The fuel reserve/on hoses on my sons 05 GS500F, have been leaking around the fuel chicken so I decided to replace them. My first trip to the local Advanced Auto Parts, where I distinctly asked for '5/16 inch fuel hose' resulted my bringing home '5/16 inch fuel injection hose'. This resulted in several wasted hours as the hose was far too thick and inflexible to work. My neighbour, an auto mechanic, explained the difference between fuel hose and fuel injection hose to me so it was back to Advanced this morning for fuel hose.

But even this seems to thick to work. After a great deal of effort I could get the two hoses on the fuel chicken but there is no way I can get a clamp or even a zip tie between the hoses to clamp them. I did put a worm type clamp around both and a large zip tie but neither would work sufficiently. As a stop gap measure I put the original hoses back on with individual zip ties. It hasn't gone on a long ride yet and I don't feel confident it's a long term solution.

So is there some other type of hose I should get? Am I doing something wrong? It looks like the oem hoses are tapered at the end for the spring type clamps to easily fit. Our (used) bike doesn't have any of the spring clamps. Is it worthwhile getting them and the oem hoses? The prices are bad enough but those thieves at bikebandit charged $9 shipping last time for a couple of clamps, bolts that weighed nothing.

Check out the "premium" fuel line and stuff from www.DennisKirk.com. And I believe you want to use fuel injection hose clamps (whatever they are called). Normal hose clamps will hold, but they chew up the rubber.

5/16??....on a metric bike??

Whats wrong with OEM parts?? The genuine pipes and clips are guaranteed to fit without fuss and will look a lot neater ........why make an easy job difficult??  Consider how much of your time and effort has been wasted so far trying to bodge it, $9 is worth it just for the lack of grief and piece of mind you will get in return.

If you have to pay for delivery make it worth your while and get a couple of oil filters or some spark plugs included on the order.

just so you know, its PETcock...

GS parts fiches refer to the fuel valve on the frame as the fuel chicken assy and the fuel shut off valve under the tank as the fuel filter unit.  

Quote from: gsJack on November 22, 2010, 12:44:40 PM
GS parts fiches refer to the fuel valve on the frame as the fuel chicken assy

That's why I called it that. What would the reaction be to the fact that in the army we called the fuel nozzle we put into gas can a horse chicken