I just picked up a 1989 Hugger 883 for my dad. It has 18K on it. Its completely original with the exception of some chrome and some slip on slash cut Harley Davidson mufflers that were probably put on 20 years ago.
I did a complete tune up on it including plugs, air filter, oil, filter, battery and primary fluid. I also drained the tank, put in fresh gas and dropped the bowl on the carb and cleaned it out because the float was stuck.
Here is the problem.... Its not terribly easy to start when cold. It does start no problem though. I just pull the choke out, give it a few throttles and it starts. The problem is that it coughs and spits out of the carb for about 20 minutes until the engine is nice and warm. It almost sounds congested and muffled a little. Its driveable but very annoying. After around 20 minutes I can literally hear the motor clear out and run better. The idle increases a little and it no longer sounds congested or muffled. It sounds perfect and it runs absolutely beautiful.
I tried this on 3 seperate days and it does exactly the same thing every time.
One thing I do notice is that the choke **** does not stay out. It feels spring loaded. I can pull it out and it chokes the motor no problem but when I release it, it snaps back in. I am wondering if this is a choke problem because the motor runs great once its been running for 15-20 minutes. When cold.. it just spits and coughs out of the carb and runs like crap unless I really wail on it. At the higher rpms when cold it doesn't spit as much when cold.
Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

 

The choke **** has a tension adjustment just tighten the outer plastic ring a little (not too tight it is plastic and can break) sounds like you might also have a possible intake leak where the manifold meets the head (also a common problem especially when the seals age) This can be checked by spraying WD-40 by the intake seals when its running and if you get any change in Idle speed, that would indicate a leak.

 

hal is right definately check for leaking manifold gaskets. a couple of things i have noticed from working on my own bike these past couple of months. (1988 883H) mine blows back out of the carb at lower rpms too, but i dont have those runability issues you have. check your plug wires, make sure your spark is good,(fought that one for a while). make sure that the bike is jetted properly, mine had too large of pilot jet. also seein as how you have an 89, did you just clean the carb or did you replace the gaskets. i hear the accel pump diaphram/gasket has some troubles if it has a pinhole in the diaphram. i bought a cheapo carb kit from the local shop, the gaskets arent quite the right fit, but work and had the accel pump gasket(although i cant use it). with a little work you should be able to get her goin real easy. you might wanna get a factory service manual for it, or ask, i can look up specs for you.

good luck