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Hi all,
I'm planning a cross country (U.S.) trip this summer and wondering about carrying extra gas. Do you carry extra gas? If so, what do you carry it in - and did you need it?
And don't do like I've read some people doing and put the fuel container inside a pannier or top box....Whatever you decide, my advice is Keep It Simple and not a hassle.
I pulled into a small town in North Dakota for gas on July 4th. My Garmin 595LM showed 4-5 stations there; it sounded like a good place to stop for gas. It was about 4-5 pm. When I pulled in, the town was rolled up. Empty. There were just a couple streets off the main street...which was the only one paved. I went from one end of town to the other in less than a minute and only found one station. The database was listing the two stations, under multiple names and actually at different addresses. On the GPS's database list, it looked like a thriving place. It wasn't.I do not see a need for carrying extra fuel for non-competitive or serious back country rides...
And don't do like I've read some people doing and put the fuel container inside a pannier or top box.
I did carry some extra fuel with me last summer. If you have aluminum panniers, there are some nice fuel bottle carriers that can be added to the bike.
If you do your research on your route, you "shouldn't" have any problems. I've had two situations where I could see you'd run into some difficulties. One was when I rolled into a "large" town in Eastern Washington and found there were only two gas stations in town...and the one I was pulling up to had run out of gas 15 minutes earlier. The other was on a stretch of highway that if I didn't fill up early, had enough miles to the next gas station that I would've run out of gas. But planning the route and knowing I needed to fill up the tank prior to getting into that stretch took away any issue.
I planned my daily routes using Google Maps, which will let you easily see the terrain and in Streetview, the view from the road itself. Once I picked out the route, I switched to Bing Maps which will show you the gas stations along your route.
Chris
It's hard to fill the MSF type bottles without getting gas in or on other places than inside the bottle.
I do not have a picture but farm stores and like places that sell chainsaws also sell premixed gas for saws, also have unmixed gas in quart metal cans, not cheap but would work for emergency supply.
To answer post 10 two reasons I would not carry fuel inside panniers
Does not take much gas spilled to make everything inside smell like gas
It gets hot inside panniers, if expansion of gas forced any out of storage container into pannier could easily get to that fuel to air ratio that goes boom with a spark.
Along with the other reasons, it doesn’t take much to make everything smell like gas. If one of your cases was only tools and other items that really can’t absorb the smell of gas, you will be fine.
I always refuel my equipment (gas and diesel) at the end of the day........so I don’t have to smell it all day.
I have 2 “tool tubes” mounted on the TW200 with extra gas- used SeaFoam containers. It’s there and no smell or associated contamination.
Give it a try on a day ride using the spare gas and see how you make out.
OM
The idea is to fill them, and 40 miles down the road or so, empty them into the tank. Learned that here from another member, thought that was a great idea, that way it's not in the pannier all that long.
Along with the other reasons, it doesn’t take much to make everything smell like gas. If one of your cases was only tools and other items that really can’t absorb the smell of gas, you will be fine.
I always refuel my equipment (gas and diesel) at the end of the day........so I don’t have to smell it all day.
I have 2 “tool tubes” mounted on the TW200 with extra gas- used SeaFoam containers. It’s there and no smell or associated contamination.
Give it a try on a day ride using the spare gas and see how you make out.
OM
Wasn’t really what I was thinking. I’m thinking the empty container(s) are going to smell.
OM
I Even a GSA can run low from time to time when things don’t quite go as planned...
My R1150R has a Jesse Luggage top box. The bottom half of the top box is a welded aluminum container that hold 3.5 gallons of extra fuel. With that bike I have no need to mess with MSR bottles.