NC23 - Cold startup, or lack of..

[smithyithy]

Hi guys, Got my NC23 on Sunday and it's in the garage now until I pass.

Seller advised me to fire it up each day especially in this cold.

Got it home the Sunday afternoon, pretty mild weather-wise, had it running on the drive to show my friend, revving nicely etc. Parked it inside.

Monday 5pm after work, fired it up, no problem really, took a couple attempts to maintain idle but after that ran fine.

Today, same time, would not start.. Well, it starts, tries to idle then cuts out after a second. I used to own a carb'd dirt bike that was like this occasionally, but this is a completely new machine to me so don't know where to start.

Also, the choke.... The actual push / pull lever has came away from the little metal bracket it's held in place by next to the bars, but even when it was in place I couldn't tell if the choke was on or not. Like, there was no distinctive 'position' of the switch if that makes sense, and when it was running the choke didn't seem to make any difference. That leads me to think it's either stuck on or stuck off...?

One more thing. The fuel tap, what 'order' do you guys use? Ie. Turn it off when the bike's off, then switch it on before firing up the bike? Or use reserve when only running at idle?

Any ideas really appreciated guys.

[Hutch58]

Hi Mate
The choke pull has no distinct position. I usually pull out all the way for initial start, then push the knob back in to find a decent cold idle speed, about 2000rpm seems good. These bikes seem to warm fairly quick an I can back the choke right off within 1/2/mile. As for starting each day, only do this if you can run the bike up to full temperature.
I work as a Bike technician at a college. I get loads of poor starting problems, as the bikes are very rarely run enough to get warm and most end up fouling plugs.
The only one we have no problem with is an old divy 600 engine in a rig. We use this mainly for carb balancing teaching and this gets plenty warm enough. Often surrounded by red faced students trying to read the balance gauges.
Hope this helps

[smithyithy]

That's great dude thanks, in the meantime my dad had spoken to a bloke he works with that owns loads of old bikes and he said pretty much the same.. I reckon I flooded the carbs a bit, but I was also draining the battery by trying..

Got a battery charger in the post so once that's here and the battery is up to full charge I'll give it a kick once a week.