my 95 1200xlh sportster sure is cold natured. anybody else have a bike that is?

 

Yup, have to let mine idle with the enrichener **** pulled part way out for a few minutes till she warms up.

 

My 1998 883 is the same way. Gotta run it with the enriched **** part way out for at least 5 miles otherwise the carb will fart. I also have to pull the enricher out a little bit at red lights. After a long run I adjusted the idle screw just a hair And ran sea foam through the gas tank. Seemed to help a little bit. But everywhere I read I hear it's the nature of the beast. You get used to it and after a while it becomes second nature to mess with the enricher while riding.

 

Carbed bikes are a little cantankerous in cold weather. One just has to become familiar with the enrichener and how it works.

 

My wife's 02' 1200 sportster with stock CV carb is the same way. I have a 98' Road King w/ Screamin' Eagle carb that is even worse takes it a good 10 minutes to line out. They both run great after they warm up. I have a 92' 1200 sporty with the CV and it doesn't do that and my 95' E Glide with a Mikuni carb, you would think it's fuel injected the way it starts. On it I twist the throttle twice and hit the button and it starts every time smoothe as a baby's a$$. I'm sure the first two bikes could use a little tweaking on the carbs but since they run great after they are warmed up I haven't bothered. They never fail to start, just their cold nature.

 

Yup. My 06 883 is a cold nature beast. After 5-10 minutes its all good. Much worse in cold weather though.

 

Step up a size on the pilot jet, leave main jet alone. Remove cover/plug hiding idle mixture screw. Run idle mixture all the way in (gently) & back out 2 1/2 turns. Warm bike up completely, adjust idle mixture till it idles smoothly. Ought to be very close to "just right".

 

Just fixin to say you might want to do a few minor things to the carb. I just went thru this with my electraglide in a backwards kind of way, I believe Carl helped on my thread. So yeah what he said !

 

Thanks, man.

CV carbs are EASY to work on/tune. My '02 FXD was extremely cold blooded- anything below 60*F & I had to run the enrichener/choke a solid 3-4 miles 'fore she'd run right.

Over the winter, I put on a Ness "Stage 2" intake/air cleaner & Cycle Shack slip-ons. Stock 45/190 jets, stock spring, untouched slide & a '88 XL needle. Warms up right away, runs right, good throttle response & gas mileage went from 42mpg to 46-47mpg. Idle mixture took 3 turns out & still has a minor, occasional sneeze. Likely need to jump up to a 46 pilot jet, but waiting till the weather normalizes to decide.

Unless you've gotten seriously into the motor, the above will get your bike running the way it's supposed to. I'd advise, for the most part, against kits. Can't speak to how they work, tho I hear they tend to run rich & kill mileage. That said, I had a worked '94 Sporty that ran 12.9 quarters at 105mph & got 50-52mpg on the highway with a Yost Powertube & the '88 XL needle.

Besides, why pay $75-$80 for a kit, when $20 worth of jets & needle will do the same thing?

I'm no kinda carb guru- the CV is just very forgiving & easy to tune. Dead simple to work on & plenty of good tutorials on tuning. I'm a big fan of the SOTP dyno & reading plug color to dial 'em in.

 

A little off topic here but my wife's '99 Heritage seemed to develop this "cold natured" over a winter storage.

New intake seals (with a good carb cleaning) seemed to help a bit.

Intake seals are fairly cheap and on older bikes it's a good idea to replace them anyways.