Over the past several months, the throttle on my '04 w/7k miles has been getting sticky and the idle became erratic.
If the bike sat for a week, it took more effort to break the throttle loose than I liked. Plus after reading another post about his throttle sticking open, I reflected on how that might be a life-changing issue in certain circumstances.
So I removed the air cleaner box, and found the insides of the throttle bodies had a sticky film on them. Wiping the insides with carb cleaner, using a toothbrush on the hard to reach areas and spraying the external areas at the throttle shafts resulted in the throttle moving free and easy again.
At the risk of starting a controversy like the discussion of the what are the best oils or best tires, I offer some info from recent tests by GM.
Some modern blends of pump gas have been causing problems for injectors and therefore GM studied which brands of gas were most effective at keeping the fuel system clean.
The best gasolines for this purpose included a number of brands that were not tier-one gas suppliers but the major brands were Shell, Texaco, and Chevron. [But Chevron is mostly what I've been using]
Also they found Chevron FI cleaner worked well.
As for gas stabilizers, Mercury Quicksilver was the only brand they found effective (but I don't know what brands they tested).
Anecdotal: A friend who has a summer residence and therefore has half his fleet idle for about 9 months a year has had no gas deterioration using Sea Foam over 15 years.
If the bike sat for a week, it took more effort to break the throttle loose than I liked. Plus after reading another post about his throttle sticking open, I reflected on how that might be a life-changing issue in certain circumstances.
So I removed the air cleaner box, and found the insides of the throttle bodies had a sticky film on them. Wiping the insides with carb cleaner, using a toothbrush on the hard to reach areas and spraying the external areas at the throttle shafts resulted in the throttle moving free and easy again.
At the risk of starting a controversy like the discussion of the what are the best oils or best tires, I offer some info from recent tests by GM.
Some modern blends of pump gas have been causing problems for injectors and therefore GM studied which brands of gas were most effective at keeping the fuel system clean.
The best gasolines for this purpose included a number of brands that were not tier-one gas suppliers but the major brands were Shell, Texaco, and Chevron. [But Chevron is mostly what I've been using]
Also they found Chevron FI cleaner worked well.
As for gas stabilizers, Mercury Quicksilver was the only brand they found effective (but I don't know what brands they tested).
Anecdotal: A friend who has a summer residence and therefore has half his fleet idle for about 9 months a year has had no gas deterioration using Sea Foam over 15 years.
