Hard Starting Running Crappy No Running Idle
 

This is a story from the past few days of my experience with this issue, and what I did to fix it. I hope someone can fix their issue by living through my experience :)

I just bought my bike and it was running pretty good at first though really hard to start and had a bad idle. It smelt really rich with and without the choke on. It also would rev really high after riding for awhile, shutting down for a bit then turning it back on, sometimes even after running for awhile, say 5-8 miles after warm up. Sometimes it even stalls out on take off while easing the clutch in, I think without throttle, didn't pay attention every time.

I rode it for 3 days, 2 on and off for short distances, maybe 5-7 miles, and it worked fine with the above issues. Day 3, I took it for the long 13.7 mile ride to work and it ran fine, still with the above problems. Rode it about 5 miles for lunch then on the way home back for the 13.7 mile journey on the street no freeway.

Day 4, really excited now! The damn thing won't stay running.... It was really hard to start up, having to give it throttle to make it happen once it finally started (curious if it doesn't like starting with the kickstand down despite Neutral even if once it's running I can put the kick stand down and it doesn't die in Nuetral). I tried to let it idle at just above the cold mark, which was workin before, and even at the mid temp point, but it would not. I had to hold the throttle, or it would die. I could even ride around and it seemed ok but a bit crappy.

Got home from work after taking the truck in, and it's still acting the same way. So I bust out my mechanic skills though I don't know much bout carbs, just EFI, and check it out. The air filter was terrible, K&N that probably hasn't been cleaned in 5 years, even had some electrical tape and foam it sucked up. Cleaned this up, and played with the choke and noticed the choke has been stuck on high! WD-40 to the rescue and now I have a responsive choke again. I also adjusted the idle screw all the way up till I could tell it wasn't gonna go anymore (did this carefully since it sounds like something will break if you turn it too far to the right) then backed it off just a bit.

I let her sit overnight and went to ride it the next morning.... It took a bit to get it started as usual, BUT damn does it run a million times better and the choke actually works. I adjusted the idle down to where it should be once it was warmed up and now she's all good. Great throttle response, idles smoothly, hauls balls if I need to, and makes me wanna squeal like a little girl :D