She starts slow... gummed up choke?

[Roxtar]

at the end of last season, I went for a ride. I filled the tank, put in the "storage" ratio of sta-bil and then rode for another 30 or so miles. I switched back and forth from "run" to "res" a few times on the petcock to make sure both lines were full of the stabilized gasoline. what I didn't do was run it on the choke setting for any amount of time.

Now, she's really slow to start and has a weird flat spot in the power just off idle until she warms up.

I don't really feel like pulling the carbs if I can avoid it. any suggestions on an in-tank carb cleaner? she's still got ~ 1/3 tank of stabilized gas, so I'd burn through that before adding anything else (stupid cold and snow this winter)

[Janx101]

slow to start.... as in lengthy cranking?.. or as in slow cranking?.... slow cranking is likely battery needs a pep up or replace...

and .. flat spot in power just off idle till it warms up.... yeeeeess? .. gs500 do that .. specially if they been sitting for a while...

choke on these isnt so much a 'choke' .. its a 'fuel enrichment circuit' (according to manual and many riders/owners) ... i think it does a thing with your pilot jet? ... carb guys can explain better...

so it may be your pilot jet is a little gunky.... ?

or even though you have sta-bil in it.... the fuel loses its oomph over time.... so just man up/bite bullet .. drain the old gas and fill it with shiny new fuel!! .. 1/3 of a tank?... so 5 or 6 litres? .. maybe a little more ... err gallon and a half.... i know its against the mindset to waste fuel.... maybe use it in a lawnmower with some other fresh stuff? ... but fresh fuel is possibly a good start!?

[Roxtar]

lengthy cranking... the battery is fine (tru-gel and I keep it on a tender)

meh... we'll see how she does when I fill up next. I've got ~1 commute left in the tank  if winter ever decides to go away.

[Janx101]

fair enough eh! .. im often loathe to waste/dispose of fuel.... but have done a couple times when it was OLD .. like... 3 years!! .. in a bike i bought from a storage shed. lovely varnish yellow colour it had gone!!? 

winter.... go?.... so you feel a tad lonely ... locked inside? 

[RichDesmond]

You have 2 choices:

a) Pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning...

or

b) Dump some "carb cleaner stuff" into the fuel tank and go ride.....and then pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning when that doesn't work.

[Crasm]

Use the old fuel , once tank is empty fill up and add stp carb cleaner addative to the fresh fuel , this should be all that is needed , old fuel even with a stabiliser can upset the bike a little and not  run as good as it should   

[Roxtar]

she fired right away this morning... but was still a bit flat at the first couple of stop signs.

[brickerenator]

Try some Seafoam and fresh gas.

If that doesn't work you'll have to live with it or pull the carbs.

[Roxtar]

I'm going to blame it on the cold. for the ride home, I didn't even need the choke to start... in fact, the choke made it die.

I still maintain that carburetors are black magic.