Bad Gas?

Ribo

Twist the "go-go" side and hold on!
So I was out for an hour or so ride today and I knew i needed to get gas. Hadn't switched to res yet but was pretty close and I saw an Exxon. Bike was running fine but as soon as I filled her up she became really sluggish and needed high rev's to get going in any gear - felt like she just wasn't firing - like I'd put soap in her instead of gas... what do I do?
 
I've not done this before - how do I do that? Any help appreciated. Should I just siphon out the bad gas, fill up with good gas and try and cycle what's left in the engine through?
 
Ribo said:
I've not done this before - how do I do that? Any help appreciated. Should I just siphon out the bad gas, fill up with good gas and try and cycle what's left in the engine through?
there is drain screws on the float bowls
if you find water you may want to pull the tank off and drain it and flush it
that is what i would do
some others may have better ideas tho
 
Check the fuel line for trash. Sounds like one or more of your carbs sucked up some trash/rust through the fuel line and it happened to coincide with the timing of you getting gas. Something blocking the lines could cause your engine to be starved for fuel and run like crap.
 
I just siphoned some gas out of the tank... what do think.. sorry they got sideways

To me it looks diluted but I'm not sure I've ever looked at USA gas before..
 

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There's no water.

I siphoned about 3 litres of the gas out the tank and it appeared to be running fine again so I went and filled up again at a local gulf that I always use and trust and shortly afterwards it started again but now it's kinda intermittent.

I really don't want to pull the carbs but it's really strange that this started happening almost immediately after putting that gas in. There's obviously a chance that something else happened at the same time but it was:

Bike running great
Stop for gas
Bike not running great, as I pulled out of the gas station..

To me this is too coincidental but I'm having a hard time finding a logical explanation as to why it appeared fine after taking out 3 litres but started acting up again when I filled up with "good" gas. Perhaps it's to do with the engine getting warm..? thoughts?

Should I just try and burn what was left of the old gas through or do you think this would do any damage?
 
Jewbacca said:
Check the fuel line for trash. Sounds like one or more of your carbs sucked up some trash/rust through the fuel line and it happened to coincide with the timing of you getting gas. Something blocking the lines could cause your engine to be starved for fuel and run like crap.

Fuel lines look good and i have an inline fuel filter that doesn't look to have picked up anything obvious..
 
So I took the air filter out to check and there's a three inch piece of yellow plastic in the airbox on the carb side...just sitting there - hanging out, all free to jam up any carb it so chooses... that's handy.. obviously the PO was storing it there for safe keeping, I mean you never know when you might need something like that eh! ;)

I'll post a picture when I can - pretty shocking. I checked the air filter when I got the bike but didn't see it then.

So... strange plastic thing taken out and I actually did an oil change and changed the filter too and I don't want to tempt fate but she's running like a belly rubbed kitten. Even the high idle appears to be considerably better.

I guess what you learn from this is not to store random plastic objects between your air-filter and carbs... who knew?
 
2 and 1/2 inch rubbery plastic... anyone know if this part of the innards of the bike that is pealing off or just some random thing that somehow got in there?
 

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