Cold Starting Ritual for Honda CB twins

[souperman]

I have just gotten my CB500T back running for the first time, and have been playing with the carbs and stuff trying to tune it up. The bike seems to hate much more then half choke, if I open it all the way it's too rich too start I think. It also wants just a hair of throttle to get things going when I kick it over, does this mean I have the idle set too low? From the tach I have it set to 1100 or so. On my last bike the choke cracked up the throttle a hair as well as closing the butterfly valve, all I had to do was pump the throttle once and kick.

I am kick starting BTW, I still need a few parts to get the electric leg to work right.

What do you honda twin guys do for a cold start?

 

[Disliked23]

1970 cb450. Full choke, three kicks, no throttle, choke off immediately once it starts, rev to 5000 for about 5 seconds and then let it go and warm up at idle for about 5 minutes. Usually works pretty well for me. My choke seems to be either all the way on or all the way off, and the bike starts with full choke, but won't idle with full choke.

 

[souperman]

OK so I've been trying no throttle and full choke. Most of the time the bike will pop or fire a few strokes then die. After that I have to back off the choke and give it a tiny bit of gas to get it to start. I'm still trying to get the carbs balanced so it runs evenly at idle, checking the timing with a strobe might be my next step.

 

[pawn]

cb450 here, I've been doing full choke and a few twists of throttle while kicking. I don't have electric start, so it's always kick for me, but the 7th kick usually does the trick. The, I just rev a little maybe up to 5000, and let it idle for a minute then I ride.

 

[Flugtechnik]

This is my latest procedure.

I give it 2 kicks with the choke fully closed to help suck some gas up into the carbs (I run my bowls dry before I put the bike away for the week). Then I turn the choke to half or 3/4 open and give it a couple more kicks. My bike will not run with the choke fully closed. I sometimes have to blip the throttle a couple times if it sounds like it is going to die. I let it warm up for a minute and then it's good to go.