I have a 2005 kawasaki ninja 250 and it will not start

Question

Yesterday I was riding it and the throttle response began to decrease rapidly to a point where it would not do anything if I tried to turn it, then I crusied off to the side of the road where I sat and waited for help, while I was waiting I tried to start many more times and the only way I could start would be to turn the choke up all the way and hit the ignition and then if I tried to turn it down just a bit it would die on me, I have had problems with starting it in the past I would have to use the choke even when it was like 85 degrees outside and if I didn't I couldn't start the bike and keep it going, but anyways any advice will help this is my first bike and it is causing me more grief than it is happiness.

Answer 1

check your fuel level, you may have run out.  Also, you may need to switch the petcock over to reserve if there is fuel in the tank.  If that isn't the problem, then it may be a problem with the petcock, or there may be a vacuum leak or something.

Answer 2

Sounds like you ran out of gas. The bike needs a certain amount of air and gas mixed together to burn properly. When the engine is cold, the choke is designed to cut off the air supply so it's pure gas being ignited and you get a better chance of a good start. Once it warms up to operating temp, you cut the choke off introducing more air into the gas.

In this scenario, it sounds like you ran out of gas on the road. You probably got a little spark when you choked it because there might have been a few drops in the tank but not enough to actually go anywhere.

It doesn't matter if it's 85 degrees out or not, your engine still has to warm up. It won't take as long to warm up but it does still have to.

Sometimes a bike can have some gunk and debris in the bottom of the tank. If you run really low on gas, that junk can be sucked through the fuel system causing problems. If you fill the tank and still have trouble, clean the entire fuel system.