South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Hi all,

I put my SV in storage back in mid september and obviously the bike does not start!

I have drained the battery trying to start it so I will putting that on charge overnight but when trying to start it by rolling down a steep hill the bike failed to start and i didn't hear it fire up.

I am not sure what to do but do I need to drain the carbs? (I don't know how to do that even using haynes manual.)

Is there anything obvious that i should look at after storage. Yes, it has a full tank of fuel.

Amrik

The bike should start after only 10 weeks.
Possible faults are fouled plugs, condensation in coils (check for spark), carbs jellied up (clean em out) and any number of other faults. Check for a good spark before you try starting it tomorrow. If that is ok try a bit of easy start then use a carb treatment once you are running. Without loking at the bike its hard to say why it wont start but these are the usual suspects.
Bumping a v twin is not an easy task either. Good luck with it dude.

Just a thought, did you close the fuel tap when you laid it up? Did you re open it today?

tomr61 wrote:The bike should start after only 10 weeks.
Possible faults are fouled plugs, condensation in coils (check for spark), carbs jellied up (clean em out) and any number of other faults. Check for a good spark before you try starting it tomorrow. If that is ok try a bit of easy start then use a carb treatment once you are running. Without loking at the bike its hard to say why it wont start but these are the usual suspects.
Bumping a v twin is not an easy task either. Good luck with it dude.

Just a thought, did you close the fuel tap when you laid it up? Did you re open it today?

Thanks for the quick reply! I have just come home and put the battery on charge and it was quite drained. I didn't close the fuel tap, ( i didn't realise it had one!) there are lots of things i didn't do when putting it away such as remove the battery.

Things to do when starting a bike after if it's been standing 10 weeks ....

1. Key in ignition
2. Press starter




Other than that, usual checks ..... oil level, water, tyres, etc.,

It may just pay to re-charge the battery and try again

a modern bike should start after 10weeks without any problems. does your bike have a alarm fitted to it as that will drain the battery.my mates r1 wouldnt start after 3 weeks if he left the alarm armed

Did it backfire at all when you tried to start it?

I suspect the plugs may be fouled, the fuel may also have gone a bit stale. Personally I would give the plugs a clean and make sure you've got fresh fuel and a full charged battery then try and start it again. After ten weeks it shouldn't be any more sinster than that.

Good Luck

Hi all,

I got it started after help from my brother. It was a combination of a dead battery and my incorrect starting technique. Thanks for the advice!

When starting a bike it helps to blip the throttle a little, I was opening it full throttle and off instead of a little.

It starts, checked the levels and was great fun after driving a car for several months!

Great way to ruin your engine, I had to open my throttle open quite a bit before I put in a new engine. But that was because of low compression.

Now all I have to do is press the button, maybe for a second longer on a cold morning.

I would just try to start your SV with choke and just pressing the button, gradually decrease the choke til closed and let it idle til warm.

By revving an engine from cold you haven't let the oil have a chance to get around and lubricate everything so your only grinding nice metal bits together.

Dont think ive had a bike yet thats needed any throttle action to start it,just a bit of choke and push the button and away she goes, and that includes both ducatis

Other than my old Italian piles of sh*te I agree with Deej and Funky - a little choke (or fast idle for FI) and stab the starter. If starting with a fast idle/choke lever, get the revs down as quick as possible ...... hard revving a cold engine is sure fire disaster in the long run .... Kwak fours used to be the worst, screaming at 3/4000 rpm



Mind you, tickle the 40mm del Orto's on a bevel duke, and start it with the throttle held slightly open would elicit a 4' flame out of each exhaust pipe and a thunderclap loud enough to get the bomb squad running, often followed by the carb self digesting it's air filter

deej wrote:Dont think ive had a bike yet thats needed any throttle action to start it,just a bit of choke and push the button and away she goes, and that includes both ducatis

I am not sure if it needed the throttle action but I was in the garage last night with the choke set on half and pushing the starter button for a good 10 seconds before it fired. Now it fires on the 1st push.

I may have just flooded it last night with the choke and throttle open! I am still new carb'd vehicles, it was so easy with FI to just push the button and go!

I'd recommend the following; when parking the machine up switch your fuel tap to the off position to prevent flooding the carbs and possibly furring up,
and when starting the machine; fuel on, select neutral, close the throttle FULLY (i.e no throttle at all), full choke, clutch fully in, press the starter, after the engine starts ease the choke in slowly and if it sounds lumpy(stalling) ease it back out slightly, it shouldn't take long until the engine will run without any choke.
if this fails to work you have problems.

JohnBob wrote:I'd recommend the following; when parking the machine up switch your fuel tap to the off position to prevent flooding the carbs and possibly furring up,
and when starting the machine; fuel on, select neutral, close the throttle FULLY (i.e no throttle at all), full choke, clutch fully in, press the starter, after the engine starts ease the choke in slowly and if it sounds lumpy(stalling) ease it back out slightly, it shouldn't take long until the engine will run without any choke.
if this fails to work you have problems.

the SV doesn't have a petrol tap.

mine always wanted a hint of throttle to get it going

the SV doesn't have a petrol tap.

Oops, then disregard most of what i said.

tafflade wrote:

JohnBob wrote:I'd recommend the following; when parking the machine up switch your fuel tap to the off position to prevent flooding the carbs and possibly furring up,
and when starting the machine; fuel on, select neutral, close the throttle FULLY (i.e no throttle at all), full choke, clutch fully in, press the starter, after the engine starts ease the choke in slowly and if it sounds lumpy(stalling) ease it back out slightly, it shouldn't take long until the engine will run without any choke.
if this fails to work you have problems.

the SV doesn't have a petrol tap.

mine always wanted a hint of throttle to get it going

Could mean the fuel tap under the tank, the one you switch to 'close' when taking the tank off.