Hi guys, sorry for this thread which I am sure pops up all the time. Tried to search but I have no idea what to search for.

My bike sat all winter while I was gone, covered and with stabil in the tank. Got back from Sweden last week, weather was nice two days ago, went out and she fired right up, let it idle for a bit, and took it out for a 30 mile ride with no problems. Yesterday morning I went to take it out and it would not start. So I took the battery out and let it sit on the tender all night, light turned green, put the battery back in, still wont start.

It sounds like there is enough juice in the battery to turn it over, but all I hear is the starter, it does not sound like it is catching at all.

Any suggestions? I had this happen before where a battery just lost the ability to hold enough of a charge to start the bike, but this sounds like it should be working. I am going to order another battery to see if that solves it, but the battery is barely a year old.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I hate to state the obvious but somebody has to, have you checked your kill switch, gas, etc.?

 

By gas I assume you mean the petcock? It is set to on. Gas was topped off and had the appropriate amount of stabil added in October. I will run and get another gallon of fresh gas if that might help. Kill switch is set to run. I did not check the wiring to the kickstand thing because I don't know how. Would that let it crank, but not turn over?

 

He means the switch on the bars, but my bet is you need a battery.

 

this happened to me, I turned the petcock to "reserve" and it fired right up. I put more gas in and turned it back to "on", been fine since, maybe you have something clogging your "on" inlet. Can't hurt to try.

 

Is the bike cranking over on the starter? Not starting & not cranking are two different issues.

If not cranking, sounds like your battery is u/s (is the headlight bright when you turn on the key?), bad connection with leads or a problem with the starter circuit (kickstand switch, etc).

If it cranks but won't start, check fuel, spark as previously mentioned.

 

If I'm reading this correct, the starter is turning over the motor but it won't fire-catch ? If that was me I would remove the plug, hook it back to the plug wire, ground end of plug to the frame and press the starter, Don't spark any fuel, even vapors. Unless I missed that you flushed out your 'winter settup' and put new fuel in, you may just have a fouled plug. Good Luck.

 

Thanks for all the help. Ordered a new battery it will be in tomorrow. If it still won't start I will try looking at spark and fuel.

 

same happened to me...it turned out to be bad plugs for me...replaced with new and it started right up

 

You know, I've always had starting problems. From mile 1, through break-in, at least 25 jetting changes, ignition timing changes, air filter, exhaust, and on and on. Then I installed a Thermo-Bob cooling mod kit. Now it loves to start instantly and hold a low idle after about 1 minute of warm up. Strange. I thought about this for quite a while. Is it possible that the stock thermostat (which stays closed forever and has a bypass hole about as large as a pin head) was causing enough resistance to the flow of coolant and the pump to make this bike hard to start and warm up?