Bike not starting in cold

[fepn26]

Hey I have a 96 steamer in NYC.  Finally got the bike out of the garage a month ago and it had been running great.  I park in a garage at work and in the street at home.  When a snow storm comes I leave it in the garage.  A freak storm came last week and the bike was on the street.  I got the cover after a couple of hours of light snow, since then the bike wont start.  The battery is good plugs are dry electric seems ok.  The bike turns over and it starts for a second and dies out.  when the temp is in the 30s it usually takes a couple of tries, but it always starts.  I was thinking of  spraying some starter fluid but not crazy about the idea.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

[CoolHandLuke]

Given the description, the only thing that springs to mind is water in the petrol.  I am ruling out electrics as you say it does start but dies out.

Two things to try.

Switch to reserve and pour some petrol out of the tank into a clear bottle and see if you get any separation.

Drain the float bowls on the carbs as there might be some water in there.

[Mustang]

USA gas is an ethanol blend now ...............
the corn squeezin's don't like the cold ,and particuarly don't like sitting in the float bowls for long before it makes for nasty float bowls . I would be willing to bet that after winter storage you have water in the fuel like luke said and possibly the pilot jets are full of crud from the ethanol blended gas

Ethanol in a bike sucks .......pull the carbs and do a cleaning and check the tank for water from the corn.

[Bixxer Bob]

I had an interesting chat with a chap that restores bikes over the weekend on just this subject.

He says manufacturers that use plastic tanks are having significant deformation problems caused by ethanol in fuel (ever had your tank not quite fit after a couple of days on the garage floor??? :roll: ), that the ethanol attacks the alloy in older type carburettors and the rubber parts disintegrate.

Progress eh?

[fepn26]

That does sound like the answer.  The gas stations around here are all E10.  At my last tune up my mechanic did find water in the tank.  Solves the battle but not the war.  Since I probably will not find a pure gas staion around here, do you guys know if I put that STP water remover every so often will help or create bigger problems.

[Mustang]

probably can't hurt ..........the obvious solution is to ride it every day