correct starting technique

Hi Wolfbane,
welcome to the site concerning your offer I prefere
a delicious Guinness...

Assuming the carb settings are correct (jetting, mixture, idle speed)
here is what I'm doing:

Never touch the throttle.
Never use the manual decomp system to find top dead center.
Be sure to be short before top dead center.
Return kick-start to it's home position.
Always give it a firm kick all the way down.
When cold use the choke only for two kicks in series.
When hot never use the choke.

I only experienced some problems when the idle speed was set
to low or the idle mixture was to rich. Also the right dimension
of the pilot jet is an issue.

Hope this helps (in spite of my weird English),
Regards Maddel

Check out the Hard Starting Guide in the downloads section. It will walk you through step by step of most of the common problems. But from your problem description, my bet is that it needs the valves adjusted. Good luck,

Barry

valves tight and need adjustment is the classic one.
next, it sounds simple but if the kickstart isn't locked in and ready to turn the engine by 1 'o' clock then you need to pull the lever off and put it on again one spline to the left. this means that you'll have to pull the lever back and in for it to be tucked away.

another way is to be the second person to try the mod i did (with pictures) in a kickstart thread recently where you modify the crescent and that way it engages earlier as well.

hard start guide-follow that.

also remember that they need to be lean to restart from hot so anything that leans it off and helps elsewhere is good.

my ignition stator mark in the r/h/s 'hole' is over to the left about 1/4 the way in and that helped (I.E. i advanced the ignition a tad).

regards

Taffy

my tips for the exact same model.

Hot start.
No choke no throttle.

Pull decomp and kick few times through.
Leave decomp lever and push the kicker until found the resistence (hardest part).
Slightly pull decomp and push pedal barely over the "hardest part".
Leave the decomp alone, and let the pedal rise more step up,
and kick it through.

35C, track day, 15 mins on, 20 mins off, and started every kick.

Nice bike You have and cheers, Murphys (if in pint) or 6X for me please.

From my understanding... If 4-strokes are set up right you should never have to touch the throttle when starting.... sounds like you might be flooding it.

No throttle for me at all, 1st or 2nd kick hot or cold. Throttle it and you'll flood it (mine anyway)
Chris

And now for another opinion. This is assuming you have the DelOrto carb still in place

Pull in the manual decompressor.
Open the throttle.
Kick the beast through 5 times. (this should clear out any perculated fuel)
Release the decompressor.
Bring it up to TDC and kick it through with a full, brisk stroke. Make sure you have the kickstart lever all the way to the top (dont cheat it) and follow through all the way to the bottom.
If the bike does not start by the second kick, repeat the procedure.

This works well for me with DelOrto's. If you have some kind of pumper carb the drill is the same only do not touch the throttle.

Ohhh, I'll have a black and tan by the way

Ciao again,

if you do not have manual decomp lever, that might cause You some difficulties, but not having estart in 2002 with dellorto, is ok. I am ready to throw that away also, but for my riding skills, that extra weight does not mean much...

The auto decomp for my kicker is useless. I have not even tried to fix it.
Manual decomp is way to go imho.

Try to put it back there.