Never found one on either of mine either. While mine are older than your, so it may not be the same, it leads me to believe that Polaris doesn't include them and that the warning in the manual is a lawyerism that has never been deleted.

 

EFI bikes generally do not have them but carbed bikes do.

 

The 500 should be under Right fender, EFI bikes dont have one.

 

If its a 2013 500 HO carb the valve is just upstream of the pump...#5 in the microfiche.

 

Its in the left front wheel well, kinda up a bit further inside the fender past the oil tank.

 

All I can find is what looks to be a fuel pump, which seems strange, as I would think that it would be gravity feed as the tank sits above the carb. Like I said, sounds crazy.

It's not crazy. While fuel tanks are generally above the carbs, it's common motorcycle practice for fuel to exit the tank through the sending unit or some other point other than the lowest point of the tank (even though the pickup inside the tank is at the lowest point). In this scenario, fuel will flow reliably by gravity only down to the level of the sending unit or whatever level the tube the fuel line is connected to exits the tank. One popular motorcycle I owned that had a bad fuel pump would run on gravity for less than half a tank before running out of fuel. This is on non-EFI machines. EFI machines have fuel pumps that deliver fuel at specific pressures at all times and function differently. - MarkC

 

The location of the shut off is at best horrible on my 2013 500 HO. It is barely reachable and the switch is facing the front of the bike. I can barely touch it and cutting it off and on is near impossible. I have always cut off the fuel on my Yamaha but I have about had it with this thing. Has anyone experienced an issue related to not shutting the fuel off during short term periods (a week or two) between use?

 

My '02 has the fuel switch on the outside of the left side plastic. I don't normally shut it off when sitting. It sits for sometimes 3 to 4 weeks before I use it again. I've never had a problem.
If there was a problem with the float...and it was leaking out the overflow....then I'd use the shut-off switch when parked.

 

So after reading all the posts, I looked harder for the valve and found it, so itdoes have one, but it is very hard to get at. I'll just never use it and see what happen. Thanks to eveyone for the help :veryhappy:

 

I had a 2011 500 and put 5000 on it. Trailered it every week and not once did I shut off the fuel. Sat all winter and only run it a short distance to keep things lubed up. Never had a problem. Maybe I was just lucky but I never worried about it. Had that happen a couple of times with snowmobiles when travelling back in the 80's but not a big problem. I think they just put it in the book as a safety measure, much the same as they say to never operate on a hill over 15 degrees.

 

I shut mine off one time just to do it , haven't touched it since .