hard cold start sometimes hard hot start

2002 fe400e

The bike has always been hard to start cold. I bought it used with only a few rides on it in 2004 and it was difficult to start cold but once warmed up it started fine off the electric start. So i have tried this

I adjusted the valves which all were spot on except for one.

I dropped the main needle from the 4th notch to the 3rd. to me the bike seemed to rich after a few minutes of running the IXU24 plug was black.

I switched to the denso IXU24 ( not a fan of the plug as it has a 5ohm resistor which you do not need unless your offroad bike has a stereo and speakers on it. so i am going to try the NGK CR8EIX.)

I'm using motorex full synthetic 10w 50.

The bike is still hard to start cold. after a long ride sometimes the bike doesn't want to start when it's hot off the button or from kicking it. sometimes i have to resort to pushing it to start. For cold start i put the ignition on high, put on the choke, kick the bike through a few times with decomp lever on. then i get the piston at top dead center and do a full smooth kick.

To me it's seems like a carb problem. All of the jetting is stock for this year, model and 400cc.

I ride at east fort rock just east of bend in oregon and also at browns camp on the way to the beach. If i had to guess the altitude is around 2000-5000 feet.

I have seen other people on this site that ride in the same areas as me and i wanted to know if you had any advice on what jetting to try for the delorto.

if this doesn't work i might try the Keihin carb.

another thing i might try is removing the auto decompression system. I had trouble starting other bikes with these on them and yanked them out and then they would start quite nicely.

If i can't get the bike to start easier after all these things i'm going to sell it for a ktm 400. when i bought the bike it was the best option for my riding style and to me it seems like the ktm is the only other option as i don't want a 450 or bigger.

I would rather not sell it though as i think the husaberg is a much more interesting bike than any other i have ridden or looked at.

any help would be apreciated.

Ok that's something to check. Last time i had the carb off it was very clean but i can't say with certainty that all the jets were clean. So for sure i'll check the choke jet as i did not take the float bowl off when i did the needle adjustment.

So tomorrow i'll pull the carb and inspect all of it and reference the jet numbers with my book.

If the carb and jets turn out clean I'm pretty certain the bike is running rich. As in some cases i pull the choke off to get the bike started.

So if i get the jet numbers perhaps someone could give me an idea of what other sizes to try.

thanks for the help.