Can someone please explain the reserve tank setting
 

Ok, so there's PRI (mary) RES (reserve) and ON. What position should I be riding on for normal use? What's the drawback to keeping it on reserve at all times? Doesn't that just draw gas from the bottom of the tank? :ride:

What is the difference between on and primary then?
Please advise. Thanks!

If you ride on RES than you have nothing to fall back on if you run out of fuel.....When you use ON & run low you just turn to RES & head for nearest station.

It's not primary, it's prime. In run the petcock is closed until vacuum from the engine (during and after starting) opens the petcock and lets fuel into the carb. When you switch off, the valve shuts and cuts off the fuel. Prime allows fuel to flow all the time, and is used (for example) when the bike's been stood for a long time, and the carb bowl is empty. Then, you'd start in prime and switch to run when the engine's running. If you leave it in prime, fuel will keep flowing while the bike is stood, and fuel could leak into the engine, and possibly contaminate the oil.

Another thing... Why would you possibly want to ride in reserve all the time? Just doesn't seem to make sense.

I always filled mine up at 100mi just to be safe. I could just imagine hitting the reserve and forgetting to switch it back off reserve.

I usually top mine off at about 150 miles as it minimizes the amount of condensation issues in the fuel tank. About every six months, I run it until I need to switch to reserve and run it near empty. Then I fill it and add a small amount of Seafoam to keep the fuel system clean. I haven't had any problems with it since I got and have put 19,000 +or- miles on it.