WORD OF WARNING

[kifer]

Hi Guys, Thought I would let you know about this one. At the moment I have the carbs of my 750 the tank was put back on bike with about 3 gallon of fuel left in. I have a pipe from tank to the tap about 8 inches long due to where the tank outlet is.
Anyway Sunday night the bike unloaded the tank into my garage The pipe had fell in half, This pipe was purchased from a local bike shop
with a famous name, It was only fitted just over a year ago when inspected it was cracked all along its length this included the length from tap to carbs. I thought I would put this out to warn others to keep a beedy eye out I don't want this to happen to anyone else,
Not only the danger but the clean up took hours.
Anyway I hope this helps even if only one Cheers and be safe.
PS. what is the best fuel pipe to buy. This has scared me!!!

[JamesH]

I suspect this could be the ethanol in modern Petrol.

I had a similar issue with the stock fuel
Line supplied in the seeley remote fuel reservoir kit (had to replace it with new braided fuel line from a local factor). Luckily I caught it in time.

[K2-K6]

That is scary kifer and lucky you've managed to deal with it safely.

As jamesh says it is most likely that the material isn't resistant to ethanol that is now mixed into a lot of petrol supplies, in fact if you researh what is not resistant to ethanol it's not very good as brass (jets etc) is one of the principle ones.

[kifer]

Yes I think I was very lucky to discover it so quick,  Sent wife and kids to outlaws for the night didn,t want to take any chances found at 11 at night and for once being a builder came in handy had loads of sand next to garage.
With regard to fuel line I am a bit picky with things like that and understand problems with ethanol eating everything in site try to stick to v max if pos on the old bikes but bike has sat a while with normal fuel in. The fuel line was purchased from local bike shop sold as fuel line so what do you do who do you trust ? Has proper made me nervous plus I also had 4 bikes in garage my VFR and 3 classics which as you
all know are not easy to replace. But all said and done these are only metal you can,t replace your family so now I feel a guilty putting them at risk.

[UK Pete]

Phew that was close, bet you can still smell it now, f---ing ethnol has alot to answer for all mt kawaski fuel taps are starting to fail where the rubber is perishing
pete

[Green1]

I two have had problems with modern fuels my Triumph dumped fuel on my feet about a year ago and it still eats the Orings in the quick relese conectores
They were geting a bit dodgy on my Aprilia as well so I have replaced all hoses with nitrile cotton braided ones.
I forgot to drain the carbs on the pegaso about two years ago and they are now blocked solid 

[matthewmosse]

I had the same thing a couple of years back, strangely of 1m of new fuel pipe from an agricultural supply store only 1/2 did this (maybe it had been on the roll a long time and perished in sunlight?. I replaced it with fuel line off motorworld and that's fine still after something like 3 years. For stale 3 year old fuel mucking things up on my 250 nighthawk (wifes bike actually, not mine) I found hosing it down in carb cleaner whilst cranking the engine (air cleaner out to get the spray right in the carb) and filling the float chamber with carb cleaner got things running well enough to avoid a carb strip down or even removal on a bike that wouldn't even fire  as the fuel was so off. I was rather naughty with that one and just brimmed the tank with fresh petrol without draining the 1/4 tank left in there for 3 years. I did add redex in rather a stong concentration. Bike ran a bit rough for maybe the first 40 miles but has settled down to running as well as ever - a better result than a day messing in the shed.

[K2-K6]

I think you were right to treat it like that kifer. A neighbour near to me caught his garage alight while working in it and the fire took eveything in there, the heat was absolutely unbelievable and nearly got his house as well. You were definitely right to play it cautiously with your family.