Unheard of Reliability

[Boatguy]

I haven’t used my bike in 6 months or so.

Put it away (outdoors under a cover that shredded over the summer with a hurricane going by).

Left whatever gas in it (low grade ethanol gas)

Forgot to disconnect the battery.

I went to start it today.

Put a set of jumper cables on, jumped it from my truck battery.

I pressed the start button and it caught as fast as any Toyota car. Barely touched the button at all and it was running again. M

I looooove fuel injection!!

[Oldenslow]

Wonderful, but realize this -- you got lucky. If you ever have your fuel injection get gummed-up with old fuel, you will fervently wish you had a carburetor...

[zero_dgz]

I will say that my Bashan typically refuses to start if I don't ride it for more than a month or so. I guess with the fuel we have around here it'll gum up the pilot circuit in that time frame, every time, without fail.


But I can get the carb out of it in about 60 seconds, blast it with carb cleaner spray, and have it reinstalled in about the same amount of time. Then I'm off and running again, no problem. It is ludicrously easy to disassemble most of that bike -- I wish I could say the same for my Orion.



If I remember to turn the fuel petcock off I have less of a problem. Apparently I'm not usually that smart, though.

[Magician16]

Both of my bikes are sitting 6 months out of the year. In AZ I remove all the fuel(no non ethanol available) before leaving and disconnect the battery. In North Dakota, I just shut the petcock while the engine is running, until it dies and remove the battery.


Last week, after a couple days messing with my golf cart, I put a gallon of gas in my Bashan, opened the petcock, and it started 1st turn. The Magician has never started that easily' it usually takes full choke to start it, and it has to warm up a bit before it will keep running.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by Oldenslow

Wonderful, but realize this -- you got lucky. If you ever have your fuel injection get gummed-up with old fuel, you will fervently wish you had a carburetor...

Completely disagree.

It takes oxygen to gum up the fuel.

Only available in carburetors.

I sure don’t miss those hunks of junk.

I have every small engine (6 of them) fuel injected now. No more hassles. Just run and run and run on any gas, even after sitting a long time. just like fuel injected cars.

When is the last time you heard of someone’s car having problems with fuel delivery other than a fuel pump going? Just doesn’t happen anymore thanks to fuel injection.

Never EVER an issue. Had very frequent issues with POS carbs on small engines. They don’t put carbs in cars for a good reason.

Lithium starting battery and fuel injection makes these bikes incredibly reliable even for the laziest or most clueless riders. They work just like cars, except aside from not being able to kill fuel delivery, you can’t kill the battery either. The BMS takes care of that

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Boatguy

Completely disagree.

It takes oxygen to gum up the fuel.

Only available in carburetors.

I sure don’t miss those hunks of junk.

I have every small engine (6 of them) fuel injected now. No more hassles. Just run and run and run on any gas, even after sitting a long time. just like fuel injected cars.

When is the last time you heard of someone’s car having problems with fuel delivery other than a fuel pump going? Just doesn’t happen anymore thanks to fuel injection.

Never EVER an issue. Had very frequent issues with POS carbs on small engines. They don’t put carbs in cars for a good reason.

Lithium starting battery and fuel injection makes these bikes incredibly reliable even for the laziest or most clueless riders. They work just like cars, except aside from not being able to kill fuel delivery, you can’t kill the battery either. The BMS takes care of that

Fuel will eventually degrade in a sealed fuel system. It just takes a lot longer.

I didn't ride my Hawk for 14 months. Rolled it outside, put a new battery in it, turned on the fuel and it also fired right up.

It's all in how you store it. Drain the bowl before putting the bike up and you have no problems.

[Bill Hilly]

I now have a KPX with fuel injection, and I did send the ECU in to America Lifan for a free re map, and it runs fine, and as long as it is running fine, I'm happy, but I have nothing against a carbed bike. I paid $2,850 for my KPX, and while I think they go to injection on some bikes because of stricter emissions law in some places, I personally would rather a bike like the KPX be priced,say $200 cheaper, and come with a carb. Even though mine works fine, I'm still a little worried about how it may act in the future. I bought a 2016 Hawk around Christmas last year, and it had been sitting for years, with nearly no miles on it. I rolled it off the truck, and drained the gas from it, put in new gas, and of course the battery was dead, but when I would kick it the neutral light would glow. After a few kicks, it fired up. My clutch disk were a little stuck, but I got them freed up in just a couple minutes, and have been riding it every since. It had turned for blue to purplish blue, and it got to me, so I painted the blue plastic flat black. I let my nice looking TBR7D go, instead of the Hawk when I decided to get a KPX, because there is just something about the Hawk that I favor.

[bigdano711]

Having worked with and on computers for 20 years, I will not place my faith in a piece of electronic equipment with a crap-ton of solder joints not meant to take the abusive vibration of a combustion engine. I mean, these bikes are brand new and the ECU has to be sent in to be re-mapped? RED FLAG.

I own a 1992 Honda Accord. When I first bought it, it had this issue where it ran great, I would park it, run inside the store for whatever, come out and turn the key to fire it up and NOTHING. I mean absolutely nothing, not a click, not a fuel pump, NOTHING. Then it started happening while I was driving. Just cut out.

Took it to the Honda dealership and the best tech in the region took a look at it and narrowed it down to 2 possible parts. Both electronic circuit board soldered pieces that had something to do with the ignition. Honda didn't have the part on hand and picked one up from O-Reilly.

Electronic gremlins are the hardest to track down.

[su98]

totally agree ...Electronic gremlins are the hardest to track down. 25 yrs of TV / electronic repair, more than 1/2 were bad solder. components not so much. just heat would create bad a connection. & i would imagine any vibration would magnify any poor contacts