A few weeks ago I was left stranded with what ended up being a bad rectifying regulator. No obvious symptoms - just died - or so I thought.
Since I bought this bike it has always been "cold natured" - runs great but sometimes required several tries to get it to start.
Well, since I replaced my bad rectifier with a Cycle Electric Rectifying Regulator (recommended by a member here) my "cold natured" bike has disappeared.
This thing starts right up every time and I haven't had to play the choke/twist throttle/crack throttle/hold throttle game to get it to start.
It seems that what I was blaming on one of the aggravations of the Mikuni carb/TC88 was actually low voltage - because nothing else was changed.
So, take this with a grain of salt or look into it for yourself, but if you are having some hard start issues you may want to look into your rectifier to make sure it's performing correctly.

 

Huh. I have similar issues. I wonder if this isnt a bad thing to replace, my bike has quite a few miles on it, id be surprised if it didnt need to be replaced.

 

I too replaced a failing regulator with the Cycle Electric.
I've been pleased with it.