COld Starting On A Cruiser

[Buttocks]

With the up and down temperature, I am finding it difficult to start the bike the first 1-4 times. Choke is sometimes fully and sometimes partially on yet it is still difficult to start my Honda Shadow 750 ACE. I use to ride a 2008 Ninja 250 and starting it did not take as long as this. Is this normal for cruisers and without a tachometer how do you know when your bike is ready to ride?

Any tips on starting in the cold?

[adri]

- I would say more often than not, if you think you need any choke at all to start, just go ahead and start with the choke fully open rather than trying to guess just how open it needs to be.
- How are your spark plugs looking? If they've been fouled from running rich or letting the bike idle and warm up too much in the past (either this winter or in the fall) its not hard to imagine you having a hard time starting now.
- Is this normal for cruisers? I'm not that mechanically minded but I'm just trying to help a little since no one else has replied yet - they will, don't worry.
- Without a tach you play it by ear and by feel, just like you do when you shift gears. When the bike is rumbling and bumbling happy as always without need for the choke, I'd say she's ready to hit the road.

PS: you might want to also check out this thread on cold starts http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum...d.php?t=110922

Now someone else give your $0.02 to help this guy out! Common old fingers, get typin'!

[short stop]

I'm not much of a mechanic either, but I did used to have a cruiser that was sometimes hell getting warmed up. +1 on checking the colour of the spark plugs, because that will tell you if something's going on with your carbs.

What my mechanic recommended for me, was for a cold start to turn the bike on with choke full open, but then try to close it as quickly as the bike would allow without dying. Wait no more than a few minutes before hoping on and starting to ride, gradually closing the choke during the first few minutes on the road (and not forgetting to close it like I sometimes did!).

It seemed to work well for me, but I'm sure everyone has their preferred method.

[jolomatic]

I've got a 2000 Shadow ACE - and I just follow what the owners manual says (had to buy one for $20 from Honda since it didn't come with one).

If it doesn't start easily cold, I pull the choke all the way out, start it, slowly count to 30 and push it all the way back in. If it's still running a little hard at that point, I wait another 30 seconds (with choke in) before riding.

This has worked well for me even in 1degree weather.

[V-Tom]

Are you twisting the throttle while you are cranking it?

It might not relate to your problem but I find on my little Ultralight Airplane that it almost refuses to start unless I have the throttle completely off when using the choke. If I open the throttle even the tiniest bit when the choke is on it generally wont start.

On occasion I have managed to flood it and in that case you need to open up the choke and put the throttle wide open and crank it a bit to dry things out.

..Tom

[jolomatic]

Good point (the owners manual also says not to give it any gas while the choke is open - it even says it may dammage the motor).

[Garry_Kramer]

I may be missing something here, but, the choke is a flap (to make it simple) in the front of the carb. The normal running of the engine is when the choke is OPEN (not blocking air into the carb). You CLOSE the choke to block air into the carb and draw more gas.

BTW: not all Cruisers are naturally aspirated (carbs), my LT is fuel injected, My R75 has carbs.

Garry

[short stop]

^ Methinks you're right. I always get confused, and even moreso if others are using the wrong terminology.

[jolomatic]

Yep. Consider me corrected.

I guess when I think of the choke as 'on', the knob is pulled out - kind of like when you 'open' a faucet. But, yes, that is when the actual choke mechanism is closed.

[Buttocks]

Yep. Consider me corrected.

I guess when I think of the choke as 'on', the knob is pulled out - kind of like when you 'open' a faucet. But, yes, that is when the actual choke mechanism is closed.

Ok was a bit confused. When I am cold starting should I pull the choke OUT or push it IN?

[jolomatic]

Pull it out.
That is the "ON" position, where the choke is CLOSED.

After it warms up you want to push it in, which is the "OFF" position, where the choke is OPEN.

Maybe easier to think of it as ON and OFF.

[adri]

They're just talking about what happens mechanically when you pull the knob out. Think of it like your clutch lever: when you aren't squeezing the clutch, the clutch is actually engaged ("on"), when you do squeeze the clutch lever to make a fist with your hand you're actually dis-engaging ("turning off") the clutch.

Same thing with the choke: when the bike is normally running the choke is "open" inside the engine (but the hand knob you adjust is pushed all the way in). When you have the knob pulled out the choke is "closed" (but we tend to think of it as on).

Have your knob pulled all the way out when starting, and ignore everything I just said if it doesn't make sense to you

[Buttocks]

I understand now. In mehanical terms when the choke lever is pulled all the way out the choke is actually internally vlosed but when the lever is push in the choke is working and is considered open.

When I want to start the bike on a cold day I should have the choke closed but whrn I start to ride I want to have it open.

All in all in lamens terms, I want to pull the choke lever out during warm up and push it back in during riding.

[Garry_Kramer]

I have to turn my choke leaver to choke and un-choke my R75/6

Garry

[6m459]

My old blue '84 Yamaha Venture likes to start best with no choke at all but as soon as she fires she wants some. So my routine is choke off, hit the start, listen for fire, pull the choke, hands off everything. She loves it till she warms up a bit then she begins to stumble so I ease off the choke and she's good to go.

I have an identical bike (that was blue but a P.O. painted red) that likes a more conventional choke ritual. Choke on, hit the start button till she fires then hands off everything till she starts to stumble then roll off the choke.

I just give them each what they like and don't worry about it too much. They treat me the same.

I suppose maintenance items to look at for abnormal starts would be things like:

fuel mixture lean/rich
carb sync
choke mechanism links etc.

If I had troubles like this I'd be posting on a model specific site like www.venturerider.org where experts on my model & vintage of bike hang out.

As a first line of defense, I think I'd try some SEAFOAM or TECHRON carb cleaner in the next few tank fulls. Can't hurt and has proven helpful in the past.

Hope this is of interest.

Brian H.
Uxbridge.

[adri]

I liked the point that the identical bikes do not agree. People try to tell me bikes don't have their own personalities - yeah right!