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Motorcyclists know that it may not always be bulletproof and your fuel tank will be dripping with fuel just after the valve shuts off.
by sgt 6y ago
Motorcyclists know that it may not always be bulletproof and your fuel tank will be dripping with fuel just after the valve shuts off.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoI once filled up at a station in NJ where the attendants had disabled the spring for the self locking latch. Not a huge issue for a car filled from the side but with the nozzle pointing down into a motorcycle tank it locked itself without my knowledge and then I couldn't get it to shut off while gas was spewing all over the bike. Still alive though.
- ponker 6y agoIsn’t it illegal to fill your gas in NJ?
- jabroni_salad 6y agoYMMV but when I was touring the east coast the attendant handled the payment but I did the pumping. My preference anyways, you have to actually care if you want to keep the fuel off your paint.
- iratewizard 6y agoAs far as I know it has been for a long time.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jdhn 6y agoIt is, but due to a quirk in the law if you have a vehicle that takes diesel you can pump it yourself.
- abruzzi 6y agoyes, but I think for motorcycles, they let you fill on your own because most motorcycle tanks require a little more care from the filler (i.e. you don't just stick it in, turn it on, and wait for it to stop, instead, you're carefully holding the nozzle in the correct orientation and watching the level.)
- bartread 6y agoI only started riding about 6 years ago, whereas I've been driving for 22 years (although the bike is now my main form of transport), so the first time I had to fill up a bike, like an idiot I just stuck the nozzle straight into the fuel tank and pulled the lever all the way like I would for my car... with very predictable results.
- anjel 6y agoNJ has been a full-service only state since forever. IIR, Oregon is the only other state like this. Funny thing is, NJ has had cheaper gas (10-15% cheaper than neighboring NY stations where its universally self-service and a cashier. Yet somehow the NJ stations can afford an employee, the HR costs and still turn a profit for someone else.
- rubyn00bie 6y agoYeah, the exact figures escape me but essentially having someone on site to cleanup, watch things, etc costs less than having no one... which is one of the reasons Oregon mandates it, it provides jobs and has zero effect on the profitability of the service station.
- gruez 6y agoMaybe NJ/NY have different tax rates on gas?
- willcipriano 6y agoThat is exactly the reason. I live in PA. NJ has higher income taxes than PA but lower gasoline taxes. This changed in recent years as gasoline taxes in NJ have gone up, eliminating most of the advantage of filling up there from people on the NJ border.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> Isn’t it illegal to fill your gas in NJ? Huh what? You can't mean that literally?
- meddlepal 6y agoNJ has laws mandating full-service stations because safety or jobs or some other long forgotten bullshit reason
- chrisseaton 6y ago...I'm going to guess that you have to tip them as well?
- xxpor 6y agoNo. Most of the US was full service until the 80s. NJ and Oregon just never made the change.
- CamperBob2 6y agoIt wasn't a law, just an option.
- ghaff 6y agoThere was never regular tipping in this case in the US as far as I can recall. It really went out during the gas crisis in the 70s. Before that, it was the norm to have full-service which also included washing your windshield and offering to check your oil (which needed to be done more frequently early-on). You were also often paying cash although oil company cards were definitely getting more common at that point. (But as something of an aside, I recall getting turned down for a gas card in the early 80s because I didn't have a credit history but was able to get an AMEX or something along those lines which helped me establish credit.)
- chrisseaton 6y ago
- jpindar 6y agoYes, for cars, but not for motorcycles (or if it is, that law is universally ignored).
- skykooler 6y agoInterestingly there are a few smaller gas stations in NJ that are now self-service due to Covid.
- bartread 6y agoIs that job protection or something?
- jeffbee 6y ago25-year motorcyclist here. I've never even considered it possible to fill a motorcycle tank while relying on the automatic shutoff. Do people do that? If I were to put the nozzle of a standard fuel pump into the hole of my tank such that it engages the vapor capture thing, the end of the nozzle will reach down almost to the bottom of the tank.
- mod 6y agoI put the nozzle to where the tip is as near the top as I can get, then I let it tip and pin itself on the inside. My tank isn't just a hole in the top, there's some kind of metal "basket" in there (2020 XSR 700). I generally do then squeeze it by hand, but I let the auto-shutoff engage. I would feel fairly comfortable using the auto-shutoff. I have had it fail twice in my life. But, because the tip of the nozzle is so near the exterior of the tank, and the tank is becoming a bottleneck there, there is sometimes a little splashing that gets on the paint.
- sgt 6y agoMostly if this happens, it's due to the attendant getting it wrong. Often I just take over and do the fillup myself while he/she waits.