Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I have a Kawasaki Eliminator 125 and lately whenever i try to ride it, the engine will run really rough unless I can get the RPMs really high. The bike idles fine and can rev freely in neutral, but once you try accelerating on the road it feels like you're riding a bull. I did run it out of gas last week (I guess some one turned my trip meter) so one possibility I thought of was junk in the carb, although the next part confuses me.

Once I get going (with the bike still bucking like a bull) and need to stop for something, the bike will backfire a couple times and stall. After it stalls, the bike won't start using the starter button and the only way to get it started is by riding down a hill and letting the clutch out.

Some of the things I though it may be are the carb, the battery, the generator, or maybe the spark plug. I don't have enough confidence to take apart the carb myself so if this is most likely the problem it will be going to the shop, but I figured I would get your opinions before I did anything. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My buddies dad has an 02 intruder 800 that had the exact same symptoms with the rough acclerating (bucking) and the backfiring. Being mechanically inept he asked me to take a look at it. His battery was beat, once I changed that it fixed the need to bumpstart it and it ran a little better.

Most of his problems came from the fact that the whole system had skunked gas in it, this thing had 900 miles on and it was only started every few months when I came over and took it out on the road for him. Take into consideration how long if at all the bike has been sitting. Make sure you have fresh gas in it, and you could even try running some good fuel system cleaner like sea foam or b29 chemtool through the system (not "every oil change carb cleaner", the stuff that comes in a can). If it did have badly skunked gas ran through it the carbs will likely have to be cleaned, the intruder I mentioned being a newish bike with hardly any miles needed the carbs cleaned to remedy the roughness. You said you wouldn't feel comfortable digging into the carbs yourself, so if I were you I'd take it to a local shop and have them inspect it. Try the fuel cleaner and fresh gas first, hope it helps, Sam