'll be riding all over again today so I'll see if anything pops up.

 

[Cormanus]

How much fuel did you put in it when you refuelled?

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

I always fully fill the tank when I stop for gas. I don't remember how many gallons exactly though.

 

[emptysea]

not 100% sure, but I suspect that Cormanus was not asking the total amount of fuel you added, but whether or not you filled the tank beyond the bottom of the filler neck.

 

[ryanschillinger_imp]

Gotcha. I should've noted.

 

[Cormanus]

I wanted to know how many gallons went into the tank to try to see how low the fuel was when the bike stalled.

 

[Pete Erickson_imp]

OK guys, if you are using the fuel gauge or the computers guess on miles to empty.....STOP. You might as well use Tarot cards.

The only accurate fuel gauge is the trip ODO. Figure out your average mpg. Then calculate how many miles you can drive before you need to fill up and still have a gallon in reserve. When you fill up, set the trip ODO to zero.

I have two bikes with fuel gauges and have never trusted either of them. Also, I have never run out of gas. Crap now I probably will.

 

[emptysea]

Ok...so I was speculating that you may have over-filled the tank and, as I understand it, various bad things can happen from that--including stalling, but I misread your scenario. The stalling happened before refueling. And that leads us to Cormanus's wise and appropriate question.