V85 sighting

Just saw a 2020 V85 Travel in the Lacey Home Depot parking lot.
I was in the car and didn't have any club cards (I have since put a few in the glove box)

Speaking of V85’s, have any of you guys removed that narrow filler tube inside the gas cap? It annoys the crap outta me not visually seeing the gas stream, and I tend to make more of a mess than any other bike I’ve ever had.

Cam

Cam3512 wrote:Speaking of V85’s, have any of you guys removed that narrow filler tube inside the gas cap?  It annoys the crap outta me not visually seeing the gas stream, and I tend to make more of a mess than any other bike I’ve ever had.

Cam

This might be preaching to the jury about filling your gas tank to the top.  In the old days the tank vented to the air (under the engine) and any excess just trickled out on the ground (Don't do that in Vermont, the gas station guys go nuts).   Nowadays the tank vents to a charcoal canister which vents directly to the fuel injector.  If you fill the tank to the very top there is a chance of getting raw gas into the canister and creating a kind of charcoal slurry that could be sucked into your injector.
Taking the canister out usually isn't a big deal, on the Beemer I just removed it and moved the tank vent tube around, now when I fill to the top a little drips on the ground (IE: the Vermont comment).   I know some guys have removed the canister from the V85, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

If you remove that tube there is a chance that some gas will slosh out when your going down the road, that's the function of the tube..  A better resolve is taking the tube out, drill a 1/4 inch hole as far to the top as you can.  This will let the air out of the tank when the fuel level gets to the bottom of the tube, and stop the burping that causes the mess.   I did that to my Valkyrie, that had a bad burping problem if you filled it all the way and it solved the problem.

Something else (I'll share) along these lines that an older rider shared with a young guy years ago.  In the summertime and your out riding and are going to stop for fuel and food, eat first then fuel up.  If you fill up first the fuel that is stored deep under the ground is cool and will expand when you park the bike in the 100° heat in front of the diner.  Creates a big mess and a dandy fire hazard.  

Naturally:  Just sayin  

It’s not so much a burping issue as much as not exactly knowing when the tank is nearly full. The nozzle fits down into that hole without much clearance. I’m sure it’s an EPA thing to contain any fumes. Unlike my vintage bikes where I can easily see the gas stream and level inside the tank.

Hard to see what your doing from here

After it clicks off. I just lift the nozzle up till it's almost out of the tank and fill it to the top. You can see the gas. Some nozzles you have to hold the rubber bellows part up (with your other hand) to override the EPA function that doesn't allow any fumes to escape. (Hard to explain).

They just want to make sure you don't fill up with diesel

Nick wrote:They just want to make sure you don't fill up with diesel

True! Years ago one of our guys filled up our diesel armored Bearcat with regular gas. Luckily he realized it before he started it. Try telling your boss you need to have our 25,000 lb, $250K vehicle towed to the dealership to have the tank drained. Expensive mistake!

He’s forever known as “Diesel Dave”. Now retired.

mogu83 wrote:
Nowadays the tank vents to a charcoal canister which vents directly to the fuel injector.  If you fill the tank to the very top there is a chance of getting raw gas into the canister and creating a kind of charcoal slurry that could be sucked into your injector.

Harry, don't hate, but I have to correct this. The fuel injector is fed through a closed pressurized circuit from the fuel pump and pressure regulator, to the injectors.

The EVAP tank vent captures vapor as you say but it supplies that somewhere along the throttle body/intake tract (I haven't checked the exact spot on a V85 yet). But the point is that the vent connects to part of the air intake, not the pressurized fuel pump circuit.

So it MIGHT be theoretically possible (though still highly unlikely) to pull charcoal slurry through the vent, and into the throttle body. It's never going to be drawn and somehow pushed into an injector. It just plain can't, that's a separate circuit. You'd literally have to push the slurry INTO the fuel tank, past the pickup filter, past the inline filter etc.

And though it does VENT to the intake track a manufacturer would really have to screw the pooch on EVAP canister location to make it possible to even get slurry all the way to the throttle body. Most are smart enough to put them below the throttle body, sometimes as far below as possible, with long vent tube, sometimes with control solenoids or check valves or whatever.

I do concur that overfilling on a hot day combined with heat soak might temporarily saturate the canister, and could even lead to a hard start or excessively high idle at purge for a little while. But it never stops me from topping off as much as I can. I think people tend to demonize this crap a lot more than it deserves. But that's a whole other story.

Maybe I should have been more specific about where the canister eventually vents to. Should have specified the intake side of the injector, I assumed that was understood. Hard to imagine something venting to a pressurized fuel line, but you never know. Point was, to be aware that topping off could lead to problems that didn't exist in the pre EPA era.

Assuming. I usually assume motorcycle people have been handling a wrench (standard or metric) for decades and that usually leads to a problem. A few years ago a BMW club member said he needed a new battery, because his was almost ten years old, the dealer was going to charge him around $300 for the install. I suggested he could get the same battery from Amazon for $100+. He ordered it and seeing there was only two connections decided to install it. He put it in backwards and turned on the key. Many electrons escaped from the wiring and the harness needed to be replaced.

mogu83 wrote:Maybe I should have been more specific about where the canister eventually vents to.  Should have specified the intake side of the injector, I assumed that was understood.    Hard to imagine something venting to a pressurized fuel line, but you never know.   Point was, to be aware that topping off could lead to problems that didn't exist in the pre EPA era.

Copy that - I guess decades of writing repair manuals has taught me to assume nothing.

That said, there's no way anything from the canister is going to "get sucked" into an injector from the intake side. When that injector opens there's 30-40 psi fuel spray until it closes. If anything the pressurized fuel spray will help keep that area clean.

Kinda like how the intake valves on some direct injected motors now get a buildup of carbon from combustion chamber blow-back on overlap combined with crankcase ventilated oil mist over time - because the injector isn't spraying fuel on that valve anymore to help keep it clean. One of the reasons I still like good old manifold injected motors over DI.

Anyway, carry on - merry X-moose!

Back to the OP. I've seen this guy on the V85 Travel a couple of more times. Toms River/Lacey area, is it someone that is on here ???????

Next time get on their butt and tailgate until they stop. What could possibly go wrong? Either that or tag him with one of our stickers/cards.