What are your thoughts on starting your bike up during the longer lay ups? Its a Buell specific question not general and by start up i mean bike at a standstill idle till warm (fan on for a while) then turn off and thats it! Bike is dry stored in a heated shed. Cheers chaps!

I wouldn't bother, what would be the benefit

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Just wondering if long term owners have found any advantages of starting up or did anything become a problem when they didnt, any little niggles occurred due to lack of use (other than batteries) just curious really.

I've left various Buells for quite a long time (years) without starting them with no ill effects (apart from batteries). Starting them up and running them briefly may be counter productive, e.g., getting condensation in the oil.

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Thanks Bonzo all good points and i know the principles are the same with any bike but its good to know there are no Buell only issues! so no long term storage problems with the flux capacitor thats good news! lol

If it was a tuber, you'd have to make sure the fuel tap is turned off, but not relevant for an XB

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Hmmmm......have to say something here !

I've stripped loads of engines after long lay ups, most common thing I see are damaged bores where the rings have 'set' and corroded their footprint.
Also, every Spring see's me selling fuel pumps.
Running an engine is not a good idea but turning it over to get the oil round is, plus regular priming of the fuel pump.
All my tubers have the plugs taken out and the engine spun over on a regular basis......not so easy with an XB.

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Mithered ta death.
92 MB
96 S2T
98 S1W
00 M2
01 X1
03 P3
10 CR

Phew, thank feck a professional turned up, I was winging it there

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Today my pet mouse Elvis died ..................He was caught in a trap
There are two types of people in this world, those that can extrapolate

Thats all handy to know cheers and Maz i think i will do what you said it makes real sense and cuts out a lot of the problems caused when actually firing it up! I heard about one buell or sportster engine which took the hardening off the cams i think it was due to it/them being under constant pressure while standing stationary for years and years apparently but i dont know how true that was or if its even possible?

One of my Buells sat for ~6 years when my two children were first born (not enough hours in the day to ride it and look after it). Sent it up to Maz so that it could be woken up gently, so glad that I did, he picked up on a couple failures I was unaware off and were obviously there when it was being ridden (broken tensioner & magnets had come away). There is nothing better than piece of mind

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Today my pet mouse Elvis died ..................He was caught in a trap
There are two types of people in this world, those that can extrapolate

Don't know about UK fuel, but we have that damn E10-E15 crap in the US. Aside from the chains from C7H16 through C11H24, that make up gasoline, breaking down into shorter chains and becoming lower BTU Napthas, it gets gummy after a while. Throw in some Stabil and keep the tank full for long term storage. Less room for air to condense in the tank. The fuel pump internals don't like to be dry once it's been used and the seals will dry out. I would then crank it up every 2 weeks and get the pump and injectors moving.

Also, a fully heated engine will evaporate any condensation in your oil and the splashing around will coat surface that have drained down. Of course, since the engine and drive train breathes, it'll just happen again. But it's good to do it for corrosion prevention. Kind of wierd for me to say it since I'm a firm believer that startup is the most abusive thing your engine experiences. A type 5 synthetic, like Redline, is really good a preventing startup damage.

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Bob Krzeszkiewicz
2012 XR1200X - 2011 Kawasaki Z1000SX - 1999 Buell X1

So Maz, can I ask, is it better that I fire up my XB and run it for 10-15 minutes (letting fan kick in for a short while) during winter without riding, or just let it sit in a heated garage without starting it?

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Valencia Orange XB12Scg - serviced by Maz 2018
Black P3 Blast - serviced by Maz and fixed by Maz in 2019

Seriously Jill ?......did you actually read what you just quoted

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Mithered ta death.
92 MB
96 S2T
98 S1W
00 M2
01 X1
03 P3
10 CR

I prime mine and turn the engines over, without starting them. I'm not convinced that the gearboxes get up to temp without a run up the road, and that could promote condensation. I like to turn the belts around a bit too. Especially the cam belts on the Ducati. No idea if it does them any good, but it keeps me out of mischief

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