Season ahead and as for most of us living in the north starting up ol’ bikes in the spring can sometimes become a kick-your-ass-off-contest before your precious comes to life and slowly waking up after the winter hibernation. But with some planning ahead, already when you decide season is over and your bike is stored up for service, rebuilt or just a good rest, you can make some easy things different and get a much easier startup next spring.
Spring is finally here and you decide it’s time to start up your ride for the upcoming season. No matter if your bike are from this century or the one before, stored up for a long winter some things can really mess up this happy day. The power in your battery is one, but we leave this matter to another article and concentrate on fuel this time. In earlier days fuel didn’t contain as much alcohol as it does theese days. In the hunt of carbondioxid reduce different countrys decided on different levels. But no matter of the amount in your fuel its for sure not especially beneficial for any engine and certinly not the older ones. Adding different additive can solve some running problems but when it comes to storage of your bike it doesn’t help much. One way is of course to empty your bike on every mill of fuel but that can cause other problems if you for example have a gas tank with a sealer, this sealer can get too dry and crack up which leaves you with perhaps a leeking gas tank and lots of pieces travelling around in your fueling system. With just a small portion of fantasy you can imagen what happens next, when your carburator starts to suck both air and fuel. Yes of course you get a clogged hose or a carb and your bike will absolutely not run, even if you kick it a thousand times, finally naked after reaching a body temperature of 129 degrees Celcius.
But get dressed! The solution is actually pretty easy and this is absolutely no science just experience from doing things a little bit different for the last 10-15 years or so.
When it’s time to store your bike you need to empty your fuel system of the fuel you filled it up with at any gas station. You can try to store it over the winter, but modern fuel gets old and after a couple of months you can smell when it turned from gasoline to white spirit and are no longer good enough for any engine.
When the whole system is emptied, you visit the local farmer store and buy yourself one or two cans of Aspen. Theese days Aspen offers a wide range of fuel even a special one for vintage vehicles. We never used that particular one, instead we always used the blue one for any four stroke engine. There is of course one for two stroke engines as well.
When filled up, start up your engine and make the new fuel reach everything to make sure thats the one left in your carburator and the hoses during the winter.
When spring comes hopefully all you have to do is make sure you got power in your battery if you not having a magneto, and go through the starting procedure, open the tap, engaged the choke lean the bike to make sure your carb is filled up, Give it some dry kicks, turn on the ignition and give it all you got. If you get a brooom make sure to thank your old friend.
Sometimes or really more often, you might have to give it some more kicks after being asleep for months. And worst case you need to check some things. One is make sure your sparkplugs ignite. Easiest way is to take them out, put them in the ignition cable, hold them on the engine so they can ground, turn on the ignition and give it two (or more) kicks. When you are sure there are sparks on all, just put them back, if not change the bad ones or clean it with brake clean for example.
If the sparks where all right you can also check that the timing is right and if not adjust it so you got the perfect set up. Next step is of course when you are sure your fuel is running as it should into your carb, dismantle the very same. Even if you emptied your bike on tap fuel, there can already have been some sediment caused by the bad fuel. This behaves almost like slime and it gets worse when a couple of moths have passed. So tear the carburator apart, clean everything thoroughly, make sure all needles are free from anything and that the internal filters are in one piece and clean as they should. A quite good investment is a ultrasonic washer at least if you are a bunch sharing workshop. If you have one its perfect for a carburator wash.
Put the carb togheter, make sure everything is in the right place and that all the seals are properly fitted. Mount the carb, check your battery power and do your starting precedure again. And if you aint got any other issues your bike will start. Enjoy!
