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mrlmd · October 14th, 2010, 01:45 PM

You are using the choke appropriately right?

How did they determine your battery was toast? Possibly you didn't charge it long enough to get it up to full charge and you could have charged it up again and retried before you bought a new one. If you are using something like a battery tender with less than a 1 amp charge, that could take 18 hours or more to fully recharge it. A 2 amp charger could take 6-8 hrs. or more to do it. One or two hours on the charger won't bring it up all the way. The only way to tell if it is bad is to have it fully charged, then put it on a load tester. Saying it's bad because you tried to start the bike for 30 min and drained it again is not as good, and they may have just wanted to sell you a new battery. The same thing can happen to the new battery trying to start the bike for 1/2 hr.
Also, just to throw this out, regular gas can sit for a few months and still be OK. It doesn't hurt to replace it with fresh gas though.
And for the engine to fire, you need all three things - gas, spark, and air. So you have to go through all three systems as suggested and see what's amiss. Use the choke with a freshly charged battery, or hook it up with jumper cables to a non-running car, and it should start. Put some Seafoam or Berryman's in the gas and in the carbs directly if you can, to soak overnight, and try it again, before you start removing the carbs to clean them. You could drain the carbs and see what's in there, if there's any gas at all.
Another stupid thing that can happen and prevent the bike from starting is having some critter make a nest and take up residence in your exhaust or air box/cleaner. Take a look in both of those and see if they are clogged.

October 14th, 2010, 01:45 PM	#5
mrlmd ninjette.org sage Name: Marc Location: Crawfordville, Florida Join Date: Jan 2010 Motorcycle(s): 2005 Suzuki S50, 2006 Kawasaki Ninja EX250F, 1990 Honda PC800, 2000 Yamaha TW200 Posts: 848	You are using the choke appropriately right? How did they determine your battery was toast? Possibly you didn't charge it long enough to get it up to full charge and you could have charged it up again and retried before you bought a new one. If you are using something like a battery tender with less than a 1 amp charge, that could take 18 hours or more to fully recharge it. A 2 amp charger could take 6-8 hrs. or more to do it. One or two hours on the charger won't bring it up all the way. The only way to tell if it is bad is to have it fully charged, then put it on a load tester. Saying it's bad because you tried to start the bike for 30 min and drained it again is not as good, and they may have just wanted to sell you a new battery. The same thing can happen to the new battery trying to start the bike for 1/2 hr. Also, just to throw this out, regular gas can sit for a few months and still be OK. It doesn't hurt to replace it with fresh gas though. And for the engine to fire, you need all three things - gas, spark, and air. So you have to go through all three systems as suggested and see what's amiss. Use the choke with a freshly charged battery, or hook it up with jumper cables to a non-running car, and it should start. Put some Seafoam or Berryman's in the gas and in the carbs directly if you can, to soak overnight, and try it again, before you start removing the carbs to clean them. You could drain the carbs and see what's in there, if there's any gas at all. Another stupid thing that can happen and prevent the bike from starting is having some critter make a nest and take up residence in your exhaust or air box/cleaner. Take a look in both of those and see if they are clogged.