Hey all,

I'm almost done with my winter mods, just need to get my buddy over to do the front springs and fork oil.  There's a freshly charged battery under the seat, the sparks are new and clean, the carbs were tuned and cleaned shortly before winter, and it ran... but after a month or so of sitting the starter will turn over but I don't get any joy.  Any ideas?  I'm thinking the old tank removal and carb cleaning but if anyone has any good ideas why a bike that ran for a little bit, then fuel tank totally drained because of a bad main fuel line, then with some fresh gas it just doesn't want to start.  A shot of ether will make it turn over once, but after it, no joy, and I don't want to keep spraying ether in there to bandaid a deeper problem (and bugger up the cylinders)

Anyways, the carb work is no trouble but I was hoping to see if there's some trick I might be overlooking.  Yes, I'm using the choke!

Peace,
Syzygy

This may sound dumb, but the dumb questions have to be asked - did you put it on prime?

The fact that ether gets you joy says you have spark and air, so the problem is fuel.

The checklist is spark, air, fuel. the early stages of fuel are to open the carb drains and see what comes out, and to put the tank on prime and see if more comes out. 10-15 seconds of prime (with the drains closed) is normally enough to fill the bowls and get it to start. At this point you may also need to charge the battery, if you have not.

What he said.

If you had it on prime and the bowls were full of fuel, then I'd definitely suspect clogged jets.  It doesn't take long for fuel to gum up, and I've heard that the ethanol isn't helping things either.