A few drops of gas on the floor under the drain hose from the bottom of the float bowl. Tried to tighten the drain plug but it was tight. Would always leaving the gas in the on position cause that? It seems the drain plug is to drain the bowl and not be as an overflow for the bowl, but I'm not sure of that. I have never turned the gas off on any of the bikes I've owned and have also never experienced any leaks, that's why I 've been leaving this one on. Thanks

Kenny4

If you leave the fuel tap on and the float valve leaks it will overflow and do that.

Yes, that's both the bowl drain and overflow hose. I'd presume that means your float needle isn't sealing perfectly, which isn't the end of the world. Turning the fuel off when parked (or about a mile before you park) is known to help make cold starts a little easier.

I always turned off the fuel and ran the bowl out of gas before parking the bike. If a hose lets go or some other leak develops you don't want a puddle of gasoline under the bike. Such things usually happen overnight in an enclosed space when the bike is unattended. Murphy was an optimist. Just a safety concern.

This is a generic issue with carbureted bikes, even ones with fuel pumps, like my old Hawk GT. A friend had a Hawk, and one morning it wouldn't turn over. When he pulled the dipstick, he found that the crankcase was filled with a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the engine had hydraulic lock. ALWAYS turn the petcock valve to the OFF position when parking a carbureted motorcycle overnight.

I find the carburetor float valve works just fine as a fuel shut off valve 99.9% of the time. But sooner or later that .01% bites you.
If you have trouble remembering to turn the petcock off, (like me) add a vacuum fuel cut off, or replace the petcock with a vacuum petcock.

I'm on the fence about this one. Yes turning the petcock off will prevent the float bowl from overflowing if the float needle valve is leaking, IF the petcock itself is not leaking. Both the petcock and the float needle valve will eventually wear out. Both are easy to replace, though the petcock costs a lot more. Ethanol gas will shorten the life of both, since they both use rubber seals and ethanol tends to melt rubber. I've had over 50 different bikes over the past several decades, sometimes I shut the petcock off, sometimes I don't. I've had both the petcocks and the float needle valves leak. The one thing I hate are vacuum petcocks, which the XT225 fortunately does not have. They prevent you from draining the tank without a vacuum source. In your case it sounds like the float valve is leaking. I'd replace it, then it will probably be good for another 10 years or more, whether you leave the petcock on or off. Since ethanol gas came along, I've had to change my way of doing things. I never leave ethanol gas in the tank or carb for more than 2-3 weeks. If I don't burn it up, I drain it out into a gas can, then put it in a car, and put fresh gas in the bike. It can be a lot of work when you have 6 bikes, but I got tired of cleaning fuel tanks and carburetors.

I just finished fixing what looks like the same problem. I shut off my petcock regularly. When I went to start the bike after sitting for about 6 weeks it started and ran for a few minutes and then started blubbering and then quit. Fuel was dripping out of the carb. Removing the carb would severely tax the patience of Job. What a PAIN. I suspected a leaking needle seat. It turned out that it was the O ring on the needle valve assembly leaking. It had gotten hard and had some white calcium looking substance caked on to it. I found an O ring that fitted and tried that and the leak stopped. Since I had already ordered a new needle valve assembly from Partizilla, I decided to wait until it arrived and install it. The part arrived yesterday and in it went. Now I had to reinstall that infernal carb. After about 3 hours it was back on and all buttoned up. It runs like a top and there are no leaks. While I had the carb out I drilled out the little plug and adjusted the little screw 1.5 turns out. It was about .25 turns out from the factory. It is raining today so a testicle ride will have to wait.

Alcohol in the fuel deteriorates O-rings. Yes the carb isn't easy to remove and reinstall. Glad you found the problem and fixed everything. Keep an eye on the fuel petcock O-ring. That one can leak too. Much easier repair, however. I always ran the bikes out of fuel when ending a ride. Ride safely.

Make sure any o-rings you get are compatible with gasoline. The typical hardware store o-ring kits are not compatible and will deteriorate pretty quickly.