Fuel vent gas cap VF1000R. Gravity feed...

Before I begin, a special thanks to our esteemed colleague, Jamie Daughtry, for working out in two sentences what my mechanic couldn't figure out in a week.

Below is a transcript of my recent e-mail back to Jamie, which I am posting as it it may well be useful to others.

"OK, first off, you were right. I am certain of this! However, for reasons I will briefly explain, I have yet to remedy the problem.

To recap, I initially took the bike to my mechanic (Kenny) to utilize the gravity feed method for my fuel pump problems. I figured having him do it would assure there would be no complications (uh, hum…).

As I mentioned earlier, Kenny was unable to make it work and so after successfully testing the pump and relay convinced me to pick up. I spoke to him about the vent on the gas cap and even though he agreed it made perfect sense, opted for merely blowing into the plastic outlet and declaring it in good working order (I know, scary).

Anyway, drove the bike home that evening (15 miles) and seemed solid. On Sunday I drove it over to my girlfriend’s house (12 miles) and it ran about as responsive as you could ever want it to. Perfection.

Later in the day, with direct (hot) sunlight on the tank and an almost full tank of gas, I immediately noticed the problem as I headed down the road. Within a mile I was ‘out-of-fuel’ in a nearby parking lot. The bike was running awful and I was just stunned. Anyway, put it on choke and drove it back to her place. After examining the basics I decided to open the gas tank for a moment. I then locked it back into place and restarted the engine. Bingo! It idled perfect and ran fine on a test run around the block.

Still not putting it altogether at his point, I decided to head for home (gas cap firmly in place). Again, about a mile down the road I could tell it was bogging and turned the bike around.

After a ride home (I know, sweet girl) it occurred to me I could have just driven the bike home with gas cap OFF and then gone about cleaning it CORRECTLY.

I will pick up the bike on Saturday and proceed to clean out the air vent once and for all.

OK, so what have I learned? I clogged gas tank vent will prevent fuel from reaching the carbs, AS WELL AS…. preventing gravity feed from working! Two lessons in one!

Ok, finally, I must ask: What is the correct method for cleaning out the fuel cap? I have seen some disassembly samples on-line but my gas cap does not come apart; except the plastic vent at the outlet, possibly? Should I soak it in some sort of solution?
Thanks for any suggestions!

And just to be fair, my mechanic is excellent, he just had a blind spot.

- - Alexander