Hi from South Devon County in the UK
 

Just introducing myself and posting a question about my SkyTeam V-Raptor 250 if I may.
So Hi to all from SW England where we're just starting to get into real Spring weather making new reasons to get out on my new bike and run-it-in.

It's a V Raptor 250 in Yellow. Already I've taken steps to fit mudguard extenders front and rear to protect the muck from the road making a mess of the bottom shock absorber joint as I know how that can dry out and even sheer having had it happen on my Yamaha TDM 850 in the past.
Also I've ordered a pair of better mirrors to replace the rather pathetic pixie ears embarrassing mirrors that came with the bike from the factory.

My problem so far has been cold starting and kick starting. Both electric start and kick start work well when the engine is warm but I'm having the devil of a job starting it in the morning in my garage when it's cold.

I'll just describe what it does and if some kind person here can tell me where to post this question if it doesn't really belong here in introductions threads. I pull the choke full on or half on depending on how cold it is.
I turn the key and lift the side stand. Green light on dash showing. Press the starter and it half heartedly fires and stops. Try again with a little bit of throttle open - same thing seems to "take" then nothing. Adjust choke and try again and sometimes with trial and error various throttle settings and fiddling with closed choke or half open or full open if I'm lucky it fires up and catch it and try to rev it and then it dies. Usually it gets going on about the 6th attempt. That's bad.

No such problem when the engine is warm. Also I fitted an iridium spark plug in the hope it would improve the situation having a fat spark but no change. Kick starting from cold is impossible. Nothing happens and I can't seem to swing it hard enough as my feet are too big to pelt the lever down without spraining my ankle as my toe catches on the footrest. Compression is immense and feels like a 500cc single cylinder.

When I took the factory fitted spark plug out it was a bit black but not exactly wet. I'm sure the guy in the shop set up the carburetor properly with the right mixture unless this was done by the factory.

Anyhow I would be delighted if someone has any tips for how to make it start because when I tow it to a holiday destination and it spends the night on my towing trailer in cold and damp, I can envisage a real problem having to bump start it, with my wife pushing me to get some speed up.

Surely it should fire up more easily than this when cold?
Thanks for your help.
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Plado

Welcome; we are glad you joined us. :hi:

We have a number of Skyteam V-Raptor owners on these forums. Hopefully, one of them will soon reply with the information you seek. If you have time, please post photographs of your bike; we love photos. :)

Welcome!

The key is that your bike will start when it's warm. My guess is that you'd have an easier time with a slightly larger slow jet in the carb.

In the meantime, you could back out the pilot mixture screw by 1/4 turn to see if that helps.

Thank you for that potentially useful tip. I will or I may try that but my handbook is a bit short on information so finding the pilot mixture screw is a bit of a problem for me.
However, I will let you know what has happened today. I've had some luck with the cold start using the Kick Start lever.
What I did was wheel the bike out of my garage so I had a firm bit of ground to stand my feet on and I opened the choke to about 25% as it wasn't stone cold atmosphere. I opened the twist grip about 1/4 of its travel and gave the kick start two good stabs. It started on the 2nd kick and what's more it stayed running. So I gently warmed it up and all was well.

My diffidence over kicking it has probably been made worse by the fact that the manufacturer hasn't put a proper rubber grip on the horizontal pedal so it's very easy for your foot to slip off the pedal and hurt your leg/ankle etc. So I'm going to buy a child's bicycle handlebar rubber grip of small diameter and see if I can make it fit snugly over the pedal to give my foot safer and more aggressive grip.

Anyhow I will try again tomorrow and see if it has solved the problem.
I reckon a cold engine with thick oil takes a lot out of the starter motor to turn it over with all that 9 to 1 compression ratio and this I think may rob the electrical ignition system of a bit too much current, so the spark goes weak. That's my take on it, because it behaved in a way that was totally cured of its stalling when I started it from cold on the pedal.

What do you think of that theory?
So do let me know where that pilot mixture screw is - as I have no workshop manual for this new bike and inspection proves it to be a bit of a mystery in parts.
Cheers
Plado

Yep, cold start is a pain with mine too. My procedure is to pull the choke all the way up, open the throttle a bit and then press the start button.

As soon as it fires up, I return the choke half way and the throttle too as it builds the revs quite high. Idling is not really there until the engine is warm enough though.

Indeed there is something about engine oil too, as I noticed that after cold start switching in first gear is quite rough and with a nice big clunk, and can even stall the bike. So, while warming the engine, a pull the clutch a few times to get the oil dispersed and in between clutch plates. Then 1st gear engages flawlessly.

Thanks a million Krasi_BG that is very useful tip.
I will try that tomorrow morning. Tonight it's a cold night so I will give it a go by your method.

I too had noticed the first gear crunch on initial selection when cold.
The clutch plate lube idea is a good one. I'll do that too.

I've ordered a rubber sleeve for a classic bike kickstart pedal from a specialist classic parts and accessories dealer in Bournemouth Dorset.
It was very cheap so I bought two of them. This will hopefully fit over the bare metal pedal and give me better more confident grip.

Now I wonder if I'd best do a search to see if anyone has discussed using LED rear light cluster on the V-Raptor. I don't think a simple bulb conversion would work as the rear stop/tail lamp bulb holder is sideways on. Probably have to completely replace the rear light but someone may know where to point me to the right advice.
Cheers again for your handy tips. I'll report back if they work like a charm!

I am happy to see you joined here, too, Plado. I think the majority of you guys with the V-Raptors are from Australia, followed by our resident Bulgarian, a German, and you (can't remember if another Brit has one; at least recently). That is why I suggested to join here, too.

Two Germans!

I will introduce myself and upload some pictures later.. v-raptor 250 arrived yesterday. i will now commute to work with it and see how it goes...

see you later!

Michael

Hey Spud Rider thanks for that welcome.
I will post some photos but so far I've not worked out how to attach a photo to a posting. I see there's a "manage attachments" section below where I'm typing. So I'll go there and see if I can upload any jpgs.
I have some taken today when I fitted an extension to the back of the front mudguard to keep muck off the engine and frame. Also I fitted some after-market generic rear view mirrors that are a Yamaha product but dead cheap and very good. Much better than the pointy ears ones that came with the bike. Something tells me the mirrors were designed by someone normally used to decorating Ming dynasty vases! They're not exactly of Western Appeal!

I tried Krasi BG's cold start method today and like a total plonker I forgot to turn the petrol tap on so I was hacking away on the starter wondering what the devil I'd done wrong. My wife came out and humiliated me by saying "Have you remembered to turn the petrol tap on?" Ahum, no I hadn't so when I did the bike started first pull so of course my struggling had already warmed up the cylinder! Oh dear.

Will report back tomorrow if I can make it start by Krasi's method as it sounds very sensible to me.

I also managed to cut down a second new mudflap and drill and bolt it to the front of the short-cut-away rear mudguard so that it hangs down in front of the bottom joint of the mono shock spring. I have seen the effects of mud drying out on the bottom connection of the shock to the swing arm and it's not a pretty sight on a Yamaha and riding is very peculiar if the bracket rusts out and snaps. So I'm taking no chances with my new V Raptor 250 and it's now got a nice mudflap to protect the spring and its joint.
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Plado

Thanks for posting the nice photographs. The V-Raptor is certainly a good looking motorcycle. :)

Hi Plado,

Welcome to the forum. We are beginning to have more and more V-raptor owners here. Mine is also yellow. so far I think four here in Europe. Oil the speedo cable or it won't last long. I found out the hard way. I had my swing arm out today and it had almost no grease in it. And check the screws regularly. Especially the ones holding the engine tend to get loose.
Here I posted some pictures of my LED rear light I installed.
http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=12067

What I do to start the engine when it's cold.
1. Put the choke in top position and start the engine with no throttle.
It usually starts on first or second time.
2. after about 10-20 seconds I put the choke in middle position.
3. Then very slowly I turn the throttle. Just a little and keep it there for about 10-30 seconds.
4. Then I let the throttle go for about 10-seconds.
5. Then Move choke to bottom position.

I have made no changes to engine, carburetor, air box or exaust.

I think whats best for your bike may vary, due to different settings on every bike. I'm sue you will find out after a while for your bike though.



http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3d6669a1.jpg

Eric,
Trailbikeryder

:tup:

Gents, I have the same motor in my XL, and I can only agree fully with Weldangrind on the pilot jet. My bike starts everytime, easily, no choke :-) - no joke -, as I have a size 30 pilot in my mikuni; that s with a (pod) unifilter and an open exhaust. And it does get cold here, too, down to 16 C at night :hehe: , but still, with a lean pilot these motors seem to take half an hour to warm up.

Right now, you probably have the equivalent of a 20 in there and I think you could easily go up to a 25 with the standard airfilter - but size numbers vary between manufacturers, so the stamp on your pilot jet may say sth different.

Yes it works so you get 100 prize points for that technique because I tried it today from stone cold and used your technique verbatim. It started and revved and then I backed off the choke immediately to half way and tried to keep it revving but it fell away - but at least it ran longer than when I'd used my old technique.

I tried once more with the choke half way and caught it enough to rev it gently to help it warm up. So the system works like a charm and I think there will be no need to use the kick start when I'm camped with the bike parked beside the RV all night in the wet. It should go with a bit of persuasion. Certainly the kick start is an option if there's any trouble.
So many thanks for your tip. I've learned something from that.
Cheers

Hm, who's technique is that? Mine, Trailbikeryder's, Weld's or somebody else's?

Yes yours as that was where I put the reply. You kindly said,

"As soon as it fires up, I return the choke half way and the throttle too as it builds the revs quite high. Idling is not really there until the engine is warm enough though.

Indeed there is something about engine oil too, as I noticed that after cold start switching in first gear is quite rough and with a nice big clunk, and can even stall the bike. So, while warming the engine, a pull the clutch a few times to get the oil dispersed and in between clutch plates. Then 1st gear engages flawlessly."

Your starting procedure from cold worked perfectly and I'm now using it every time as well as for starting on the Kick Start. One modification I just made was to put a kick start rubber sleeve designed to fit BSA AJS or DOUGLAS but it was just the right diameter so I sprayed the inside of it with silicone and now it's on there working very nicely. Adds a lot of grip to the pedal when giving it a whack.
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Plado