I haven't ride bike for 3 months-what should i do?

[Petar]

Hello everybody,


I had arm injury so I haven't been able to ride my GS for 3 months.
I haven't touch it at all,i haven't turn it on,nor did i drain tank.
I want to start riding it again these days.
What should i do now,because I'm afraid I won't damage it if I just turn it on and start riding?
PS
what's the max period for not riding bike at all,like i did now,and not have to worry about something goes wrong?

[Kilted1]

You may need to charge the battery.

3 months isn't super long in the grand scheme of things.  I'd maybe crank it a bit without the choke on to get the oil moving.  Then fire it up and take it easy for the first miles. 

All the usual periodic maintenance stuff applies.  Lube the chain, check tire pressure, if you're coming up on an oil change, go ahead and do it early.  Same applies to any other scheduled maintenance.

The biggest worry (for me anyway) would be condensation in the fuel.  But that's going to depend on your local weather and the type and quantity of fuel in it.  Water settles to the bottom of gasoline so if you drain fuel from your carbs into a clear vessel, you'll see if there's any water in there or not. 

In short. Unless you've had a monsoon, you probably don't need to do anything special after three months.  Check the oil, top off the fuel, take it easy for the first bit. 

[ShowBizWolf]

Kilted pretty much said it all

But I did want to ask, where has your GS been for those 3 months? What kind of temps, exposure to rain, etc..? Was the fuel tank full or half or low?

Here in Western PA, sometimes it's hard to ride as much as I'd like to. But I do push the limits a bit. The longest I can remember my GS sitting was probably 2 months... and I had no issues... but when it's parked, it's in my nice heated garage/basement.

[Petar]

@Kilted,OK,thanks for help.As for condensation in fuel,I have tank half full.Weather was rainy for 7-8 days in those 3 months,but I have bike covered.

@ShowBizWolf,It's been parked in front of my apartment.Temperature was between 90-72 degrees.I covered it so it didn't get wet.Tank was half full.

[Kilted1]

In those temps, I wouldn't worry much about condensation.  Just get out there and enjoy what's left of the season. 

[Kito]

The biggest worry (for me anyway) would be condensation in the fuel.  But that's going to depend on your local weather and the type and quantity of fuel in it.  Water settles to the bottom of gasoline so if you drain fuel from your carbs into a clear vessel, you'll see if there's any water in there or not. 

I thought the same... but as he has got about a half tank.. the fuel will be sipped from the tallest petcock inside the tank (not the reserve) .

So if is a bit of water on the bottom will soon mix (or at least will try) with the gas in the tank in the first kilometers....

I would go.. for a ride to get rid of this gas... and then top fill the tank.

My thoughts..


cheers 

[Bluesmudge]

...or fill it up at the nearest station to dilute the less than stellar gas that's in there.

3 or 4 months is usually fine for the bike to sit, even with 10% ethanol fuel . You don't usually see problems until the bike has sat for ~6 months without storage techniques.

[Petar]

Hi guys,

I have problem with my GS that bugs me for sometime now.
Problem is in fuel petcock.
Bike runs fine when petcock is set to ''reserve''but not when it's set to ''ON''.
When i set petcock to ''ON'' bike runs for 1/4 mile and then it starts to lose power and starts to ''lunge'' and then it's shuts down.
Since I finally have a more time,and since the weather is nice,I decided to work on bike as much as i can.
I removed the tank and fuel petcock,and i poured out fuel from tank as much as I could,but there is still half of a gallon or so...
I tried to clean fuel petcock because I heard that could be problem because it can clogged sometimes,but I think it's clean-I only remove those spring and blow air through it.
I'll go and buy fuel tomorrow,but is there anything i can do to fix that petcock or whatever is blocking it to run in ''ON'' position?
Should and with what can I clean tank,since i remove it form the bike and would pouring out old fuel (don't forget i still have half of gallon in it) and pouring in new one do good for the bike?

And lastly,most important thing.
I marked fuel hoses that go on petcock,but unfortunately,gas washed out marking and now I'm left without knowing which hose goes where...
How can I find out where to connect hoses to petcock?

Thank you all and kind regards,
Petar

[herennow]

Hi, There are posts on thé forum That address that. There are diagrams in the factory manual but I believe there is an error in the diagram.

[ShowBizWolf]

herennow is right, the diagrams in the manuals and on parts sites are wrong.

Petar, this should help ya... it's the wiki link where you'll find the CORRECTED diagrams:
http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.HoseRouting

Petcock replacement is pretty common from what I've seen over the years. It was the first repair I had to do when I bought my GS years ago.

[qcbaker]

It was the first repair I had to do when I bought my GS years ago.

The first repair I had to do was to replace the entire front end of the bike after I crashed it...

Petar, as for your problem, replacing the petcock may fix it, but its not necessarily be the first thing I would recommend. I would inspect all fuel lines to make sure they aren't clogged or haven't swollen internally/dry rotted. Because your bike runs when the petcock is in the RES position, that means that the vacuum actuation is still working properly in the frame petcock. That's the part that fails if the petcock is going to fail, for the most part. Usually when those fail, the bike only runs on PRI.

Hope you get your issue sorted.

[Petar]

herennow is right, the diagrams in the manuals and on parts sites are wrong.

Petar, this should help ya... it's the wiki link where you'll find the CORRECTED diagrams:
http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.HoseRouting

Petcock replacement is pretty common from what I've seen over the years. It was the first repair I had to do when I bought my GS years ago.

@hereenow,Thanks for warning about wrong diagram!

@SnowBizWolf Thanks for link.
My GS is from 2003,and those diagrams skipped my year of production,but I guess it's the same,right?
I'm looking at that diagram,but my petcock looks different.
Also,when i read what it says on petcock itself,the positions are completely different from that diagram.
By the way,why does it say ''OUT'' instead of ''PRI'' on bottom connector?
Plus,on the second photo,there is smaller connector then others.
Here are the photos:

Is my petcock different,or I  can't read plain diagram?

@qcbaker,I'm sorry to hear you had crash,but you know how they say-it happens to everybody even the best 
Yes,I won't replace petcock,until i ran out of options.
Will it help if I blow air through those hoses from ''ON'',''Res''or ''Pri''?

[qcbaker]

@qcbaker,I'm sorry to hear you had crash,but you know how they say-it happens to everybody even the best 
Yes,I won't replace petcock,until i ran out of options.
Will it help if I blow air through those hoses from ''ON'',''Res''or ''Pri''?

That's what I would do. If you can blow air through with minimal effort, the lines are probably okay I think. The line from the tank petcock to the ON port on the frame petcock may be clogged if the bike is only running on RES/PRI.

Alternately, the inlet in the tank could be clogged somehow. ON uses the higher one, and RES/PRI use the lower one. If the higher inlet in the tank is clogged, you could also get the same symptoms you describe.

[Petar]

@qcbaker,I'm sorry to hear you had crash,but you know how they say-it happens to everybody even the best 
Yes,I won't replace petcock,until i ran out of options.
Will it help if I blow air through those hoses from ''ON'',''Res''or ''Pri''?

That's what I would do. If you can blow air through with minimal effort, the lines are probably okay I think. The line from the tank petcock to the ON port on the frame petcock may be clogged if the bike is only running on RES/PRI.

Alternately, the inlet in the tank could be clogged somehow. ON uses the higher one, and RES/PRI use the lower one. If the higher inlet in the tank is clogged, you could also get the same symptoms you describe.

OK.
And what about that position ''OUT'' on petcock,what does that means?
Shouldn't there be ''Pri'' instead?

PS
Will it damage bike if i run it on reserve always?
I don't have problems running it on reserve,if it won't damage it that is.

[qcbaker]

OK.
And what about that position ''OUT'' on petcock,what does that means?
Shouldn't there be ''Pri'' instead?

OUT is the line that goes from the frame petcock to the carbs, I believe. PRI and RES both receive fuel from the RES line from the tank, so there isn't an additional PRI fuel line. See the below diagram:

PS
Will it damage bike if i run it on reserve always?
I don't have problems running it on reserve,if it won't damage it that is.

You won't do any damage to the bike, but you will lose the reserve capability. If you run out of fuel, you're stuck. You should try to fix the problem so you can run the bike on ON, and if you run out of fuel you can switch to RES and ride to the nearest gas station.

[Kilted1]

OK.
And what about that position ''OUT'' on petcock,what does that means?
Shouldn't there be ''Pri'' instead?

PS
Will it damage bike if i run it on reserve always?
I don't have problems running it on reserve,if it won't damage it that is.

Reserve and Prime use the same hose and pickup in the tank.  Prime bypasses the vacuum cutoff in the petcock.  It's used to allow fuel to flow when the bike isn't running to prime the system.  "OUT" is the one that goes to the carbs.  The smaller line on the back of the petcock is for carb vacuum to turn the fuel on when switched to "ON" or "RES".

You could run it in "RES" and not cause any problems, but if you run out of gas, you'll just be stuck since you have no reserve.  That's what it's for since we don't have a fuel gauge.  On bikes that do have a gauge, there typically is no reserve.

The main and reserve lines are also marked on the tank valve, so you can just match those up.  Good idea to mark them though.  I used different color tubing for mine.

Sounds like you're getting close!   

[Petar]

Hi again guys,

I manage to connect all hoses where they need to go,but one hose broke because it was pretty stretch up.
Hose that broke was the one that goes from tank to ''Reserve'' on petcock.
Here is a picture of it:
I would like to know is there universal hose that can fit most of the bikes,or I need identical hose for GS500?
If there's universal hose,please tell me what do I need to look and what dimensions do I need?
I really hope I can go to Motorcycle shop and buy replacing hose.

Thanks for everyone who helped 

[qcbaker]

Petar, this wiki link should give you most of the info you need:

http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Maintenance.ReplaceFuelLines

[Petar]

Petar, this wiki link should give you most of the info you need:

http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Maintenance.ReplaceFuelLines

Great!Thanks 

[Petar]

Hello again everybody,

My fuel hose finally arrived today,so I went and connect it to petcock.Then when I started  the bike,at first it didn't want to start at all,it only made that sound of trying to start.Then I after 6-7 times,bike started normally (with choke ON),but when I twisted the throttle,it started to make loud popping sound from exhaust.
Now,every time when I add throttle,it pops.
Do you know what could be causing this problem and is it dangerous to bike?
PS
just for info,I drained out 90% of old fuel and tank up new 95 fuel,and i also charged battery.

Hope to hear from you guys.