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I almost forgot to post this up for some help.

I was out for a bimble last weekend and had to fill up at a non main stream filling station. There was no premium unleaded so I had to use normal stuff.

The ride after filling up was fine as mentioned in another post.

The run home was a dull steady 100 to 120 kph straight road. I knew I must be getting near the end of the tank, but the light wasn’t on. Then the bike chucked a couple of misfires. A few moments later it did another couple, so I did a few wiggles to slosh the fuel around a bit and all was well for a while then the fuel light came on. Before I got to a petrol station it had another couple of coughs.

I filled up with premium unleaded and managed to squeeze in 15.15 litres so about 4l in the tank when it was coughing and farting. The run home from the fill up was quite short and more stop start and the misfire didn’t reappear.

The previous month I changed the oil, oil filter, coolant, cleaned the air filter (oily jobbie) and balanced the pots.

So what’s the consensus:-

Crappy fuel?

Low fuel causing starvation?

Bike got bored and was fucking with me?

I'd go for the last one Dale.
Then again your right hand could have bee shaky after too much booze.

Other than that

Could have been dodgy fuel or just the garbage in the last dregs in the tank I suppose, I try never to run that low just for that reason.
If you've recently cleaned the filters you can rule them out.
Ooops, just noticed you didn't clean the fuel filter, so worth a try checking that.
Good luck!

Carb icing.

i would say dogy fuel , if it persists new plugs , and check ht leads

Crap fuel, almost certain.

I filled the bike up once from a 'reputable' servo. Got home OK, but there was no way the bike would start the next morning. Ended up draining the tank and refilling with premium fuel. Even then it ran all rough and lumpy until the crap fuel got out of the system.

A strange one about petrol. I use the supermarket stuff, which in the 11 years I've been on the roads, have never had a problem with. The only trouble I've had with petrol, is when filling up from supposedly reputable companies. Poor quality being the biggest peeve. On one occasion I had to drain a whole tank after filling up at a local (as was) Shell garage which contained water.. Took ages to separate it all and be able to use some of the fuel.. Tried to take it back, but couldn't prove it came from there.. If I knew then what I know now..lol..

(incidentally, the petrol station in question was bulldozed and turned into flats a few years ago)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Then again your right hand could have bee shaky after too much booze.

Could have been a possibility, but the 1st misfire happened when I had the fast idle set and had both hands off the bars, grabbed them pretty quick when it happened.

I'm not keen on pulling the fuel pump to replace the filter, given all the warped tank and dodgy seal issues that have been encountered.

I did go for a reasonably long run at the weekend, had intended only to go to Ayr and back (about 200km round trip) as I had a monster party lined up that evening.

However I got talking to a nice girly at the coffee shop before heading off and she reckoned Bowen was worth a visit and it's where the movie Australia was shot, so without any further consideration the plan was changed. I didn't know that the round trip to Bowen was over 400km.

Anyhoo, the relevance to this thread is, on the return trip I was so bored (very long straight roads and 100kph speed limit) that I forgot to keep an eye on the k's traveled after filling up, so when the light came on at 266km I was mildly amused as I had passed Ayr and I couldn't remember seeing any gas stations between Townsville and Ayr.

I'd squeezed 270km out of a tank in the past, so I stopped looking at the trip an just kept on going. I was fairly relieved when I reached a gas station with 302.2km on the trip and it took 17.12 litres to fill the tank.

More importantly I didn't get any misfires, so it's all good.