General Fuel and Storage Q

[Yata-Garasu_imp]

If I can't ride for a few months, what are the best options to preserve the inside of the tank and fuel injectors?

[rboe]

With 3 bikes I put Premium in the tank (unless I'm on a road trip, then I'll get regular until the last fill up) since Premium seems to degrade a lot slower than regular. I started a spreadsheet to track when I last rode a bike (the 650 with a carb, in the hot summers really should be ridden at least once every three weeks to keep the carb from varnishing up and the CB's have parasitic drains on their batteries - but at least a top off with a charger can fix that if I don't go too long before giving it attention).

If the situation demands it (mainly with the garden tiller) I put in Stabil marine fuel stablizer (it's apparently a heavier duty version of your standard Stabil) and I don't worry about filling the tank.

Check out Fort Nine's youtube video on gas stabilzers. I was a big fan of Seafoam that vid cured me of that! However; Seafoam can clean up the intake of an engine, just the wrong tool for fuel stabilization.

When I parked the 2013 CB last summer I pulled the battery and kept it inside. Heat is a real battery killer (more than cold by a wide margin) and with the parasitic drain, best to pull the battery. I have Li-Ion batteries in the bikes now, so I do a full charge once the battery is out then let it sit.

For lead acid batteries I charge again, and if it's inside and only a few months I'll charge it again before I put it in the bike - no tender. That works for my use case. Being in hot Texas I suspect that would work pretty good for you too.

[Wagonpeddler_imp]

Living in Western PA all my life, I have always stored my bikes the entire winter. Of course, they were all carbed (my CB1100 is on the way). Drained the carbs, filled the tank, more recently with non-ethanol fuel, added Star-Tron stabilizer, a few drops of oil in the cylinders, WD-40 sprayed on all exterior chrome, and sprayed oil based penetrant into the exhausts (never had one rust). I removed the battery and attached to a tender for the winter.

[Houtman_imp]

I keep all my tanks on my bikes and garden equipment full with 93 gas , Stabil in my pressure washer and wood chipper , never any problem starting them.

[peterbaron]

As this is FI system, I just park them in my garage/not heated for approx. 5 months.
For this winter storage, I filled up both tanks with ethanol free gas.

[GoldOxide_imp]

CB1100: Outdoor storage (no heated or luke warm garage) all seasons including 40C+ and -35C temperatures, high humidity, regular unleaded 87 brand name octane, up to 10% ethanol and no fuel stabilizer. Never a problem - ever.

This continues to be true for all other fuel injected machines before and since the CB1100.

[bioman_imp]

CB1100: Outdoor storage (no heated or luke warm garage) all seasons including 40C+ and -35C temperatures, high humidity, regular unleaded 87 brand name octane, up to 10% ethanol and no fuel stabilizer. Never a problem - ever.

This continues to be true for all other fuel injected machines before and since the CB1100.

The same method and experience here.

[rboe]

That is an advantage to living in a very cold climate. Gas does not go south on you like it does in the hot south.

If you remember high school chemistry; chemical reactions are accelerated with heat. You want to put a stop to chemical reactions; freeze things up.

But perhaps I shoulda led with "how many of you remember high school?"

[Cormanus]

That is an advantage to living in a very cold climate. Gas does not go south on you like it does in the hot south.

If you remember high school chemistry; chemical reactions are accelerated with heat. You want to put a stop to chemical reactions; freeze things up.

But perhaps I shoulda led with "how many of you remember high school?"

You shoulda. My answer would be 'not very well'.

One of the things I do remember involves Chemistry, at which I was not very good, although I did manage to pass what was said to have been one of the hardest final exams set to that time.

Some years later I was talking to to a young fellow doing his final year of school. He told me he was studying chemistry under the same bloke who had taught me.

Then he said, "You must be the Cormanus the teacher mentioned to us."

"What on earth for?" I asked.

"He told us about the Cormanus Theory of Multiple Choice."

"Did he? What's that?" I asked, bemused. I'd never heard of it.

"Apparently if you're in a multiple choice exam and don't know any of the answers, you draw a pattern with your answers and you should pass."

[GoldOxide_imp]

lol - I hazard to imagine what these patterns may have looked like.