So I started up my bike the other day in this cold Minnesota winter and everything is fine. I have been starting and running the bike every week all winter long and no problems until today when it was warm enough to ride. At first I tried starting it and the battery was a little dead so I tried to bump it. No luck with either. I then put a jumper pack on and try to start it and it only gave one little blurp but it just kept trying to start. It seemed like I wasnt getting a spark. It was getting fuel because i could smell it. I rode it 4 days ago without any fairings on it. Would the wet roads cause the air filter to plug up? Is it my spark plugs? If so, what is the easiest way to get at the spark plugs? Kind of a noob question i know but i really dont want to have to take the bike completely apart again. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

my bet would be the spark plugs, take them out , clean and dry...hope that helps!

 

It probably goes without saying the best way to store a bike is with stabilized fuel and the battery pulled, inside where it is warm and on a Tender. Leaving the battery out is not good, also starting it like that without actually riding it doesnt allow it to charge back up well. It also puts condensation in the motor and pipes that normally gets burned off when you bring it up to operating temperature.

When my F4i diddnt start,I tried to bump start it and I just couldnt get it going fast enough. I didnt have a hill, soI got a push and whenI got as fast asI was able to go i hit the starter. There was just enough juice in it to help it turn over.


Good luck fixing your problem.

 

what is the easiet way to get to the spark plugs?

 

Depending upon how you've conducted the "...starting and running the bike every week all winter long..." sessions you may have killed your battery.

The electrical charging system on many bikes doesn't put out enough to charge your battery when at an idle.

Everytime you start your bike you suck a little juice out of the battery.

If all you do is let the bike idle for ten minutes at 1200 rpm say (or half an hour, it doesn't matter) your charging system does not replace the lost charge.

So each time you do this over the course of a winter your battery ends up a little lower that it was before.
Eventually... dead battery.

Another side effect of this sort of thing is that if you just let it idle for 10 minutes or sothe engine never gets to spend any significant time at normal operating temperature.

Crap on your plugs that normally would get burned off just accumulates. Water vapor condenses in your oil. Blowby from the combustion process accumulates in your oil.

The only way to get rid of that stuff is to get your engine up to normal operating temperature for a reasonable period of time.

 

You have to lift tank up to get to plugs.

 

you can get to the spark plugs with out taking off the gas tank....take off all the fairings and disconnect the radiator so that it can fall down a little bit and you can do it from there....its a bit of a tight fit but i found it easier than propping up the gas tank the whole time i was doing it

 

It doesn’t work like in cars; I think you need 4.5K to 5K revs for the charging system to do its job. Can someone more knowledgeable confirm?

 

I don't even think in cars it charges at idle.

 

I have tried starting it with a jumper box and then I charged the battery. still nothing. I get a little splurt like it is trying to fire but thats about it. I think it has to be the plugs. I never just let the bike idle either way. Normally I would ride it around the block 3-5 times and it would be around 170 as far as temp goes which is normal on my bike. The few times I didnt ride it, I would hold it at 3-6k for about 10 mins. I put Stabil in on the last day I rode it fully before winter. I think it may be due to the fact that the last time I had it running it was -2 degrees out and within48 hours it was 45 degrees. There may be some condensation on the plugs so they arent getting a spark.