Starting after storage advice

[moblies]

After a year or so being in storage the bike tried but wouldn't turn over. I took the tank off an sprayed some carb cleaner in. Left for a while and she fired up and ran pretty well. Am I safe to put the tank back on with fresh fuel? Or should I be doing anything else

[CMSMJ1]

if it was not prepared for storage then a full service is your best bet..

[speedy231278]

You might get away with just running plenty of carb cleaner through the engine before using the bike in anger, but there's probably a good chance that the carbs will have gunge left in them from where the petrol evaporated unless you drained them before you stored the bike. If you take it out and it runs like a pile of poo, especially at lower engine speeds, then the carbs need a proper clean.

Also, I'd give all the bushes, bearings, seals etc a good inspection so make sure they haven't decided to give up on life through lack of use.

[moblies]

Thank you

will give it another squirt of cleaner before putting the tank back on, when it strated it ran pretty well considering.

[andy1472]

Grrrr I hate it when people put bikes away with no prep, get them out and expect all to be well. Petrol degrades fast, causes blocked jets, ethanol attracts water and rot fuel tanks from the inside. Look after your bikes plz or it'll let you down.

The easiest thing to do is at least drain your float bowls if you can't be arsed to do anything else. Rant over

[marcus57]

My first nc had been sat for over 18 months , all i did was checked the fulid levels and fitted a new battery and it fired up and ran well

[racingt]

My nc had been stored years and a mouse had made its home in the air box.
Carb internals were spotless so I don't buy this 'drain the carbs' argument at all.
Just run it, sort stuff when you have time.
Make sure the oil is fresh though...

[mikey65]

were do you spray in the carb cleaner

[NGneer]

IMHO I would at least take the carbs of and give them a good clean internaly. Old petrol can decay and leave a schellack (spelling?) coating inside your carbs.

I found this on my first NC30. It had a major mid range hole and once I got brave enough tot remove the carbs for the first time and open them up the insides were all coated inside like this...


..just a little bit of time and effort and they were back to this....


..also checked and clean all the jets with TeePee (interdental brushes) and an air duster...


...and the difference without doing anything else - was very significant!

The carbs are the lungs of the bike after all - so (in my opinion) it is worth an evenings work to check your bike can breathe properly.