For winterizing, I like to drain the fuel from all my carbureted bikes.

But, I always struggle with this on my 1988 750 F1.

With most bikes, I just stick a little hose on the carb drain outlet and open the drain screw. The gas drains through the hose and into my chosen receptacle. No muss, no fuss.

But, the PHF 36 carbs on my F1 don't have a drain screw. Instead, I have to remove the float bowl nut. This generally results in getting gas everywhere EXCEPT into my chosen receptacle.

Is this just the way it is, or am I doing it wrong?

Edit: sorry, meant to post this in the F1 technical discussion group , not the TT1 technical discussion group.

Either place applies I think. It might be better in the long run to pull the carbs loose, and that way you could hold them more over your receptacle when you remove the float bowl. And at that point it's easy to pull the top and slide off. Then you can shake all the gas out of the body. If you then spray everything in and out with a good coating of WD40 and reassemble, they will be in great shape come spring. Actually, I spray WD40 over the whole engine before tucking them away. Everything gets a lot cleaner next time you wash it.
Bill

i have a plastic bottle cut lengthways into a shallow bowl which works quite well at being manouvered around float bowl nuts, esp on guzzi where the gearbox dome nuts and starter get in the way.