the bike kind is hard to start cold, or even anything but full hot. sence i have the acerbis tank, i hate having to reach down all the time, hold the choke half way and try and start it. hell when its cold it has to crank a few times and ill be twisting the throttle w/ the choke trying to start it (cus the tank?). the jeting it dj kit, 128 main, stock pilot, dj needle, ~1000-1500 asl.

 

Try what the guys in the other cold start thread were doing. The apply the brake and rock the bike back and forth with the starter engadged. Both Rocco and Dan888 report good results from that. I wonder if there's an easy fix to the needle and seat or possibly the vents, where they enter the bowl?

Twisting the throttle on the CVK won't do you much good. It acually will decrease the fuel delivery, because all you are doing is introducing more air and decreasing vacuum in the enrichment (choke) circuit. If you have a pumper carb, that changes. The CVK will only increase fuel delivery with throttle twisting if the engine is running. The slide opens with engine vacuum and there's no accel pump.

 

you don't mention if you adjusted your fuel screw. you should go out a turn and a half or so from lightly seated.

 

Empty the carb if the bike is going to sit for a few days. And as far as the choke, I have the time down to a science now. I come home for lunch everyday, and if my lunch runs a little long, say 1 hr and 15 minutes, I have to use the choke. If I cut the lunch to an hour or less the bike will start up without using the choke. As far as the hard starting goes, remember the shut down procedure and you'll never have a problem guaranteed.

This is the original thread for hard starts. https://www.kawasakiforums.com/m_96672/tm.htm

Here is the basic information.

Shut down procedure.

1. After riding as you are pulling into your driveway, or to speed things up you can do this a block from your house, turn off the gas.
2. Let the bike run until it actually dies from gas starvation, (this may take 2-5 minutes) But that's ok it will give you time to put away your gear.
3. Park it and now you're ready for the next time you ride whether that be in a day, or a month.

Start up procedure.

1. Turn on the gas
2. Wait for 10 seconds
3. Start the bike as you always do

 

ill have to wait till atleast tuesday to pull the carb and reset the fuel screw (set at 2.5 turns right now, ill try 2). i think the twisting of the throttle is helping via more air for the alreadly rich mixture. this morning (didnt get off work till 4:30 am), the bike started idled low, slowy droped idle and died, twice. i had to run it at 3000rpm for a min to even get it to run. now the debates on, ride to ocotillo for a day trip, or fix the starting problem. might order a fuel t screw things and wait till that comes. oh and deej, ill have to take a picture of my bike right now for ya, its caked with mud sence it been raining the last few days.

 

my bad. I got that wrong. 2.5 is right(you could go out a 1/4 turn though) but in the cold you might have to reset your idle a bit higher to get the bike stay running. get the bike started, stay on the throttle until it's warm then turn out the idle **** out some so that the bike idles at 1500-1700 rpm's or so by itself. once the bike up to operating temps you might find that your idle is set too high and you will have to bring it back down some.
I could be way off here but this has worked for me in the past.

 

Shouldnt have to play with it so much. The choke seems to be necessary even in the summer.

 

Fuel on. Choke out. Thumb starter. "She's alive...." Reduce choke by half. Wait 30 seconds. Choke off. Idles at 1300 RPM. . How hard can it be?

 

acerbis tank, i have to hold the choke. and (sadly) i dont live in canada, i got the bike at the end of summer and never had to use the choke till it started to dip below 70ish. so cal weather kicks ***

edit:didnt see you have the tank too ~

 

Ya I installed the tank but I modified the outlet so that the choke still works. I have never had any probs with the bike starting but I do use the choke every time