Prospective new owner

[5th_bike]

It won't start when it's in gear. If you get the starter running, it should start.

[Water Warrior 2]

The bike has a side stand switch that prevents the bike from starting and running if the tranny is in gear. It must be in neutral or have the side stand up if in gear. WORD of WARNING!!! Do not jump from a running vehicle. The charging system of almost anything on 4 wheels will fry the GZ electrical system. The GZ will easily draw enough power from a 4 wheeler battery with the engine off. Keep in mind to put the fuel cock in the prime position for a few seconds in case the carb is dry. After that put it in the run position.

[alantf]

I noticed that you said that the petcock was in the off position. There is no "off" position on the GZ petcock, so unless it's been swapped for some reason, the stock petcock has three positions. Run, Prime, Reserve. In run, engine vacuum opens the petcock, and shuts when the engine is switched off. (so you leave it in run, all the time) Prime lets fuel flow freely to the carb, so should only be used when starting a bike with a dry carb (then switched to run when the bike is running) reserve pulls fuel into a pipe that is shorter than run/prime, so lets you know when you need to fill up quickly.

You say that the carb is clean, but the carb is the achilles heel of the GZ, so you, at least, need to run carb cleaner (mixed into the fuel tank) every 3 or 4 tankfulls.

[TexasCam]

Originally Posted by alantf

I noticed that you said that the petcock was in the off position. There is no "off" position on the GZ petcock, so unless it's been swapped for some reason, the stock petcock has three positions. Run, Prime, Reserve. In run, engine vacuum opens the petcock, and shuts when the engine is switched off. (so you leave it in run, all the time) Prime lets fuel flow freely to the carb, so should only be used when starting a bike with a dry carb (then switched to run when the bike is running) reserve pulls fuel into a pipe that is shorter than run/prime, so lets you know when you need to fill up quickly.

You say that the carb is clean, but the carb is the achilles heel of the GZ, so you, at least, need to run carb cleaner (mixed into the fuel tank) every 3 or 4 tankfulls.

I've only seen the bike in person once so far, so I'll keep that in mind! Thanks for the info!

[Cathy]

Tell us how it goes. :3

[Goose51683]

TexasCam- I was reading through the earlier post in this thread and you mentioned idling your truck while jumping the bike. I've always been told to shut your vehicle off entirely and then jump the bike. I think the concern is that running your vehicle can produce more power than the bikes electrical system can handle.

I'm not sure how big of an issue this is but I wanted to mention it for future reference.

[alantf]

Yes, it is a BIG issue. The problem is that if the car engine is running, the alternator that is charging the car battery is putting out such a high rate of charge that it can (will!) fry a puny bike battery. A bike battery will need a maximum of 2A to charge without problems, while theGZ battery (6AH) is happiest at 0.6A charge, so it's the charging system of the donor vehicle that will do the damage.

[Goose51683]

Thanks for the clarification Alan.

[TexasCam]

Duly noted, gentlemen! This is my first non kick-start bike so you'll have to bear with me.

[Goose51683]

not a problem, we all have things to learn