New rider, so I apologize if I'm not as well versed as I could be, but I'm hoping someone can help me out.

I was given a 2004 Harley Sportster - it was an 883XL that was rebuilt to a 1200 with Screaming Eagle parts by my father in law who can no longer ride (which is why he gifted it to me).

I've been riding it daily about 15 to 20 miles to commute for work, never had a problem, though this morning I was on my way in and it felt as though it was starved for fuel - I checked the petcock and choke and everything was fine.

I turned onto the next street and then I felt the bike die - the electrical stayed up though, headlamp and gauges were fine. I pulled over, and fired her back up - and everything seemed fine.

I pulled out of the driveway, began riding again, but this time I only got a block away, and I felt the gas starting to cut so I played with the throttle to keep it going - though eventually it died again. This time I just pulled the clutch and hit the ignition, and then rode it it into the gas station just up the road.

I fueled up, the tank was admittedly low, checked the petcock and choke again - fired it up, and was able to ride another quarter mile up the road to my destination without issue.

Right now I'm afraid that when I get off work, it may not start up - or that this may happen again and the streets will be much busier, with less room to maneuver should the bike die again.

Is this something common? easily diagnosed? easily repaired?

 

Did you try reserve? How many miles had you gone on fill up , hint hit trip odometer when you gas up and when you see like 120 miles it's time to fuel up again

 

I didn't drop her into reserve because I didn't think that I had emptied the tank yet. It's only a 2 gallon peanut tank, and I was told that I would get about 40 miles to the gallon, when this happened I was only at about 54 miles on the trip odo.

After I fueled up it didn't stop again, and a buddy of mine with similar upgrades on a 2006 sporty advised me to use seafoam because he thought the carb might be gunked up.

When I got off work I started her up fine, rode to the auto parts store, put in the seafoam - and she struggled to start again, but once she turned over it ran fine. I got a lot of bounce out of the engine, through the tank, but never once died. Ran for about 30 minutes to get home, and waited about 2 hours for the wife to get home - then I ran out to get dinner for us and she started right up, sounded better, and felt like the idle was running smoother - so maybe it was a carb issue.

Guess I ought to pull it out and clean ti up this weekend.

 

Check inside tank. There is a filter over the petcock that could be partially clogged. Would explain why you only get 60 miles before it runs out of fuel.