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I just sold one of my older motorcycles, a 1993 Kawasaki ZX11, to a friend who will appreciate it more than I ever did. It's been in storage just sitting for 14 years, unridden and largely neglected, ashamedly, in a manner not at all consistent with my recommendations whenever I'm asked how to store anything with an internal combustion engine.
Good news, my collection of motorcycles with carburetors is shrinking. That means one less bike on which I will have to spend between 8 to 10 hours cleaning a varnished fuel tank, fuel valve, carburetors, and fuel pump. It is a tedious, time consuming, and unbelievably malodorous task. The most effective cleaner formulated for this will permeate your clothes, your skin, and your very soul while it lingers for a week afterward.
It turns you into an outcast, fully ostracized from any human contact or interaction until it slowly goes away. I swear, you can take 20 showers and it's still there.
Any time I spend performing this noxious task I will never get back and would be far better spent riding instead.
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Roger, there are times in my life when the whole notion of contact with another member of the human race is too ghastly to contemplate. What is this handy solvent?
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Berryman's B12 Carburetor cleaner. Not the aerosol, that's for panty-waists. I'm referencing the 5 gallon pail with the dip basket, in which you place your completely disassembled carburetors minus any plastic, rubber, or composite parts if you ever want to see them again.
Dunno if you can get this stuff in Oz, as I believe it is banned in every other civilized country globally.
Besides the horrific odor, I believe it modifies your DNA into something shared by reptiles and the curious wildlife you have on your continent. Might even have been used in the recent spate of acid attacks in the UK, or by the Assad regime on his own people.
Aside from all that, it's a pretty good carburetor cleaner.
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Sorry to hear that you had to part with a classic like the ZX-11. I see you're point, though. If you can't ride a carbed bike enough to keep the gas from going bad, it's pointless to keep it.
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Pretty tough all around, but at least I know it's going to a friend whom I've known since grade school, someone who absolutely loves these bikes.
He's had a couple of them, crashing one hard enough to shorten the wheelbase by two feet, and another which had oil starvation, a common issue on these older ZX's, which resulted in spun rod bearings. I rebuilt that one for him, had the crank welded and ground, and I resized the bearings to match. He loaned it to his wanker cousin who subsequently totalled it a couple of months later. That was over 20 years ago and he has matured a lot since then, so I 'm pretty sure my old ZX won't suffer the same fate in his possession.
I do have the spiritual successor to that bike in my stable, however. It's a 2003 ZZR1200. This bike is everything the ZX11 was, but makes even more HP. It has a better handling chassis, more refinement, upgraded suspension, and sport touring capability especially with the GIVI racks, bags, and top case installed. Still carbureted and no ABS or fancy electronics but it gets ridden and is stored with a mixture of race fuel and non oxygenated premium unleaded so it will never sit and decay the way that my old 11 did.
I am not particularly fond of the current ZX14R with its quirky styling and racy ergonomics, so unless Kawasaki freshens that design up a bit I don't think I will ever own one.
