Vulcan 500 sputtering and backfiring...

[jbprince]

Hey guys, I could use some help... I have 2006 Vulcan 5000 with just over 3000 miles on it... I bought it used in August and the only issues Ive had with it have been the battery (my fault) and running out of gas (my fault again, hush)... I havent been able to ride it much lately and really have only put about 300 miles on it since I bought it...

my issue is this... when I took it out today, it was idling really rough... when I would give it some throttle, it would either stall, lose power and chug, or backfire, this was all in neutral... after letting it warm up a while, I took it out behind a grocery store to do some laps... same thing would happen... eventually it sopped for a while and i decided to take it on the road... but then it started again... I got back off the main roads because i just couldnt trust the bike to keep up.. i mean im giving it throttle and getting no response or a sputtering response...

any help would be appreciated... could it be as simple as skunky gas? when i ran it out of gas last time, it was refilled using my gas for the mower... which is a couple months old... is there a good carb cleaner I could use... Ive also read something about maybe the battery causing this... oh well, thanks in adance

[Johnj]

I'd say bad gas, but if the bike has just been sitting around you might need to clean and resync the carbs.

[jbprince]

I dont know how long it was sitting before I bought it in August, but it ran fine after I bought it... I dont think its been sitting long with me... I mean it try to get it out at least once a week... if it is bad gas, should I remove the old gas or is there some gas treatment I can add to the current tank?

[Johnj]

That's the way it goes, the bike runs for a month or so then gums up. Drain the tank and look at the carbs. There may be a float bowl drain on them. If so drain them also.