'Been riding pretty much three to four times a week since December but between the blizzard we had here two weeks ago, the mid teen temps and my work schedule I hadn't riden since. This past Thursday, oooops, make that Wednesday, I had an opportunity to ride so I took her out of the garage [unheated] and fired her up...well, it conks out after 5 seconds and I had a helluva time keeping it running...the engine looked like a paint can shaker and there were all sorts of pops farts and ricochets coming out both ends...dayam! After some time it smoothed out a bit and I reluctantly [read: cautiously] took her out for a spin. Although she was running, sumpthin' she no bueno.

Came home after the shortened run and peeked into my fuel tank and WTF, it was cloudy, sigh. I haven't been adding anything to my fuel because it never gets the chance [up to that point in time] to be in there for too long a period of time...I couldn't believe that in such short order my fuel got hosed. So I syphoned it out, picked up a couple gallons of fresh 93 premium the next day after work, then filled her up and fired her off...

...'wasn't too pleased with the results at first but after about a minute at 1/4 throttle she began to smooth out. Being satisfied with the sound of the idle returning to normal and the throttle response back up to snuff I took her out and yay, no more whiz-bang-boom, just zoom zoom. 'Took her out Friday too and she's running like a raped ape.

Needless to say...don't forget your gas treatment during the winter months, eVAR!!! This 10% ethynol crap really pisses me off! I felt like such a horses patoot for being such a dunce that I apologized to the 'ol girl and plan to buy her something to make up for it...like maybe a new set of lungs from Hammer Performance [1250 kit]! She'll love me for it I know...

=8^)

 

You could've also had bad fuel from the start...moisture build-up. In addition to StaBil (for storage), I always add SeaFoam to my tank (year round)...this way I'm always "trying" to ensure fuel remains semi-decent quality...

 

Thanks Iceman, I think after this fiasco I'm going to subscribe to your reasoning and go with year round treatment. SeaFoam it is!

Edit: Thinking about this I distinctly remember filling up near the end of my last ride and the gas was clear, so this condition must have evolved between then and Wednesday...in approx. two weeks time...

=8^)

 

Ok.... this is news to me!

Is that cos it gets so damn cold over there in the US or is it something that just happens from the bike sitting around in the garage 4a while?

It's rarely below freeze point here in the UK...

 

Snowc, we run 10% ethynol here in our gas in most of the US, even though it's been proven to attract and absorb moisture, which I believe was the cause of my cloudy fuel and subsequent engine woes. 'Don't know if the low temps here are a contributing factor or not...

=8^)

 

Cheers DB - the ethynol could be the difference.

I'll find out soon enough though I guess 'cos my ride's been in the shop having a load of work done since October last year, and I get her back next week!

Watch this space lol

 

I'm with Iceman I keep 4 ounces of Seafoam in my tank at all times 4 ounces of Marvels Mystery Oil as a upper cylinder lubricant and 4 ounces of lead substitute and only run Shell 93 Trust me your engine will love you for it.
Started the carbed sportster up yesterday morning runs like a champ gas is a couple months old.

 

In WI, you can usually find Ethanol free Premium. I use that 99% Of the time and absolutely over Winter.

The one year I stored my Vulcan 750 with ethanol gas, seafoam, I had to have carbs rebuilt.

 

Agreed. The only trick to storage is keeping the tank full to keep the moisture out. Funny how our cars and lawn mowers and weed eaters and everything else we own can sit for months without issues, but our Harleys can't take it.

These bikes must be junk....

 

Up here where I live in Canada (victoria is actually south of the 49th parallel) it also rarely goes below freezing in the winter. I run Chevron gas and put fuel stabil in with a full tank of gas when I store it for the winter and never had any issues. Not sure if or how much ethanol is in Chevron 94oct.

Gas is so expensive up here ($1.36 a litre yesterday) I couldn't imagine cost and hassle of needing to run other additives at every fuel up.