To gas it or not to gas it... ?

Ok to start, i have winterized my bikes, i probably wont ride again until late march early April. I work out of state all the time, gone 2 to 3 weeks at a time One thing i started doing this year is when i'm home i have been turning my petcock to prime and filling the carb bowls back to full. Is this a good thing to do ??? Or don't bother ???

 

My thoughts on this are, if you are going to leave the bikes winterized until March then you should probably drain the carb bowls when you winterize them. Drain them by opening the screws on bottom of the bowls. Then leave them dry until March (or when ever you are going to have them out again). THEN before you try to start the bike turn the petcock to PRIME to fill the bowls. Otherwise it is asking for gummed up carb troubles. I was pretty surprised at how much gas remained in the bowls after trying to run them dry by running the bike until it starved and quit. Enough to cause problems.
Then again, just my opinion.
John

 

With my XJ650 (UK), I use to drain the carbs when preparing the bike for winter storage. More recently, on recommissioning, one of the carbs would flood and fuel leak out. Presumably, the float was sticking and not cutting off the fuel. It was a right mess on draining the carb and refilling a few times until it sorted out the problem. Since then, I now leave the carbs bowls full of fuel, in fact, occasionally switching the fuel cock to PRI to account for any evaporation and checking that the floats are working ok. Although probably not necessary in the UK, I've started to use a fuel stabilizer for storage. I make sure that this treated fuel is run through the carbs too. This procedure seems to work for me and I usually don't have any problems when I next fire up the bike.

 

I use sta-bil treatment. In my mind, (mostly not right) but to let air stay on the carb parts inside for months tends to make thing get a little crusty.

 

All 3 of my xj's ride out the winter with full carb bowls. As fall starts turning to winter i start dosing the fuel tank with sea foam making sure that I have run them plenty to get the sea foam into the carbs. Only one actually sits in the garage over the winter and I usually don't get a chance to fire it up. For the past 3 seasons I have done the same procedure and while it does take slightly more cranking than a normal start, they have always fired right up no problem and no leaking, dripping, or sticking floats. So far any way...

 

The more fuel you add, the more fuel will evaporate.
Have you ever laquered anything by hand?
Layers....

Drain the bowls and let her sit.

 

Take a look at this. It scared me off from seafoam as a gas stabilizer.
Can Fuel Stabilizer Kill Your Motorcycle? Comparison Test - YouTube

 

I use Putoline Fuel Stabilizer, https://www.putoline.com/en/catalogue/maintenance_fuel-additives/3400/fuel-stabilizer/7241/ never had a problem starting the bike after 5 months of storage.

 

I prefer to run the engine for 5-10 minutes every week and have never had a problem. However, I still use stabilizer in any fuel that might sit around for a while.

 

10 minutes isn't enough to get the oil or exhaust hot enough to drive the condensation out. In the short term you'll rust your pipes out. In the long term you'll slowly etch the bearing journals.

Unless you can go for a ride of at least 20 minutes every week, it's best to button her up and let her sit.