Hard starting "fix"

[gyjoe]

I had never had my stock air box off until recently when I had to remove it to fix a rear shock problem. While I had it off, I realized that the choke butterfly was not staying all the way closed when choke knob is pulled. Now my bike has always been a little cold blooded when starting from cold; it starts and runs for a second or two, then dies. It has always done this 3-6 times before the bike will keep running. After that it is fine. I resisted messing with the carburetor c-clip because there was no other evidence that the bike was running lean--the spark plug has a nice tan color and the performance of the engine other than the cold blooded starting is just fine. I did notice when I had the air box off that I could pull on the choke knob and hold it all the way out which holds the butterfly all the way closed. It has made a big difference in the way the bike starts--it now starts right up and keeps running. Probably not a terribly common problem, but its something to check if your bike is tough to start.