I wonder if the problem is not the carb at all, but the way the bike is shut down? When you turn off the fuel and let the bike use up the remaining fuel in the bowl, the last few seconds of running the engine is running extremely lean and pretty hot until it finally sputters out due to fuel starvation. This leaves little to no fuel residue on the plug.

Contrast to just idling and hitting the kill switch with plenty of fuel in the cylinder, the plug may actually be wet.

Then if it sits a week or so, I wonder if that somehow leaves a coating on the plug and after a week of sitting it makes it harder to start? Versus letting the fuel run completely out, there would be virtually no fuel residue on the plug when the engine dies because the last few seconds of running it was so lean.

One of you in cold weather could test this by killing the engine normally, i.e., don't shut off the fuel valve, just hit the kill switch. Let it sit for the required amount of time. When you go to start, pull the old plug and install a new properly gapped plug and see if it fires up. I think it will fire.

That's my theory anyway.

You can refer to this as the "Nobrakes Hypothesis".

Thanks for listening.

 

Hi Geppy,
I agree with you, I've had my bike for a few weeks now, completely stock, and this is by far the hardest starting bike I've owned. That said, I've only ever ridden two strokes, so there may be something to be said about that. I've heard others over the years complain about big bore XR's and I think four strokes in general, so maybe this is somewhat status quo and I'm just not used to it. I know when it's warm, it starts right up after taking a breather. I know when I let it sit for a couple of days, I have to choke it and hit the start button 4-5 times. I'm waiting for the battery to die. :-)

Bob

 

But what about the method of doing nothing, the bike sits for a week or two, won't start, then you tip the bike over and get gas to run out and it starts right up? Wouldn't that negate the Nobrakes theory? Although it does make sense what you said Brian. Thoughts? Lets keep this going, good discussion guys.

 

just changed the oil in mine to prep for winter slumber.... it sat 2 weeks with the gas on, started right up but took awhile to get warm.

 

Are you sure that you've got the choke fully engaged? Mine starts first crank with it on.

Used to use the "tip the bike" trick on my old TTR, worked every time. Never had to do it with this bike though.

 

sorry geppy - no one has come up with a fix for the problem, just different wayson how to live with it.

 

I don't think it gets cold enough to experience the problem at your latitude sinko

But then that tends to discount the "bad gas" theory since it only seems to happen when it's cold out, not warm, unless gas somehow degrades faster when its colder. Then again, maybe it does, I don't know.

 

The cold might kick up the viscosity of the petrol a bit, that'd definitely give some problems.

 

Thanks for all the input. My father will try out the methods of both running the fuel out and the tipover; he seemed a bit more liking of the tipover method for some reason. It's too bad I waited till now to find the site as our season up here is pretty much over and we will have to wait, oh about 4-5 months to try it out!

Anyway, I will investigate the issue and try to figure out a fix rather than a method, and by chance if I do, I will surely post it up! I very much appreciate all of the feedback and am very glad that you have a method to bypass the issue as I think he was getting ready to do something rash.

I myself ride a 2005 CRF450X which I am converting to street legal over the winter. My wife rides a XR200R sometimes, although it is my old bike I like to keep around. I also ride on the street with my 2003 Suzuki SV1000S and as soon as I finish it, a custom 1981 Yamaha Seca 750.

Nice to meet yawl and will be hanging around for a long while as my father very much likes riding his Kawi and I'm sure we will have much to talk about.

-Geppy

 

To get my klx fired with no issues I always twist the throttle about 4 - 5 times, full choke, hit start and hey presto it fires first go.

Without giving it a twist of the throttle for some reason it takes AGES to start, you can just sit there listening to it kick over and over and over....

Hope that helps...