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I just bought a brand new Vulcan 800 and, being a young adult, have never experienced working with a carbed engine before. When I warm up, I often choke the engine for around 5 minutes to make sure the bike is warm, otherwise the engine kinda feels like it lugs when i'm first driving it. Does this seem natural to you guys? Should I continue to choke for so long? Is the lugging the engine not being warmed yet? Keep in mind the bike is still new with only 250k miles on it. Thanks for your help.

Thta's normal, nothing to worry about. As the bike breaks in you'll find you won't need the choke as much but will still need to use it on cold starts. My girlfriend's '01 Vulcan 800 Classic has over 55,000km on it and still needs partial choke for a few blocks after a cold start.

JukeboxHero wrote:Keep in mind the bike is still new with only 250k miles on it.

I turn off the choke as soon as possible, to avoid any potential fouling of the spark plugs. I usually cut the choke back gradually starting 10 seconds or so after startup, and by 20-25 seconds it is completely turned off. Then I just let the bike warm up without the choke.

A few times, during cold weather, I have started to ride with the choke on until she is warmed up. Just don't forget to turn it off once she's warmed up

thanks for the responses. So you are saying it alright to drive it when it's still lugging, but maybe just don't push it to hard untill it feels 100%?

I'd say choke for only a few second to help in cold start after that let it warm up for a good few minute without choke. If you choke too long then you will get discoloring (gold) pipes from too rich of gas.

I believe after you start it up, get all your gears in place do some routine check for tire pressure, control buttons, then the bike should be ready to ride.

I've got an inline 4 as opposed to a v-twin, so it'll work a little differently because the momentum needed to keep it running is different. But I back the bike out of the garage and start it with the choke while I'm moving. I roll out onto the driveway, kickstand down, hop off, run into the garage, hit the close door button, run back out, duck under the closing door and jump back on the bike. It's now warmed up enough to turn off the choke.

Total time, about 35-40 seconds. Maybe a minute at the most.

I have 2 bikes, A 05 750 Katana and a 05 250 Ninja. Both have carbs and on both of them I have to use the choke to start the bike. After they start I adjust it for an idle of around 2000 rpm while I give the bike a quick once over and put on my gear. After suiting up I can turn off the choke and ride off since that the temperature here is in the 90s. Earlier in the year while it was still cool I would need to leave the choke on for a couple of blocks or so until it took the throttle smoothly.

The Ninja 250, which is liquid cooled, is a lot more cold natured than the Katana even in the hot weather we have now. The Katana will start and have an erratic idle for a few seconds before it will smooth out, but the Ninja 250 will not even try to start without using the choke.

great. Thanks for the help guys. Chocked today for around 30 seconds, then let warm w/o choke for another minute.bike only lugged for the first block then rode perfectly.

my bike takes forever to warm up. i start with choke all the way out let it warm for maybe 2-3 minutes. then i back it off to about half(if i take it all the way off the bike will die). i ride maybe 5 minutes (stop and go) untill i can back the choke all the way off without stalling.

might have other issues with my bike i dont know about but...