I had this problem the last 2 times I went to ride. Bike is cold. Go to start it, and bike starts up fine with the choke on. Idles fine with choke on. I let it warm up for 5 or 10 minutes, then go to ride. I still have the choke on. I ride for literally about one or 2 minutes, and then the bike dies. After that, I can't start it and keep it running. Just had this happen and I drained my battery trying to get it to start, so now I'm charging the battery before fooling with it again. The bike has been sitting during the winter, and I have only started it in the driveway about once every 2 weeks, allowing it to idle for at least 10 minutes. Any ideas? Does it just need to warm up more before I hop on it? Are these carb models finnicky like that?

Thanks for any help-

 

Does it die instantly or kind of spit & sputter to a stop?

 

Sounds like a gas cap issue. Next time the bike does that, while sitting on it on the side of the road, take off the gas cap and give it a really quizzical look. Then put it back on. You should be able to ride away.

(What happens is, modern gas caps are made to not leak fumes, and there's a little pinhole in there to equalize pressure. Anything plugs that, and you get this kind of problem.)

 

spits and sputters to a stop... Then, when I try and start again, will start and then instantly sputter to a stop again.

I tell you what.... walking a bike home uphill is a bi@#$.

 

FWIW, I actually did remove the gas cap, just to make sure there was gas in there... unfortunately, it didn't help this time.

You know, another thing that's weird is that my battery is almost brand new. I bought it only a handful of months ago and only have about 4 or 5 rides on it. I can't believe that after only about 5 attempts to start, it was too dead to crank the bike anymore. Does that seem right?

thanks for the replies-

 

Try next time, and ride where you can push it home anyway, but take a test ride on the flat and try my gas cap trick when it does this, that will help isolate the problem.

 

Oh, ok ..... well, batts can go dead anytime, you could also have some bad gas.... thing with these modern bikes is they need a good batt to run even after they're started ....

generally your rotten gas will be in the carb float bowl and the stuf in the tank will be OK unless the bike has really been sitting a long time. So, unless that gas is really old, you *should* be ok.

Tell ya what, go get some fresh gas and drain the old stuff, keep it for your mower or something, and try the bike with some fresh gas. Check your battery connections and maybe hit 'em with a lil' WD-40. If that doesn't fix it, you may want to get a new batt, so this is cheapest to more expensive problem isolation.

 

not to sound like a azzhole
warm up 10 min with choke out and then ride it like that for a while
i would have to say you fauled plugs with choke out that long.
start it choke on ,then half then ride the thing

 

You know, been thinking while I waited for this to load and yeah, on my little hon-duh, esp. if it's been sitting, it needs more time on the choke to be running happily. Often it's happiest with the choke on halfway for a bit, not happy with it off or all the way on.

it' a feel thing, you'll get a feel for it.

 

no offense taken here. i've only been riding a year and have a lot to learn.

you are probably right; i probably did foul the plugs. i will take them out and take a look and clean them up if they look bad. hopefully this is just a stupid mistake that i made and the bike is fine!