Bike won't start - suggestions?
Discussion
sjtscott said:
If you'd ever owned an Aprilia v60 1000cc twin based bike you'd know all too well about how easy this could take place given the crappy charging/battery system they put on the bike.
The solution to get it started (once you had a battery with enough charge) is completely opposite to logic too!! Hold the throttle wide open to the stop and crank the starter, had to use it all to often during winter time.
Not that illogical because holding the throttle open to clear a flooded engine is a pretty universal fix, carbs or injection, well petrol flooded anyway because water flooded is a far more painful exercise.The solution to get it started (once you had a battery with enough charge) is completely opposite to logic too!! Hold the throttle wide open to the stop and crank the starter, had to use it all to often during winter time.
For completeness.
I charged the battery this week, not sure how flat it was, left it going overnight and by the morning it was charged.
Put it back in yesterday and fired it up and it made exactly the same noise, but I knew it was charged this time so tried quite a few more times and for longer each time, with varying degrees of open throttle. After about the 4-5th try it got slightly further, the rev counter even moved slightly. There was also an even stronger smell of fuel than usual. A few more times and it started very very badly and died after a few seconds, then the usual nothing the next few times. I was just about to give up when I tried one more time and it furiously burst in to life and idled normally like nothing happened.
My assumption is that I flooded it when I first tried the other day and had little->no spark. This time I just had to unflood it. Strange though, but it seems fine now.
I charged the battery this week, not sure how flat it was, left it going overnight and by the morning it was charged.
Put it back in yesterday and fired it up and it made exactly the same noise, but I knew it was charged this time so tried quite a few more times and for longer each time, with varying degrees of open throttle. After about the 4-5th try it got slightly further, the rev counter even moved slightly. There was also an even stronger smell of fuel than usual. A few more times and it started very very badly and died after a few seconds, then the usual nothing the next few times. I was just about to give up when I tried one more time and it furiously burst in to life and idled normally like nothing happened.
My assumption is that I flooded it when I first tried the other day and had little->no spark. This time I just had to unflood it. Strange though, but it seems fine now.
Sounds like an issue I had with a Sprint ST a number of years back.
After a couple of thousand miles round France, Italy and Slovenia I parked up for a week to do some paragliding. When I went to start it up a week later it just done what you described. I got recovered to a garage in Ljubljana who happened to race Triumphs but they couldn't figure it out either. They called Triumph technical who explained that it had probably got a bit coked up on the long days and crap fuel, they suspected it was causing low compression. They advised to take off the fuel tank and airbox and put a few drops of oil down each cylinder. Put it back together, cranked it over and it fired into life with a ton of smoke for a minute or two.
Unfortunately the delay left me with 1000 miles of overnight riding to get home for my flight offshore.
After a couple of thousand miles round France, Italy and Slovenia I parked up for a week to do some paragliding. When I went to start it up a week later it just done what you described. I got recovered to a garage in Ljubljana who happened to race Triumphs but they couldn't figure it out either. They called Triumph technical who explained that it had probably got a bit coked up on the long days and crap fuel, they suspected it was causing low compression. They advised to take off the fuel tank and airbox and put a few drops of oil down each cylinder. Put it back together, cranked it over and it fired into life with a ton of smoke for a minute or two.
Unfortunately the delay left me with 1000 miles of overnight riding to get home for my flight offshore.
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