Went away for 12 days and my bike is not happy

[benebob]

We went on vacation and the bike sat for about 12 days in the garage.  I did leave my key in the ignition by accident, not sure if that changes the mode the ecu is in or anything but I pulled it out and went to start it.  Nodda, just cranked and cranked.  Put it on the tender and made sure it wasn't a flat battery, came back and it still would turn and turn but not start.  Played with the throttle and finally got it to catch.  I never notice an initial prime (doesn't mean it wasn't there when I first turned the ignition on any of the times) and It did give the symptoms like it was not getting fuel.  What tells it to prime and why would it run fine once I got it running?  Thanks for your thoughts, I'm having a bad day vehicle wise.  Our Jaguar XJR (camper tow vehicle) has developed some very strange electrical issues.  Gotta go on 300 mile trip tomorrow and am still hoping to take the Tiger.

[Bixxer Bob]

First thoughts are the battery.  If it's going down it'll crank,but there's not enough left to let the ECU fire the injectors so no fuel.  The tender got you just enough to get over that but for how long???

As an aside comment, whether car or bike, I've never understood folks holding out on batteries.  You see them on winter mornings with jump leads, or putting chargers on them every night.  They are cheaper now than a couple of tanks of fuel so why have the hassle and gamble with getting stuck???  Like Chris I change them now every two or three years.

[Sin_Tiger]

 

[benebob]

The battery is a lithium POS that I got last summer when I had a battery fail in Iowa.  It was all they had that was charged so even though it was 130 it was what I got.  Didn't realize how crappy lithium is.  It doesn't like heat or the cold.  So I run a spare in the winter aside from that i is the best/ fastest cranking battery I have ever had. 

So I went out this morning with a fully charged battery and same thing.  No priming and cranked 3 times for 10 seconds or so each time then on the forth it caught and took an idle just fine.  So what tells it to prime?  Has 27k or so on the odo.  Should I order a fuel pump or is it a relay or solinoid I am needing to examine.  Would like to get things moving as I have a 300 mile ride today (will take the bike) and would like to do the same trip again on Sat as it is cheaper than taking a car. 

[Thierry]

I had the same situation. Did a 2500 kms trip (battery was full)  then bike sat in the garage for 14 days. When I tried to start it, it would crank but never start. I could hear the pump priming though. It was as if fuel was not reaching the injectors. Unplugged & plugged back the hoses at the tank, opened the tank filler. Finally started and was running shitty, a lot of loud backfiring. Turned out to be bad gas, as soon as I put fresh gas, everything was OK. 

[benebob]

Hasn't done it since as I have started it pretty much daily.  Have run 3 tanks of gas thru but figured tonight I should pull off the cap and clean the drain (I am running an aftermarket cap as my stock one the lock never worked right no matter what I did).  Here is my dumb question.  So in the drain on the left side of the cap (which I am assuming is the cap drain not the breather there is is a spring with a little tiny ball bearing sitting on top).  Can't figure out for the life of me what it is or what it does as it appears that nothing pushes down on it or anything like that.  Looked in the service manual and couldn't come up with anything and also looked at a parts diagram and there isn't anything showing this ball or spring.  Any ideas?