Used Stabil - now bike won't start

My bike has been running great. I live in pittsburgh so it's time to get the bike ready for winter. I put stabil in with the gas and road it for about an hour or so.

Read some of the posts on here and decided to turn the gas valve line off and run the bike till it dies. Before I turned the valve off I went to start the bike and it wouldn't turn.

I noticed my oil light stayed on the whole time I tried to start the bike. I'm thinking that it usually fades to black a few seconds after I turn the key....am I wrong?

Any suggestions what to do to get the bike going again? Like I said it's been running great, just got an oil change and had the tank and carbs cleaned.

Do you have a vacuum petcock or what year is your bike. The vacuum petcocks are really hard to start when ran dry unless they have a prime position. Im thinking the oil light should have gone out after at least 30 seconds to a minute of cranking. Also, if the battery got wore down that will make it very hard to start even if it is still cranking.

Well its not the stabil!

I have been using Stabil for 30 years and never caused a problem with my engines?

How much Stabil did you put in the tank? Ed

What is it Ed, 1-oz per 2-1/2 gallons ???

4TheKZ1000 wrote: What is it Ed, 1-oz per 2-1/2 gallons ???

Exactly. So if a whole 4 ounce (or larger) container was added to a bike's fuel tank that might contribute to the starting problem. I have used it in the recommended dosage in the past and never had a problem. Ed

Stabil does nothing. Does not cause start problems, does nothing, nothing. You can do the same exact thing by just doing nothing before storage. Guys talk about snake oil products! Stabil= snake oil.
Read Bob Is The Oil Guy forum, analysis done on Stabil and all it is is 100% mineral spirits. I guess mineral spirits mixed 150 to 1 is the magic number to ensure gas doesn't go to varnish in 3 years? :laugh: . Now THAT is a laugh,
The funny thing is I leave my motorcycles sit for a long time, and do this over and over. I never had a problem sitting 6 or 8 months, but decided it "wouldn't hurt" to add Stabil. So I add Stabil and run the MKII a few miles to set it in, then it sits all winter as always. Spring comes I have a top speed of 35mph, all the jets clogged. Hello, they didn't clog using no snake oil, so no more of that. Used it, did zilch or even worse. Go to lowes, buy a gallon of mineral spirits for $8.99, do the same magic if you believe in magic.

@etbike I don't know if I have a vacuum petlock - my bike is a 1980. Didn't get a chance to run it dry cause it wouldn't turn.

@ed bought the Stabil advance formula and used the recommended amount. Bottle said even if I over treat it shouldn't cause any problems.

I have acreage and a lot of power tools. I use Stabil in everything and have never had a problem. My son didn't use it once for 3 months and his Honda fuel turned to tar, so it might be the gas.....

I never let any of my stuff sit without cranking them at least once a month. Just did a carburetor on a pressure washer that the idiots at work let sit for about 4-5 months without cranking it.

Seafoam is good in that it has alcohol which will dry up little bits of moisture. I put it in all the vehicles I service(been working there going on 37 years now) at work every 3000 miles or 3 months.

My cars I don't put anything in the fuel, but every now and then some injector cleaner(Techron or Seafoam).

Not knocking Stabil at all as I haven't used it much at all.

You stabil enthusiasts are going to kill me on this but UPDATE the bike started this morning with one kick. So I'm not blaming the stabil...I'm going to blame the battery. I got to get with the times and get something that isn't the traditional acid battery. Still not sure why it didn't turn yesterday but oh well thanks you guys! Going to keep using stabil in the future

RonKZ650 wrote: Stabil does nothing. Does not cause start problems, does nothing, nothing. You can do the same exact thing by just doing nothing before storage. Guys talk about snake oil products! Stabil= snake oil.
Read Bob Is The Oil Guy forum, analysis done on Stabil and all it is is 100% mineral spirits. I guess mineral spirits mixed 150 to 1 is the magic number to ensure gas doesn't go to varnish in 3 years? :laugh: . Now THAT is a laugh,
The funny thing is I leave my motorcycles sit for a long time, and do this over and over. I never had a problem sitting 6 or 8 months, but decided it "wouldn't hurt" to add Stabil. So I add Stabil and run the MKII a few miles to set it in, then it sits all winter as always. Spring comes I have a top speed of 35mph, all the jets clogged. Hello, they didn't clog using no snake oil, so no more of that. Used it, did zilch or even worse. Go to lowes, buy a gallon of mineral spirits for $8.99, do the same magic if you believe in magic.

Interesting. As I stated, I had used Sta-bil in Winter in the past with no problems, but I never let my bike sit more than 2 weeks without running it for at least 15 minutes. So any perceived benefit may well have been sheer coincidence. A couple years ago I stopped using Sta-bil and began using SeaFoam during the Winter. Like Sta-bil, SeaFoam also claims to stabilize fuel, but in addition it claims to help keep the fuel system clean. Since switching I have not experienced any problems, but again, since I don't let the bike sit for more than 2 weeks without running the engine I wonder if the perceived benefits of SeaFoam are also coincidence? Ed