Hi everyone. I have searched the forum, and read some info that helps. But I thought I would post here as well for some additional guidance. My husband was deployed for a few months, and while he was gone he had me start up his bike weekly. I would say it started about 90% of the time without issue, and just a few times it took a few tries to get it started. Since my husband has gotten home he has ridden it about 10 times, with the goal to run the old gas out. The bike still has the old gas in it, since each weekend he planned to ride it for a longer ride to get the old gas out the weather was bad. Well the other day he went to start it up, put the key in (so the lights were on,) then had to go break up a scuffle with our dogs and forgot he had left his key in the bike. So of course the battery was dead. We tried to charge it, which didn't work so we went and bought a replacement battery on Wed. New battery is installed, and he has power. When he tried to start the bike, no go. I don't know the tech. term, but it sounds like it is trying to start, but it isn't getting enough gas to fully start. He unscrewed the gas cap, and we added Seafoam last night. After adding the Seafoam it would get very close to starting (closest it has gotten yet) but again never fully started. We went out to try it again this morning, and we are back to where we were before adding the Seafoam.
I told him after reading posts here, it is probably dirty gas (he didn't put any fuel stabilizer in it before he left since we thought it would be ok as long as I started it weekly.) Could you all offer any guidance on what we should do next? We have a bottle of Sta-Bil, but I wasn't sure if it would make any difference to add that at this point. Does he just need to drain the fuel? He really doesn't know much (mechanically), especially since this is his first bike. So if he needs to drain the fuel, and guidance on this would be great. We have the Triumph Manual, but I didn't see anything regarding draining the fuel (although I will look again.)
So any suggestions on what to do from here would be great. We would take it in, but we are in Harleyland where bike shops only work on Harleys. There is a Triumph guy in a nearby city, but my husband is getting ready to leave for a military school on Sunday so we couldn't take the bike for quiet a while. Obviously we now know that we need to put Sta-Bil in his bike when he is planning to be gone or not ride a lot (even if I am starting it) just to be safe from now on:)
