I don't think OF is asking for too much but sadly they don't make it.  The dollar amount is just a matter of age and condition, sooner or later almost all bikes get down to $1500 and less.  The shaft drive does add some weight so I would look for belt or chain.  Now that I'm in my seventh decade I want something that is light.  The old British twins were fairly light, often under 400 lbs wet, and produced decent power and torque with a comfortable upright seating position.

When you consider how light the 390cc KTM is or the new light weight Ducatis and how much power they generate you have to wonder why don't they market something similar for those who enjoy relaxed touring and cruising.  A slightly larger engine for good torque and a similar light weight frame configured for a low seat and a more upright seating position.

I've gotten in the habit of making my own foot peg mounts and seats which helps a lot of the older bikes fit my requirements. 

I sat a CX500 and it had a 30" seat and I was dancing on my tippy toes.   Plus it has all the wet weight heavy issues as well.    So off to the swamp to see the Master I goes .....


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'Ol Yoda was kinda grumpy today and he just said "Riding mower" and force-pushed my arse back on out of his hovel door, back off the path and back on down the hill so that I fell back into the the stinkin' mucky swamp water on the fly .....

..... where I landed on my butt yet again all waist deep in the mucky green sludge yet again.    

Kerplop on my arse yet again.   I hate that stinking swamp -- I really do.    He does this all the time now, ya know.  

Being a Padawan learner to Yoda in his grumpy elder years really sux sometimes, lemme tell ya.

"Riding mower"  likely means an ugly cheap plastic tank you can see through, and since he was looking at the back of my bike at the new rack when he said it, I kinda suppose he thinks I ought to mount there like a hundred and seventy dollar spun aluminum keg tank.

So I went and looked used tanks in the used mower junk listed on E-bone and this is what tickled my Yoda sense a little bit when I first saw it .....  a rectangular $10 plus $8 shipping type used plastic tank.





By tying this vertically to my sissy bar sitting on my new luggage rack, I get to use gravity to "equal balance" the two tanks with a simple hose "T" fitting above my carburetor inlet, with each tank having its own separate filter set up so that one filter screwing up with crap and trash does not stop the other tank from delivering fuel.

They would fill separately, but would move down with use roughly equally, so the back tank is also a readily visible "read at a glance" fuel gauge.   Both tanks will be vented, so heat & pressure shouldn't be moving fuel from one to the other for much.

Eyeballing the tank and the rack horizontal wise, the bottom edges of the two fuel tanks will be very close to being the exact same height, with the aux tank maybe being a half an inch taller than the gas tank cap when judged on the horizontal.

So, I could just have me a black max fill line on the aux tank and fill the normal tank on up normally and not have to screw with anything at all, ever.

Looking 4-5 gallons net capacity at a cost of $18 plus fuel line and hardware.    And I can take it off and put it back on depending on what/where I am going to be doing on that trip.

I shoulda asked 'ol Yoda for some training fund money to buy the stuff,  he surely does like getting some change back from a twenty, he does.

----  a whole lot  ----        

           

I have a manual petcock somewhere, but a plastic "T" fitting in the line does the same job without inviting any of them stock petcock gremlins to come back for a visit .....

Plus, I intend to be able to take it all off at the back, plug the fuel line back at the removed tank junction and just go.   I guess I need to invest in a proper line cut off tap for back there just to make sure off is off ..... instead of fiddling around with a potentially leaking fuel line plug.

This is true.  

I think by using a relatively "minimum" fuel hose size you can limit the back flow issue from tank to tank during actual riding since the back flow has to go past the consumption draw point and some of it is going to be redirected to the carburetor.   The rate of carburetor consumption would easily be half of the possible rate of transfer, and since the tank to tank transfer reverses direction constantly the net effect might not be too great.  

We shall see, I suspect.

Parking on a hill does not have this consumption effect, so yes a cut off valve would be very nice to have.

Anytime the main fuel tank is higher (or lower) than the top of the sister tank you have a 100% flow back total dribbler mess possible.

I think the cut off could be positioned near the "T" junction (relatively near engine) and placed so it can be found by finger touch while riding.

Placing it near the normal petcock location could allow a muscle memory style turn off routine to become ingrained.



Note to self:   do not tailgate Dave -- he'll pee on you.

that reminds me... of a vincent inspired virago.

In the living room , Very Cool !

I bought a pack of four cutoffs on Amazon, plastic cheapie looking stuff.

We can rig our bikes for more gas, but our kidneys won't change one iota.