Downside to using choke after warm up?

[1LE]

Just wondering if I'm hurting anything by using a smidge of choke at stop lights to raise the idle a couple hundred RPM. Currently the bike ('94 600) wants to idle at 900-1000 RPMs which is a bit on the shaky side and occasionally if it's not quite warm yet it'll shut off. If I bump the idle screw up even the tiniest bit it shoots straight to a 2000 RPM idle. However, I can just barely crack the choke and get it up to 1200-1300 pretty easily, which I've been doing as a workaround until I can resolve the real problem...

[mrchristian]

Well aside from being a nuisance, it's potentially not great for your bike as you are running it in a mystery fuel mixture which changes are the bike warms up.

All the idle screw does is open the butterfly on the carb to let in more air. Basically like turning the throttle a tiny bit. It just pushes a tab on it, it's a pretty simple mechanism. Might want to see if something is binding.

Is it a new bike? I'd probably revert the fuel screws to 2.5 turns to start to make sure it's not wildly off. It might need the pilot jet cleaned too.

Welcome to the land of carburators.

[shpielers]

Carbs synced?

[1LE]

Originally Posted by shpielers

Carbs synced?

That's the planned next step on resolving the root cause, but haven't been able to piece together a useable temporary tank setup yet and would like to keep riding in the meantime.

Originally Posted by mrchristian

All the idle screw does is open the butterfly on the carb to let in more air. Basically like turning the throttle a tiny bit. It just pushes a tab on it, it's a pretty simple mechanism. Might want to see if something is binding.

Is it a new bike? I'd probably revert the fuel screws to 2.5 turns to start to make sure it's not wildly off. It might need the pilot jet cleaned too.

Welcome to the land of carburators.

It's at 2.5 turns. Pilot jets were just cleaned 2 rides ago (it wouldn't run at all off choke before). Figure it needs a sync, but fueling this thing from a temp tank has turned into an epic adventure, so I did those couple of rides dealing with it by adjusting the choke when I come to a stop. I've sync'd a couple other metric bikes with no problem recently, but between the split fuel rail, what appear to be oddball fuel line sizes on this bike, plus what a PITA it is to get the tank off/at the carbs on this particular bike it is making me really cranky. To the point of not being in any rush to pull it apart again for the sync unless I'm actively damaging it... So, just want to make sure I'm not doing something bad like pulling in unfiltered air/contaminating the oil/etc.

[Doc_speeder]

Originally Posted by shpielers

Carbs synced?

This^^^. In my experience an overly sensitive idle adjustment screw is a tell tale sign of carbs that are not synced.

Also, riding with the choke slightly on won't hurt anything, except performance and fuel economy.