[esoteric]

I've got this lovely bike that decides to just not startup on the average of every six months. The bike is just over a year and a half old, just over 17k miles as a primary commuter. I received it in early October of '05. The first no-start was early February '06. Second was mid December '06, and then this past week, mid May '06. The first two incidents were resolved by (the dealer) cleaning the fuel injectors due to gummy buildup. For this recent incident they determined cylinder pressure was low and were able to free the rings (gummy buildup) to bring it back online. In each case there's no apparent loss of performance to me and the only symptom is that the bike suddenly won't start in the morning (all but actual ignition).

They keep telling me that this is the result of 1: bad gas, 2: the bike is sitting around too much. The bike is garaged daily and for most of its life it's been ridden almost every day, now that's down to maybe three days a week. It hasn't sat for six months or a year like they suggest. I use exactly the same gas as everyone else. Up to the first failure I used random stations but primarily one source. Up to the second failure I switched to a different primary station and used few others. Between then and now I can't recall using any other station than this second primary. I'm switching to a third station just for the sake of having another proof of the matter. I periodically ran octane improver through the system after the first incident, but no clear benefit.

I do exactly three things to the bike- I put gas in it, I ride it, and I drop it off for regular service. This is incredibly frustrating since I selected the Honda over the other bikes due to it's "famed" reliability. The dealer seems motivated to only treat symptoms and not address anything systemic. They're neither proactive nor helpful. Honda had jack to say except that a legitimate mfr defect would be addressed (other than being junk). I'm suspecting it's more that it's had some gunk in the fuel tank from day one at the factory.

Anyone have any bright ideas with what to do with this thing besides rolling it off a beachside cliff and see if it can surf? So far there's $300+ in associated labor for this defect. I figure it'll be back in in 4-6 months for something else stupid.

[ratchetman]

Are you running premium fuel?

[esoteric]

91 Octane.