How to: Clean your bike's carbs

Giving your carbs a clean can prove a highly rewarding task. Going from having a bike that’s coughing and spluttering to running silky smooth just because you’ve applied a bit of diligent but methodical elbow grease to the bank of carburettors, well, it’s nothing short of magical.

But bear in mind that not all carbs can be revived in this way – sometimes there is no chance of cleaning them if they’ve gone past the point of no return.

If a bike’s been abandoned or neglected through outside storage, carbs can become rotten on the inside.

In which case, no amount of cleaning is going to restore them and the best thing to do is try to source a good set secondhand.

Believe me, you can spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to clean and refurb carbs, and one of the biggest problems is trying to clean the small internal fuel ways that have been blocked when the fuel goes off and leaves deposits, so often it can be more time efficient and easier on your sanity to admit defeat and buy new ones.

Step 1: Get ready to strip

Poor fuelling on a carb’ed can wreck any ride, but it’s easier to fix than you might think. First up, remove the carbs and place them in a metal tray. Allow any petrol to run out by turning them over on their side. Once there is no fuel left, stand the carbs the right way up and clean the exterior by blasting with carb cleaner and then scrubbing them using a nylon brush.