Getting my Hornet back on the road

[theone]

i have had my hornet 600 off the road for 7 months now and i'm worried about damaging it when i get it back on the road next wednesday.

I have been reading through the owners manual which talks about storage of the bike under long conditions.

1) It states if the bike is being stored over 1 month it is crucial to ensure that the carbs are completely drained, so performance isn't affected.

2) The tank is emptied of any old petrol

3) Change the oil and filter

How exactly do i drain the carbs of the petrol? and get the petrol out of the tank, i'm worried the bike will be ruined if i just try and put some more petrol in the tank and fire it up.
any advice would be great

[Robby]

Personally I would just chuck some redex in the tank, start it up, and go for a 10 mile ride. Then change the oil and filter when you get home.

Best to check the tyre pressures before you set off.

[Guest]

7 months is a long time to leave modern unleaded in the carbs - it dries out and leaves a film of varnish over eveything. But you might be lucky.

Drain the tank and put that in the car, then re-fill with fresh petrol and hope

In future, to drain the carbs just switch the petrol tap off and run the bike till it stops. The tank will be best if you fill it to the brim with petrol - no air means no rust. Then when you get back on the road dump the petrol in the car again and fill with new.

Check brake fluid levels, tyre pressures, cables might need oiling, chain will need some lube. As robby says, go for a ride (I'd say 20 miles minimum) nice and steady to make sure everything's ok and it'll get the engine nice and hot. This will let the hot oil 'wash' the inside of the engine of any condensation, then change the oil and filter when you get home.

[theone]

ok well as i mentioned i cant actually ride the bike until next wednesday when the insruance starts, but i have filled the tank up today with petrol and fitted the new battery and it started fine

One thing i have noticed, is i left it running for about for about 30 minutes on its own, and it dawned on me that it doesnt idle as well as it used to, it doesnt sound the same (a little bit "chuggy") but i can rev it fine and it will pick up on the revs. Once i left go of the throttle after 5-10 secs the revs go down again a bit. It used to idle a 1K RPM but now its around 500-700 RPM.
I first of all let the engine start on the choke, and after 2 mins turned it of completely just to get the engine started.

Does any one have an idea what could be causing this? a few mates reckon it just slowly needs an actual 30 min ride on the road at a decent pace to get it back to scratch. But could it be something mechanical causing this, or just a bit unused.

any help would be great, i have purchased a new oil filter and will put this in once the bike is on the road and i have given it a bit of a ride. I just want to get past these naggging problems as im not entirely sure on the reason for the low idling, and dont want to ride a dangerous bike as such

thanks all

[theone]

can any one help at all, to what this is could be?

[fazed]

give it a bit of a thrashing , and let it clear its throat also check the idle adjuster and adjust accordingly

[Guest]

Yep, a good run can work wonders. You may have some petrol varnish in th slow running jets, that would explain the tickover problems. A tweak of the tickover adjustment might help too as Fazed says.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend letting it tick over for 30 minutes though, you're getting no cooling wind over it.

[theone]

thanks alot, will see when i get in back on the road how a good work in will sort it out.

regards