Evaporating carbs

[Guest]

Is it possible that after a long hot ride that the remaining gas within the carb bowls on a GS1100 might evaporate with non use?

Reason to ask is my bike is difficult to start after a few weeks without turning the fuel valve to the RES or Prime position.

[chuck hahn]

Yes..it does evaporate and then youll need to reprime abit after a long sitting..everyone of my bikes does that too. nothing abnormal about it.

[mike-s]

It's quite possible. The only way i can thinkof testing is to not turn the petcock to res, etc and open a drainplug on a bowl and see if any fuel comes out.

[Katarat]

My Harley did that with the vacuum petcock. Had to crank the crap out of it. I put a Pingel on it. turn it on for a minute & it cranks right up. Good quality gas we get now is the problem.

[chuck hahn]

Katarat..wrong. The gas quality has squat to do with anything. I ran a bike on gas that sat there for 6 months all winter...no problems. You mentioned you have a pingle and that you turn it on and it fires right up after a minute. All youve really done is misspoke because your pingle doesn t have a vacuum. By turning it on and setting a minute is exactly what is being explained about using prime after it has set for a few weeks. You turn yours on and let it SET FOR A MINUTE..the letting it set for a minute just refills the bowls same as if you put it on prime. theres no difference. The issue is that gas does evaporate and that vapor escapes out the vent tubes thus lowering the fuel level in the bowls. Put an old carb bowl full of gas on your shelf and come back in a few weeks and look to see how low it is then...it may even be empty if its hot enough outside. Thus you need to put the petcock on prime if it has been setting for a long while.

[chuck hahn]

Mercaholic...put it on prime..wait about 1 minute and start the bike. Then swing it down to on. Its not an issue with anything mechanical or " cheap" gas.