Total Motorcycle Community Forums

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

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

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?

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.