Cold morning rough start

[Tonyvdb]

Hey everyone, this morning it was chilly out +6c (42f) and upon starting the bike with the choke on it ran really rough even missing a few times and you could hear the motor missing and even popped sort of like it was backfiring. As soon as it warmed up it ran fine.
Is this a sign it needs to have the carbs adjusted?

[Mr Jensee]

Here it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit this morning so it is hard to relate. Might be some condensation in your fuel, if Canada uses Ethanol enhanced gas, ethanol attracts water. Try using a fuel stabilizer or some Seafoam in the tank to help counteract the moisture.

[Tonyvdb]

Thanks for the tip, I did not know ethonal attracts moisture so I will add a little seafoam to the gas as you suggest. Lots of dew on the bike in the morning so I may buy a half cover to help with that as well. My garage is not very big so the bike has to park in it with the van blocking the door so I have to move the van out, roll the bike out then put the van back in. Not a convenient process so I leave it on the driveway.

[SgtSlag]

Keep the tank topped off as much as possible: air space in the fuel tank allows condensation of water, which sinks to the bottom of the tank. SeaFoam will absorb water, dissolve varnish, and stabilize gasoline for up to 24 months. It's wonderful stuff to add to a fully topped off tank for winter storage -- come Spring, it will fire up like it was parked yesterday. I run it through all of my vehicles around once per month, as a preventative maintenance technique (cleans the carbs/fuel injectors, and it absorbs any water that may be present). Cheers!

[chicagorandy]

When my old Ural (also using Keihin CVK's by the way) had this symptom, enriching the Main jets improved things - I strongly suspect MY Voyager carbs are at the OEM 'super lean' settings used to pass EPA demands. Great for passing the test, lousy for general operation of the bikes.

My next maintenance chore is going to be drilling out the plugs and setting the Voyager carbs to 2 turns out from their present leaner settings. I think that will improve a few issues at no cost besides sweat equity.

My '82 Honda also takes a little while to warm up and run smoothly from a cold start which I think is not uncommon with 30 year old engines?

[Mr Jensee]

Ethanol is plant based alcohol. Yes, it will attract moisture which is another reason to hate it since moisture leads to corrosion and gas tanks are steel. Guess what that adds up to. Always good to add a little stabilizer or Seafoam to the the tank every 2nd or 3rd fill up just to keep the "water line" down. Higher than 10% ethanol in your fuel is not good for any engine especially your rubber components that come into contact with it, in my opinion but the EPA in all it's idiotic wisdom is proposing upping the formulation here to 15%.