Hi… A few days ago I went to start my Mille and she spluttered and flooded herself. Fortunately my recovery guy was a bit of a bike nut and sorted it back at his garage for me. She ran well for a few days and when I went to start her this morning, she did exactly the same thing and wouldn’t start - flooded again. Made getting to work difficult to say the least.
Is she just being a tempramental Italian bike that doesn’t like the cold, the plugs or something more sinister???
Help please or she’ll be getting traded in for a Jap bike…
Which year is yours? The pre-'03 ones had electrical gremlins. You still see a lot of the Milles around (and that gorgeous SP) because they are great value for bike.
Sounds like your fuel mixture is running rich. Whether the flooding is a consequence of not being serviced or maintained carefully after all those years is hard to say. The electrical probs. were easily ironed out if you knew what you were doing with these.
Once you start getting into the 2004 era - there are fewer and fewer problems, mostly just with the rear brake being soft and needing bleeding.
I’m not convinced Japanese bikes are more reliable. That’s more of a myth…?
All I’ve ever owned were Japanese bikes, and I’ve had everything from being stranded at the lights when the immobiliser cut in due to the wet rain making electrical contact; battery failure x10, rectifier going through sudden death, gummed spark plugs within two months of not using, indicators failing and failure on the motorway.
In the end, it’s down to rigorous maintenance over the years…
Got her sorted out… Took her to Mark Davall motorcycles in Harlow and he diagnosed a seized up spragg something or other… £870 later and she’s running like a dream. I love my bike…again…
Think she might need a battery soon to keep her sweet through the winter!
Shame it wasn’t the starter solenoid really, thats a snip at £15.
I had to replace my solenoid as i had the problem where it refuses to turn over, cuts the battery out and wipes it back to factory settings as well as sounding like a woodpecker. I was reccomended a Yam part and its worked like a dream.
I highly reccomend a trickle charger for the winter because starting it in the mornings/evenings sucks alot of juice out.
It was the sprag clutch - well the three parts to it - 1) Sprag clutch gear £132, 2)Sprag clutch £170 and 3)Sprag clutch housing £72… Then of course there was 6.5 hours of labour and a few other bits and pieces like spark plugs, spark plug cap, oil filter, oil and rear brake pads…
I checked the prices of the parts and Mark was spot on…
