Anyone ever run out of fuel because they did not realise that they had the tap already on reserve ?

I did, this morning, luckily I was only about 100 yards form home when it happened - someone was looking after me today.

Must remember long part of lever down = main, long part of lever up = reserve........I think.

Lucky you I’m sure it’s happened to alot of us 

I always close off the petcock and run mine out of fuel because I never know how long it will be before I ride that particular bike again. So I have fun trying to guess exactly when to turn off the fuel supply and still make it back to the barn. It’s amazing how quickly the 400 runs dry compared to my little guys like the JT60 or GT80. There are times where I run out and coast into the barn. And there are times I run out before I am even within sight of the barn. I’m easily amused…. 

I always thought the Yamaha petcock positions were "intuitive" on the old bikes.  But that might just be because I was used to them. 

It was something I knew by "feel" more than "thinking" so I might mess it up trying to remember.

Long part of lever arm pointing down to ground was "on". 

If petcock could be rotated to position with long arm pointing straight up to sky, that was reserve.  Then long arm parallel to ground was "off".

If Yamaha petcock had two positions with long lever arm parallel to ground, I remember long part of lever pointing rearwards was "off".  Long part of lever pointing forward was "reserve".  And again, long arm of lever pointing down was "on''.  Sometimes arm had legible words cast in so when lever pointed rearwards you could clearly read "off" on top of the lever.  When lever pointed forward, you could clearly read "reserve" on top of lever.  

Honda petcocks made no sense to me..  every model seemed different...  and so I always had to look at the teeny tiny writing on the lever retainer plate and try to remember if the long arm side or the side opposite the long arm was the "pointer" that pointed to the tiny writing. 

For some reason I had convinced myself that lever pointing upwards was main, and lever pointing downwards was reserve, when exactly the opposite is true.

On my Kawa Triple (which has a replacement tap) with the lever pointing downwards fuel is off, turn left for main tank, turn right for reserve, or is it the other way round :-) as I have not ridden it since September last year........soon be spring time again.

My other 2 bikes have fuel injection so no taps to worry about.

I've run out because I forgot to turn the fuel tap on, I always turn it off when I park it no matter how long I'm going to be or not be. Also, thanks for reminding me, I need to order a new fuel tap for my DT400.

Only time I run out is when as far from home as can be… I should just take the tap off and verify which is which… dag nabbit. And mark it somehow.. 60 something isn’t going to remember.
Sneezles61

If my (fading!  ) memory serves me correctly, the GS1000 and GS1000S had a vacuum fed petrol tap. If that was struggling, usually when the bike needed a service, then there was a "prime" position on the tap. Unfortunately, there were two styles of tap, and one of them didn't have a lever!   Not quite sure how Suzuki expect you to change the tap positions, but I think that I always carried a pair of tweezers with me!