what the hell happened to my gasoline?

[Alex_D]

So at the begining of winter i stored my bike outside in my backyard (didn't have anywhere else to put it).

As you must know winters in Canada are pretty cold so we can't really ride our bikes. So basically the bike had to stay outside even in the cold. I filled the tank completly, put some gas stabilizer, put a bike cover on it, wrapped it a tarp on top of it and stored it under some stairs. So it never actually snowed on it.

Now fastforward to today, we have a small bachelor 1 room appartment in the basement and the tenant just left. The guy was a chain smoker who probably never cleaned once while he was staying there. So it wont be for rent before we clean everything and repaint.

Now i took this opportunity to bring my bike inside and use this space to work on it during the cold months we have left.

Obviously the first step I wanted to do was to drain and remove the gas tank because of the smell. So when i went to do it, i un plugged the gas line from the car, opened the gas cap, etc and nothing came out!!

I checked with a flashlight and the tank was completly empty

The only thing is I noticed I left my petcock on "Pri" for like 2 months before bringing the bike in. Is it possible the gas evaporated trough the carbs?

What else couldve happened?

and since everyone likes pictures, heres my new setup:

 

[Sesty]

Did u look at the ground under the stairs where you parked your bike? Smell you dipstick, does it smell like gas?

what kind of petcock do you have? stock vacuum one or a manual one? if your carbs are pretty dirty gas can sneak by the float needs and drain out the carbs and onto the ground/in your crankcase

very possible someone lifted up the tarp and drained it out....

 

[Alex_D]

Heres a picture of my petcock

i didn't see much on the ground, the temperatures were a little milder the last few days so snow melted alot and its wet everywhere

I bought the bike last August and it ran fine, so I never bothered cleaning the carbs, don't know if they are dirty or not (it was my plan to clean them anyways over the winter)

Although there is always a possibility someone drained it, the tarp was pretty well attached all around the bike with some twine rope and looked untouched. Ill have to check if there was holes in it, it was dark when we moved the bike

Also when I say empty, I really mean theres not a single drop in the tank

 

[Tombo]

It's possible that the float valve was stuck open, and with your tank on pri, it is a gravity feed, so if the float valve is open, the bowls will fill up, and drain into your air filters and crank case.

Check the oil level on your bike - if it is up from when you left it, that's partially where your gas is, it's also on your air filters (evaporated by now), and on the ground (also evaporated)

Cold be caused by the changes in temperature, or from freezing, though I don't have experience with cold winters really.

I'd suggest storing your bike on either res or on, because they require a vacuum to dispense gas, where as prime requires your float valve to keep the gas from escaping your bowls.

 

[bcware]

Definitely change your oil before trying to run it again Yes, it's possible it flooded through the carbs.

 

[Scorpio1963]

if it was leaking even though covered up with a tankfull lwaking would have been easy to smell..LIke as mentioned check your oil level and smell it also.if it smells like gas then that explains your leak.I had a chance to check mine the other day it sits inside a cold storage unit,knock on wood everything was fine.I also brough my battery out of the cold and charged it.

 

[Alex_D]

i was planning on flushing the oil out this week anyways since the bike is going to stay inside for a little while, so ill report back on that !

 

[lhaolpa]

When covering a bike for storage,the tarp should be open at the bottom or You'll rust the bike due to trapped moisture. The amount of gas that disappeared would fill up the crankcase. lha

 

[Scorpio1963]

If I brought my bike indoors into my apartment my mrs and wouldn't be a mr and mrs anymore lmao.
When I was younger I had reletives I lived with that Harley riders,hard core bikers that brought their bikes inside for the winter and overhauled them in the middle of the living room lol.Now I wish I could do that I wouldn't never be bore during the winter time.