revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Tried the Le Mans today for the first time in about 6 weeks, the petrol was quite old (Shell VMax) from about October last year. I'd had the battery on charge for about 24 hours which was a good job at it refused to start, choke/no choke, full throttle/no throttle. I even resorted to attempting to bump it off in full bike gear including helmet and thermals which was a complete failure.
Gave it one more try and it fired up, rode a couple of miles to the nearest Shell garage and filled up with fresh VMax. Went to Burnham and back (about 30 miles) and it ran fine.
Based on the thread in TRC I'm wondering if I've have/had ethanol/water mix in the bottom of the carbs and the initial attempts at starting was just pulling through the crappy mix.
Going to take the float bowls off during the week and see whats lurkining in there, although I have had them of during the winter as I've been sorting out floats and accelerator pumps.

I'd say water.

The whole e5/10 debate does worry me though having a KTM with a plastic tank.

My experiences with E10 and motorcycle carbs (lawn equipment too) has been frustration central. If fuel is left in the float chambers the moisture in the air around here has ready access through the over flow tube and atmospheric vents in the carbs. That turns it into useless liquid. I've also noticed green stuff adherent to the inside of the bowls that I assume is a life form. I've made a habit of topping off with non-ethanol before parking a bike. Empty the bowls if it's going to be parked for any length of time.

I'm not entirely certain, but I may have also seen an early demise to the seals in the fuel rails that feed the carbs on my Valkyrie a year or so back. It's rather thrilling to see fuel pissing all over the top of the engine as the bike comes to life. The carbs are fed by a diaphragm pump in the petcock so no micturition occurs until you're on the starter - and especially noticeable when it starts on fast idle with the enricher circuits open.

Yup, Ethonel in petrol has caused me untold pain over recent years, mainly it has to be said through my lazy/slack-ness of not exclusively using Esso Super or draining the stite-y stuff out before ant bike lay-up, and I have a few carb-ed bike that are laid up for lonfg periods.

Below is what leaving shitty E5 cheapo unleaded in the tank of my KTM EXC for about 9 months did to the fuel tap



And for reference, this is what is should look like , and did after a few trips through the ultrasonic bath.
Unfortunately, the Carb took a lot more to sort out