Let me share what happened to me today with my CB550K1
we were riding half day, on the way back, after ~120 miles, there was wet road after rain (we started to have soaked pants etc) , suddenly I felt engine irregular run, so turned petcock from main to reserve (normal after rinding 116miles from full tank), after few second engine started to run OK again.
By that time we entered into small city zone and after another few mins of drive I started to felt rear tire slipping (I was going straight, speed around 30mph). First tought was what the hell? Oil on the wet road? Then I tried to carefully apply rear brake, real wheel went to block immidiately and was slipping like on the ice. F*!!, I got flat tire, I thought. Even stronger acceleration turned wheel to slip! I stopped, looked at tire, but it looked OK!. Not far from that place was petrol station, so I carefully continued there and when I stopped and started to examine bike in detail, I found HUGE petrol leak from overflow hoses...
It was from carb #2. I immidiately understood what happened - fuel leaking right in front ot rotating rear tire, combined with water from the road...like lubricating tire!. If this would happen suddenly in some turn I cannot imagine how can I keep bike on the road!!!
BTW, I did not manage to fix that leak by knocking on carb there, so I continued ride with petcock closed and opening just for few seconds to fill bowls and close again and repeat in cycle till I arrive home to prevent leak. When home, I tried again to knock on the carb/bowl with wooden stick but still the same, so I need to open that carb
More I'm thinking about I suspect it is linked to moment when I changed main to reserve fuel, maybe some bigger piece of debris from reserve passage that blocked carb #2 valve???
Did anybody ever had similar issue?
Now I thnk that design with overflow hoses ending right in front or rear tire is really DANGEROUS as it seems can happen anytime
Sorry for bothering you with this... maybe I should use another forum?