hi everybody, i live in ontario canada. today was the first day it has been warm enough to hop on the bike and i was so happy. i washed it up and jumped on it and tried starting it..but nope....the bike tries to start but the engine just wont turn over. the battery is fully charged. ONCE i heard the engine start to turn over when i gave it a little gas but then it stopped. this is driving me crazy and im by NO means a mechanic.. can anybody PLEASE HELP ME?!
How long's it been sitting? Did you change oil at end of the season and did you add stabilizer to your fuel and top off the tank? No critters in the airbox?
I know how frustrating it is, especially on the first ride of the season. It still sounds like the battery. How do you know it is fully charged? Do you have or know someone who has a multimeter? (Harbor freight has some very cheap and they actually work well enough to do some basic checking.) I'm hoping by now you've gotten in touch with some one local to help you.
Good luck and keep us posted.
It's just the beginning of the season,
Anson
Ditto what Scott said about the gas, and air filter.
Good luck and keep us posted.
It's just the beginning of the season,
Anson
Ditto what Scott said about the gas, and air filter.
A marginal battery can show a full charge on a voltmeter, but it could be just a "surface charge." Check the voltage with a load on it. That's the proof of the pudding. There seems to be a point in the death of a battery with these bikes where the battery is enough for it to crank, but not actually start. It still could be the battery. Make sure you didn't soak the air filter during its bath or check the airbox for other blockage.
Most of the time it is the battery, id either put it on a tender and if it takes more than a few hours to go green you need a new one. You can jump it from a car but if the battery is bad it will not start even after riding it for a while. As Scott mentioned if you had the fuel in there a long time that could be a factor or air filter as well but its usually battery especially if sitting all winter in the great white north without a tender.
yillbs
New Member
i'm no mechanic either, but last season this happened to me.. let it sit for 4 months and drained the battery as i wired something up incorrectly. Well, my experience with these batteries is once they die , they are dead, no amount of charging can bring them back, even if they say they are charged.
Yup, I never ever use the engine kill. The one time I did at work in looked like an *** trying to start my bike. I was like wtf could be wrong. Oops! I always turn off with the key. That was the only time I used the kill which is why I forgot. LOL
Thanks everybody! I let it sit on the charger for a couple hours and went to try it again. the engine was turning over and after a little bit of gas it started. I guess sitting for a few months with bad gas as well as flooding the crap out of it trying to start it was the issue. Thanks everybody for the help anyway! I wish i would have remembered to tell you i figured it out but i was wayyy too excited to hear it fire up haha
Just glad your up and running, go put some 91 gas in it to mix in with the old gas and keep it on a tender!
That would have been pretty funny, not watching you try and start the bike but the expression on your face when you realized it was the kill switch
I laughed in relief. LOLThat would have been pretty funny, not watching you try and start the bike but the expression on your face when you realized it was the kill switch
It's definitely funny, but it's happened to me (although I figured it out eventually). It's not too hard to accidentally hit the kill switch, like when you're washing the bike.That would have been pretty funny, not watching you try and start the bike but the expression on your face when you realized it was the kill switch
98Deathmage
Member
Thats good to hear. As a tech for cars, a trick to know is if you are getting slow starting its the battery but if its cranking but not starting its fuel/ignition related. 9/10 times in a car its fuel pump related but with a motorcycle sitting through an entire winter I wouldve guessed bad gas. Just a tip so you can quickly fix it next time instead of waiting for replies and get riding. Stay safe!