I have a friend who bought his first motorcycle last summer, a new, leftover '08 Kawasaki Vulcan 500. I drove it home for him in August. He has not driven it very much due to a new baby (it's still on its original tank of gas). He had not had it started in 6 weeks, and when we tried to fire it up today (75 degrees and sunny) it would only start with a full choke, run for about 1 minute and then die. It would not hit a lick without full choke, and it took about 10 minutes for it to start again after it died. So what's the problem? The gas is 8 months old, and we know it sat for at least 6 weeks. My guess is a stuck carb float valve, but I am not too familiar with these bikes and would appreciate any input before tearing into my friend's new bike.

Just a guess but probably a gummed up jet in one or both carbs. Can't let them sit for very long with fuel in them or they tend to do that.

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'97 R1100RT

Drain the tank, add fresh gas and a measure of Seafoam. Get out and ride it if possible.

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I'm not familiar with the bike but if it has carbs, then drain the tank, drain the float bowls (in that order), put in fresh gas and charge the battery.

If it then starts and runs, change the oil too.

If the good advice above doesn't do the job, the carbs will have to be removed and cleaned.

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Yeah, everyone else is pretty much right on this one. The low speed circuit in the carb/carbs is plugged and most likely the carb will have to be cleaned. You might get luck with draining the float bowl and adding some carb cleaner to the tank. A bike that is going to sit unused for any amount of time that has carbs should have the bowls drained and petcock turned off. Every noobie rider learns this the hard way. Now you know, don't let it happen again.

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K7 Wee, rebuilt like new and then some after collision with deer and mildly farkled.

My son and I both had EX 500's (Ninja, but the same engine as the Vulcan) for a couple years. The most common problem discussed on that forum was the plugging of the primary jets. They use one of the smallest sizes available and without an inline filter will plug up often.

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Thanks for the advice! We drained the tank and carbs, reloaded it with fresh gas with a hefty dose of seafoam, problem solved!

Dunno if your local gas has ethanol. Since this is clearly a low-use bike, if at all possible get gas without ethanol. If you can't, might think about using the blue (marine) Sta-bil with every tank. A bottle of the stuff would last a long time, and if the bike gets put away for a couple of months, much better chance the gas won't cause problems. Certainly good advice to drain the float bowls, but going forward, not always easy to predict when the bike isn't going to be used, and by the time it is clear, the damage may have already been done. Depending upon humidity, untreated ethanol gas might start giving problems in less than a month. Even the straight gas with current formulations can be a problem in a couple of months. For the trivial cost and minimal time demand, treating every tank can save quite a bit of time, trouble, and money down the road. Your friend was lucky the carbs didn't need to be pulled and cleaned.