Hitchcocks Forum

I fired up my bike after a winter break and started taking it out to work again. I have been starting it and running it in the garage fairly regularly, e.g. once a week over the winter, without any issue... For my rideout it started fairly easily, so I hopped on and went for a ride. About 5 minutes into the ride, the bike started running rough; popping, spitting, idling erratically, hunting around and wanting to stall unless I blipped the throttle or 'idled' with the throttle open a bit (quite a bit!). It was a wee bit kangaroo-ey when in motion too, and when stationary, e.g. at lights, it was tricky to keep the engine running, require 'throttle management'. After another 10 minutes everything went back to normal - it seemed fine. It did exactly the same thing again this morning. It's an EFI model for those that don't know my bike... So, the question is... what to look for and where to start?

Damp?. Drops of water in the fuel, (can be caused by condensation in petrol tank, if there is not much fuel in the tank over a long period of time.)

Tank was quite low... I filled her up this morning a minute or so before the rough running started again. Garage is definitely damp anyway, and the bike had a coat of condensation. How could I check this easily on the bike - and will it go away with refueling? Cheers BTW!

Petrol floats on top of water, so it might be a plan to clean the tank out and clean/replace any fuel filters.
(It can be a shock the amount of cag,sludge,that can accumulate in a petrol tank.)
But if the problem has gone away I would leave well alone, as it only take a few drops of water in the fuel delivery system to cause a problem, and once they have worked their way to the outside world via the exhaust gases, that may well be the end of the problem.

Cheers... the white puffy exhaust would support some water in the fuel too. Will see how things go over the next few rides.

If I remember my chemistry lessons correctly, water vapour is one of the exhaust gases you get from burning hydrocarbons, whether or not the fuel has water contamination! When things warm up a bit you don't see it. A.

Yup, water vapour will be in the exhaust as the air-fuel mix is basically one big pile of water and carbon, mixed up and in the wrong order. BUT it should be an air fuel mix, not an air-fuel-water mix arghhh, the memories of my campervan engine kabooming are all too recent. Now that was an air-fuel-water mix!!! Warped cylinder head saw to that. Anyhoos, hopefully papasmurf's shout is the right one.

"I have been starting it and running it in the garage fairly regularly, e.g. once a week over the winter"
About the worst thing you can do during winter storage.

@ PeteF:


Why would that be the worst thing to do during the winter lay-up?

Its not been in storage, its just not been used on the road mainly due to icey roads round our way.