First decently long ride...big fail

[LT505]

I was riding for about 2 and a half hours today which is my longest ride yet. I am still pretty new to riding so I have been going on short 30-45 minute rides while I learn how to ride better. Today I decided to go on a longer one and everything was great! Beautiful day out and I was starting to feel a lot more comfortable on my bike.

I decide to go passed my house on the way home and do a 20 minute route on back roads by my house instead of ending the ride. About 5 minutes away from my house at the bottom of a big hill my bike dies out on me. I start frantically trying everything to try and get it started again but no dice. I then pushed it a few hundred feet down the street so I could take a better look at it in a safer spot.

After checking everything for about 10 minutes, being the genius I am, I finally thought about checking the gas tank. Open it up and yeah...it looked pretty low. Luckily I remembered I had a reserve switch and was able to flip it on and was able to make it home and fill up my tank with a gas can I had in the garage.

Lesson learned...always check your gas before you go on a longer ride...

[Motofool]

I would say it was a minor fail, Bob.

Set the odometer to zero while you are filling up your tank, then, keep an eye on the number of miles and stop for the next refill around 180~190 miles, reset to zero mile again, and so on.......
Note: Resetting the odometer while the bike is moving may damage it.

Create the habit of lubricating your chain after each refill and you will never neglect that important task.

Reserve should be needed after 190~200 miles, point after which you will have around 15 more miles to find a gas station.

If the bike is regularly exposed to rain or big weather changes, water will accumulate at the bottom of the tank.
Since reserve feeds from that low level, it is good practice to drain the reserve at least after around 2000 miles.

You can use a glass container and disconnect the fuel tube, returning the gasoline that collects at top back into the tank and discarding any water that may be visible at the bottom of the container.
By doing that, you will avoid an unpleasing surprise whenever you need to open the reserve and water flows into the bowls of your carbs (for some mysterious reason, that tends to happen at the worst possible moment ).

[Alex]

Remember to switch it back off reserve now so you have it the next time you need it as well.

[massacremasses]

I would just ride until it started to sputter, flip on reserve and get gas at the next gas station.

[ninjamunky85]

Definitely not a big fail. As you become more experienced you will learn to recognize when you need to switch to reserve.