Advice for those with carbureted motorcycles

ddahcmai

Hey everyone, I was just out riding with some of my friends the other day when my bike started to have problems reacting to the throttle; it kept coming close to flooding, and tended to bog down a lot, even when warmed up. After riding I asked my friends about it, and they informed me that the ethanol gas stations are now mixing into our gasoline does not react well with our non flexible-fuel bikes. The ethanol tends to wash out all the gunk built up in the gas tank and lines, and push it right into the carburetor. What this corrosive mess does is eat away your brass or aluminum carburetor pins, resulting in a multi-hundred dollar repair bill for engine work. Now, there are two ways to prevent this from happening. One is to have chromed pins installed in your carburetor instead of your factory brass or aluminum: this will run about $300 or more, but will stop nearly all corrosion and/or problems you've been having due to ethanol running through your bike. The other is to use STA-BIL fuel stabilizer to prevent ethanol corrosion. It costs about $11 per 32 oz. bottle, and 1 oz. will treat 2 1/2 gallons of gas. There are many different kinds for different fuels, what you're looking for is the pink/red STA-BIL mixture. It's been working great so far for me, and one bottle will last me most of a season.

Chromed pins are obviously the better way to go, but I can't really foot that bill too well, as I'm sure many of you out there can't also. STA-BIL has been recommended to me by mechanics I talked to for this problem, and it's worked better than I expected so far.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you all a heads up as we enter summer. Good luck!