So it is finally sunny and nice here in central New York so I decided to take my bike out of hibernation and go for a ride. I throw the battery back in the bike, and then the worst happens, the bike won't start. It turned over a few times then the battery died. Oh well, I plugged in my trickle charger and let it sit for a few hours. This was a few days ago.
It snowed plus I was away from my bike for a couple days so today I tried again. Same problem, the bike turns over and even starts for a few second but then sputters and dies. So I plug the ******* back into the wall and let it sit for a couple hours. It does not seem to help much. Every time if it even starts, the bike dies after a few seconds. If I even try to give it some throttle it dies right away as well. I fiddling with the choke to get some results and that seemed to help a little giving it a little more and more I got it to idle for a few seconds at a higher rpm but it still died. I live on a hill so I'm hesitant to bump start it because I fear if it does not work I will be stuck at the bottom and it will take a long time to push the bike back up.
I'm trying to figure out what is wrong. The battery does seem like it is getting drained quickly when I keep trying to start the bike. However, this is a new battery I got last summer because the previous one died. There is gas in the tank. One possibility is that the spark plugs are bad, which would make sense since it will not run for very long but I am not that savvy when it comes to repairs, also I do not have a torque wrench (though I could borrow one) to tighten the plugs back to the right tightness (read the repair manual).
Any help would be appreciated, what do you think I should do? I'd like to solve this problem myself instead of taking it to the shop, especially because I do not have the means to tow my bike there. Thanks in advance.
EDIT**
So after a few more tries she started up! But there seems to be quite a bit of smoke from the exhaust and it has a strange smell to it, also it seems like the bike is idling kind of rough (though this may be because I have not ridden for a while). I rode it for a second and it seems fine in terms of power and throttle response/smoothness. Should I still check out the spark plugs or what else do you recommend?
It snowed plus I was away from my bike for a couple days so today I tried again. Same problem, the bike turns over and even starts for a few second but then sputters and dies. So I plug the ******* back into the wall and let it sit for a couple hours. It does not seem to help much. Every time if it even starts, the bike dies after a few seconds. If I even try to give it some throttle it dies right away as well. I fiddling with the choke to get some results and that seemed to help a little giving it a little more and more I got it to idle for a few seconds at a higher rpm but it still died. I live on a hill so I'm hesitant to bump start it because I fear if it does not work I will be stuck at the bottom and it will take a long time to push the bike back up.
I'm trying to figure out what is wrong. The battery does seem like it is getting drained quickly when I keep trying to start the bike. However, this is a new battery I got last summer because the previous one died. There is gas in the tank. One possibility is that the spark plugs are bad, which would make sense since it will not run for very long but I am not that savvy when it comes to repairs, also I do not have a torque wrench (though I could borrow one) to tighten the plugs back to the right tightness (read the repair manual).
Any help would be appreciated, what do you think I should do? I'd like to solve this problem myself instead of taking it to the shop, especially because I do not have the means to tow my bike there. Thanks in advance.
EDIT**
So after a few more tries she started up! But there seems to be quite a bit of smoke from the exhaust and it has a strange smell to it, also it seems like the bike is idling kind of rough (though this may be because I have not ridden for a while). I rode it for a second and it seems fine in terms of power and throttle response/smoothness. Should I still check out the spark plugs or what else do you recommend?
