I have not run my bike in over a week. Due to weather issuses. Been cold and wet here. When I got home from Maine it was a nice day had time for a little ride. Went out an fired up the bike an let it idle an warm up while I got suited up. When I got on the bike it was bogging down simular to running on two cylinders. I had a 1/2 tank of gas in it so I went directly to the gas station and topped it off with high test. Figured maybe the octane had gone down while sitting. While there I gave the bike a very genious dose of Seafoam. Left the gas station and within a mile the bike was running on all 4's and purring like a kitten. I don't know if the jets got clogged in that short of time. But what every it was the Seafoam seemed to clear the problem away.
Glad to hear you got it going. I had basically the same thing happen the first time I started it this season. Ran it a while but it wasn't clearing up. After reading all the Seafoam stories on here I decided to give it a try. Drove it around a little bit and it ran smooth as silk again. Magic in a can...
I can not believe that the gas went bad in such a short time. But anything is possible i guess. This Ethanol fuel has got to be one of the worst products the government has forced upon us. Get less horse power from it causing us to burn more of it. Now the government is thinking of have more Ethanol added to the gas up to 20% more. About the only ones happy about it is the corn farmers.
Great to hear your bike was fixed so simply. My guess is that moisture accumulates faster than octane degrades in my experience in Minnesota...if we get a cold wet stretch, I will get some tailpipe smoke and less performance for a few minutes before it warms up enough and or the water in the gas is diluted with fresh gas. I hope they do not increase the ethanol % further. I have to run 91 octane in all most of my small engines to avoid ethanol and would hate to pay for that in my car and bike as well....Furthermore have you seen how fast ethanol can degrade rubber? I can't imagine all the seal material being carried to the combustion chamber being any good, both in the inferior combustion and seal damage... just my $0.02.
Seafoam worked in Brenda's bike. When riding her bike it would stall if clutch to coast. Ran seafoam in three tanks and the problem is almost gone. I need to ride it this week to keep it running problem free.
to ship the bike to Germany it couldn't't have more than a quarter of a tank of gas. I then poured an entire bottle of seafoam in the tank and ran the bike until it died.
once here and after I fixed the ignition I put in half a tank of German(not the same as US) 98 octane gas. Still didn't start or run so I filled it with 102 octane. Once the seafoam in the tank was diluted and the amounts in the carbs / lines were flush with fresh gas my valk jumped to life. It now runs beautiful and smooth engine wise but I am debugging another issue with brakes.
I rode the valk to work today. Was 8*c when I rode to work and 2*c when I rode home. Glad they banned me from wearing only the Speedo.
Troy #309
Wow intense riding in 2c... We recently had a heat wave approx 40F and all our snow melted... I really wanted to ride as I saw some other guys out there... But I resisted the temptation since my bike was already winterized, stored, and I do not have any heated gear...
I'm not ready yet to put the bike away just yet. The coldest I've ridden the temp. was down to 28*F. I'm wondering if the cold weather here has any efect on the gas. I only live about 1/2 from the ocean and the air is always full of moisture. I know outside temputure has a lot to do with my milage. In the heat of the summer I've had my milage up to 55 mpg. But now that the temputures are getting chilly my milage has dropped. Depending on the day it has dropped drown from 55-42 mpg. I know now that if the bike is going to sit for a while. I'm going to load up every tank full with Seafoam. As the temputures here can change very quickly.
As with light aircraft, the single most important step you can take when leaving a motor vehicle unused for awhile is to top off the tanks. Especially in a high humidity environment, condensation will collect at the bottom of the tank due to "breathing" as the temperature fluctuates every 24 hours. If the tank is full, it will hold very little water in vapor form, so the amount of water that collects in the tank is minimized.
Ethanol also helps with this problem, as it keeps water in solution, allowing it to pass through the engine pretty much harmlessly when the engine is started again.
I use Seafoam regularly in both my bikes, and warm them up once every week to ten days, per Greg's recommendations.
I winterize my small two cycle engines by emptying the gas from the tank and running the engine until it stops, leaving the carburetors dry.
I have often wondered if it wouldn't be better to shut the fuel off to the bike and let the gas run out of the carbs when leaving it for a while. Of course, on one of my bikes, the fuel selector valve doesn't really shut off too cleanly, so it might fill the carbs again anyway. Does anyone know if the level of the fuel left when the engine dies is high enough to clog the jets?
I run a few ounces of Seafoam in a tank of gas every 3 or 4 fill-ups as did the previous owner of my bike and have not had any fuel issues. Of course it is warm enough here in Texas that I can ride every now and then during the winter so we generally don't winterize our bikes down here (except for those fair weather riders!).