Got the Beta going today. Just like the RS500, it didn’t want to start right away. In fact, trying to get it started ran the battery down again, so I quit while there was still a little charge (hopefully enough to try again later) left. Looked up the factory manual to make sure I was doing it right (I was) and kind of sat there scratching my head. The only thing I could figure is that it was kind of cold. If it wasn’t the temp, then either my brand new bike was already screwed up, or the gas had gone bad after sitting for a couple months. Both options seemed really crappy…
Anyway, waited a couple hours for the battery to recover from the first try. The starter turned over nice and fast on the first few tries, but still no start. On the fourth try it was cranking kind of slow. Uh-oh… so I resigned myself to a non-running bike that I would need help with to get running (i.e. it’s gonna cost some money), waited a couple minutes, and tried one last time. And… it started!!! I was fricken’ ECSTATIC. No money to spend, no excuses to the wife, it is OKAY. Let it idle a few minutes to warm up, then shut it down and started it again to make sure. Then a second time to make really sure.
My theory (which I’m not gonna test, so I guess it will remain a hypothesis) is that after sitting for a few months, all the gas evaporated or drained out of the line from the tank to the carb, and it just took quite a bit of engine sucking to pull it back into the carb. Once it started, it ran fine so I don’t think I’m suffering any of the alleged long term effects of letting methanol mixed gasoline sit too long.
Anyway, this whole sh1tshow was a pretty painless reminder that I need to run my bikes once in awhile (at least once a week) instead of just letting them sit. Also a reminder to get insurance on my XTrainer so I can take it to DMV and get plates for it. then once it’s street legal put a really LOUD muffler on it, but that’s for another post.