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Alright, I used to think it was just the cold weather, but it happened again today and it was a warm day. The engine turns over as the start button is held, but it never catches. Choke was on full and I even left the fuel switch in the prime position for a little while today (a couple minutes) before starting it.

I took it to a mechanic before I had any problems and he said I may want to buy a better battery because the battery in the bike is a cheap offbrand. But the battery was new when I got the bike and since it turns to engine over, I can't see how that could be the problem. My friend said maybe the carbs need tuning.

It has had little trouble starting in the past month until now. It had some trouble starting up about a week ago, perhaps because it had almost no gas in it, so I filled the tank, jumped it and it fired up. It started up ok after that until a few nights later when it was really cold and would not start even when we tried to jump it (so it wasn't a battery problem). Then it started right up the next day when it was hotter. I didn't use it for a few days after that (read 5 days) and now it won't start again, though I have yet to try jumping it. Could it be a bad rectifier, battery, or what? Anyone have any suggestions?

And for the record, the carbs were cleaned before I bought it.

It sounds like an electrical problem to me. When it is not starting see if you have a good spark at the plug.

How do I do that? I'm not very mechanically inclined, and I'm new to motorcycles, but I'm willing to put time in to learn about my bike in order to save money.

pull a plug, leave it hooked up to the plug wire, rest it against the motor and crank the engine. watch for spark.

well it started up ok again today. One thing I have to do though is I have to run the bike with the choke on about halfway for about 10 minutes or it stalls when I stop. Is this normal for an older bike?

Also, when it didn't start, could it have been that it turned over and over without catching because I flooded the engine when I opened the throttle while I was trying to start it?

The only way that you can flood the engine is buy pulling the choke all the way shut. Some engines are just cold natured and take longer to warm up that others.