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I'm getting a bike that has had gas sitting in the tank for a bit over a year. Is it still good to use the gas or should i drain it and put in fresh? Also if anyone has had experience with this and could let me know if i should be concerned about the fuel lines or the carbs.
Thanks in advance...

I'd put fresh gas in it. If your fuel lines look all cracked or split then go ahead and change them out.

Probably going to need to pull the carbs and clean them.

First, charge or change the battery. *If* the bike starts on the battery, charging a mostly dead battery is pretty hard on your charging system.

Drain the gas and put in a fresh tank of gas with some Seafoam in it. I'd change the fuel filter.

Change the oil before trying to start.

Remove the spark plugs and squirt just a little bit of oil into the cylinders through the spark plug holes.

You'll probably want new tires, too.

Why is he putting oil in the cylinders?

Damn near every "checklist for starting an engine that has been sitting for a while" I've ever seen mentions putting oil (or Marvel Mystery Oil) directly into the cylinders.

Apparently you're supposed to use some fogging oil directly into the cylinders when putting it away for storage, and this obviates the need for oil injection when taking it out, but if this hasn't been done fogging oil or simply pouring oil directly into the cylinders will help on that first startup.

I guess it helps build compression on the first few strokes before the oil pressure comes up.

Thank you all for your help. The battery has been kept on and off a trickle starter for the past year so the battery should be fine. I will definitely clean out the carbs and check the lines in addition to the changing of the gas. I looked through some past posts and everyone loves the seafoam stuff so i think i am going to go try to buy a case for all my bikes!

jonnythan wrote:Damn near every "checklist for starting an engine that has been sitting for a while" I've ever seen mentions putting oil (or Marvel Mystery Oil) directly into the cylinders.

Apparently you're supposed to use some fogging oil directly into the cylinders when putting it away for storage, and this obviates the need for oil injection when taking it out, but if this hasn't been done fogging oil or simply pouring oil directly into the cylinders will help on that first startup.

I guess it helps build compression on the first few strokes before the oil pressure comes up.

You put oil in the cylinder and crank it around a couple of times so it coats the upper areas of the cylinder. This prevents them from rusting, especially around the areas where the rings touch.

Adding oil after the bike has been stored seems pointless to me. As if it was going to rust, it has rusted, and burning oil is not good regardless of how it got into the cylinder.

Sev wrote:Adding oil after the bike has been stored seems pointless to me. As if it was going to rust, it has rusted, and burning oil is not good regardless of how it got into the cylinder.

As I understand it, the piston rings need to be lubricated to get any compression.

You need the engine running to get the oil pressure necessary to get the rings lubricated.

You won't get the engine running without compression.

So, you add some oil directly to the cylinder to get the rings lubricated to help with compression and help prevent direct metal to metal contact until the oil pressure goes up and the engine can lubricate itself.

Nothing wrong with burning a little bit of oil on purpose.

the oil has been drained out of the engine, just not the gas in the tank. I don't know why the guy would have thought ahead enough to drain the oil and not the gas...