Originally Posted By: RonH
I've let carbs sit 6 months with Stabil and the gas was stale already and the carbs had to be disassembled and cleaned. That was 20 yrs ago. Never again. I have 8 motorcycles and only use 2 of them, the other 6 sit anywhere from 1 yr to 10 yrs between rides. I drain the gas, put them under cover and forget them until I feel like riding them again and then I add gas and all is well. Never once had a problem.
Have to agree with you. I also have eight bikes. I have four in active service (licensed & insured for the street). Two are vintage two stroke Yamaha RDs and two other are four strokes a KLR650 and a Valkyrie. Long term storage bikes get everything drained. Winter storage machines get the carbs drained, fuel tanks filled and two ounces of SeaFoam added.
Being a very active restorer of old bikes, I have reconditioned too many carburetors to remember. Just this week, I completely disassembled, cleaned a re-assembled four carbs off of two 35 year old Yamahas that I recently purchased. The bikes had sat unused and unattended in a barn for many years. What I've found in the carbs over the years is usually fuel residue varnish build up on the pilot, main and needle jets and a bit on the bottom of the float bowls. I've never seen aluminum oxidize on the inside of a carburetor. Never. You will have less trouble by draining the carb than leaving it full of fuel. Stabilizer or not.
As far as stabilizers go, Stabil is probably one of the worst products being sold for that purpose. A few year ago, I left a partial bottle of Stabil sitting on a shelf in my garage. Several months later I went to use it only to see that it had turned to a brownish jelly. I've been using SeaFoam ever since.