Hard start for Suzy...

[Grunk!]

Grunk! needs help with Suzy...

I must've offended the road or bike gods sumtime this past summer...cuz on one very hot day, I started Suzy with choke on...(yeah I knoe...wat a dumba##...) NEwayz, on the way home, bike started to rev high wen stopped. I let off the clutch a bit and it simmered her down but rev back up again soon after...So I figured I did a bad thing and pulled over and parked to let her cool down. It worked (sort of). Now presently, itz a b###h to get her started in the morning but not much so in the afternoon. And even if I did get her started, I can smell slight unburnt fuel and see a little more exhaust than usual (cold temperature maybe?) and shes back to reving high when not in gear aka in neutral or with clutch lever engaged. So question is:

- Did Grunk! mess up Suzy really bad?

- Is the battery weak?

- Could the sparkplug be fouled?

- Do I need to have the ignition system check and quite possibly the timing as well?

- Or should Grunk! have nutz strung up to appease offended Godz???

[DemonDuck]

I personally like the last choice!

[U-Turn]

O2 Sensor.

[2track]

Just curious, when was the last time you cleaned & balanced the carbs.

[Grunk!]

To all that have replied so far, Thank you for your posts... And I reply in kind as follows:

DemonDuck - I agree with your choice and will be spade and/or neutered as soon as it is most reasonable...

U-Turn / 03ninjaman - Sounds like Suzy's been good to me but I didn't return the love. So, I guess...uh...that is I "will" take her in for some professional care and get her healthy again.

[Firewa11]

All a choke typically does is manually cut the flow of air through the carb, resulting in a fuel-rich mix during starting. Gives you more bang, and allows the engine to warm up quickly, and once warm it can handle a more fuel-lean mix. Basically, if you left the choke on when running the bike means you just ran it rich for awhile. Unless you're running a two-stroke with oil mixed in, it's unlikely you fouled anything or screwed anything up.

As a general rule, carb'd motors of any type are a PITA to start when cold, and much easier to start when it's warm outside. I guess the real question here is... Is there really a problem? Did you have this bike when it was colder outside like last winter or spring? Is it possible you're just not used to the fact that carb'd bikes are hard to start when cold?