How long does it take to start/warm up your ride?

[Butcherblock]

Hi guys. I am curious as to how long it takes to start your bike cold. I am also interested in the best way to make your bike start the easiest. Any tips and tricks to getting a good solid start would be appreciated.

The things I know will help so far are: clean carbs, iridium spark plugs, choke pulled out.

I have a dohc (vc carbs). It probably takes 6 or 7 turns with the starter before a single cylinder will start firing, and then rough idle for about 20 seconds, then 2 or 3 will start firing, before the last starts up. I would love my bike to start on the first push in the morning, am I asking to much of this 30 year old bike?

[seestheday]

It's not too much to ask of your bike but there may be a big list of things to go through

[shinyribs]

Butcher, what you described sounds like my bike if I rush to start it. I've found that if I turn the fuel on and wait a few moments that it gives the bowls time to fill. Mine old roundtop carbs don't have an accelerator pump so I can't prime the engine that way. If mine has sat for a few days it wont fire at the touch of the button. I turn the kill switch off and crank the engine a few turns, then flip the kill switch back to on. Usually fires up right away that way. Takes several minutes before it'll idle normally, but my driveway is half a mile long. I just hop on the bike and ease out my road. By the end she's ready to rock.

[cdaiscool]

That's a long driveway!

My '81 DOHC, when it was running, would fire up within probably 5, 10 seconds. I would ride slowly out of the trailer park, and have most of the power by the end.

If its seriously taking that long to even start and idle, then something sounds amiss. But it won't run on only 1 or even 2 cylinders firing; it needs 3 to run. If it were my bike, I would find which cylinder isn't firing and look into the carb. If its the same cylinder every time, likely carb. If its different, perhaps gas? Or dirty bowls fouling up the jets?

[seestheday]

It could be a lot of different things.

Compression, vacuum leaks, exhaust could need some tightening, are the valves perfect, is the spark nice and strong....

[Lucky 1]

If the motorcycle is well tuned by someone who knows what they are doing,
The bike should start right up with full choke.

Then with adjustment of the choke (1/2-then 3/4 then off ,it should
be warmed up in about 5 minutes depending on the weather.

You cannot just put the choke full on hit the button and walk away.
You need to stay with it until it is fully warmed up.

You should never leave an air cooled motorcycle idling for a long period of time.
It is not a car.

[barelycompetent]

I found with mine, the iridium plugs, and removing the spawn of satan have dramatically decreased my start up time.  I full choke it, turn the gas on, press the button and bang it starts right up, drop the choke down, bump the throttle a few times, drop it in gear and take off.

[Butcherblock]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm sure quite a few new people have similar questions, hopefully this helps them to.

As for me,I have pulled the carbs again, and am going through them a bit more meticulously. Then I will bypass the air cutoffs, and make sure the carbs are firmly seated. We will see what happens after that!

Side note:
I remember reading something about cbr coils directly replacing ours. Might be a good way for people with week coils to replace theirs on the cheap.

[MarkPBG]

Mine recently got a good working over by a racing shop. It starts right up without the choke if it's above 50 degrees. Warms up and runs fine in less than 2 minutes. I only need the choke when it's very cold out. Idles at 1250 RPM. Lately idle has been creeping down and now idles around 950 RPM, so I think things are "breaking in" and I'll get a re-tune done. Lots of new parts on mine.
Iridium plugs, (already had a Dyna ignition in it) new synthetic oil and new oil filter, new (rebuilt) carbs...first set was trash, new air boots, new air cleaner, all new control cables, new regulator and reluctor, new ATO fuse panel, new ground cable, oiled chain and set proper tension, new handlebar controls, new master cylinder resevoir gasket, flushed and cleaned brake system, new pads and shoes, new ss brake lines, new muffler and ceramic coated headers. I think the biggest benefit was the new carbs, it just would not idle or run smooth with them. The old ones ended up being bad, but a new set, rebuilt, and it runs like new.

I think the carb tuning and iridium plugs are probably the best two things to do to get easier starting. I'm sure you've heard the stories about how poorly tuned carbs on these SOHC engines can sound like a stretched cam chain or timing being way out and the whole thing sounding like it's about to blow. lol

[free2ride]

for me full choke, three twists of the throttle, starts right up, idles @ 3,000 rmp for a minute or so, choke slowly off, idles @ 1,000 and I'm off.