Quote:
Originally Posted by GigaXi
Hi everyone! Let me begin with saying that I'm very new to this... the bike starts ONLY if I hold the hot start lever. It dies if I let go...
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Everything you describe sounds normal to me. First this is not an EFI motorcycle. You simply don't start a carburetor motor and let go of the start button and it's up and running at idle on it's own humming along. Carburetor engines need to come to full operating temperature to idle on their own. I doubt many here read or follow the actual start and stop instructions in the manual that comes with the Templar bikes as it will explain the start process and stop process and I don't see these instructions repeated here.
On start first you need to hold a little open throttle manually with your hand until it is running at fully warmed up temperature. Second you need to pull on the choke lever because if properly tuned the bike should not start and idle without choke. If it does it's tuned too rich. As the engine and carburetor heat up they naturally expand and open and the mixture naturally goes richer. This is why it should be lean when cold and require choke in the first place.
You should be pulling the choke all the way open. Give and hold a little throttle and then press one of the brakes and press the start button. You should not have to hold the start button long. While warming up I like to keep the RPM around 2500-3000 it will fluctuate around this as your hand tires or the engine warms.
Do a slow count to thirty seconds, alligators, Mississippis or whatever floats your boat.
As it warms the rpm will start to rise as the engine and carburetor metals are expanding and naturally holding a richer and richer fuel flow setting. This is a sign you can go to part 2.
Part 2 you let half of the choke out. You know it will be half as the rpm will drop again. If it pops and wants to quit you induced a lean condition or the motor jus hasn't reached the required temperature jus yet and you need to pull a little more choke to enrichen the mix again and it will once again return to higher rpm and run without pops.
Do your slow count to thirty. Now you can try slowly letting off choke towards no choke. In summer or warm days this should be plenty enough time to warm up the engine to running temperature and it will idle 100% normal on it's own. In winter or cold days you will still need a few more slow count seconds to let the engine fully warm up to operating temperature.
During this whole procedure any pops are a sign of lean running condition and need for a bit more opening of the choke for longer as the engine hasn't warmed up enough to run well on the reduced choke setting.
You'll get the hang of it and soon learn your motor and your elevation start process.
And reading the manual, stopping process is get off the bike in idle and turn the pet cock fuel flow off. When the bike quits running it has drained the carburetor. Turn the ignition switch off, turn off the key and remove and you are done for the day.
And add another vote for check your valve clearance sooner than later to confirm if the previous owner knew these engines normally ship with the valves too tight from the factory. Valves tighten with running so periodically you'll need to recheck and adjust to loosen the gaps as you own and run the bike.
Once you've got the process down and tire of holding the throttle with your hand you can get a large knob to go on the idle speed adjustment screw then you can dial the idle up high to substitute for your hand holding the throttle open. Then when running temperature you dial it down to between 1500-2000 rpm range wherever your particular engine and elevation likes it and keeps running. eBay or AliExpress sell them dirt cheap. Thumper has a post on his and I'm sure it's in the main Templar resource post thread as well by now.