It's about 35 degrees here. WEnt out this morning to warm up the Raptor and let it defrost for a morning blast through the woods. To my surprise it didn;t fire right up. Took about 20-30 seconds of cranking, then I got a backfire through the exhaust and THEN it fired up. I let it warm up a few minutes, but when I went to give it some gas it just wanted to stall. I tried easing the throttle and I could get some RPMs for a second, but then it would start to sputter and I would have to let off. Think maybe there is moisture in the gas? Is there some jetting changes I should make for this weather?
The bike is all stock and only about 3 weeks old...

 

35 degrees?? Must be a warm front in Battle Creek! It's 29 degrees here in Jackson! ;o)

For what it's worth, I just picked up a Raptor myself on Tuesday. It started and ran fine this morning when I took it out for a brisk spin down the trails. DAMN that standing water is COLD this morning! hehe

Have you taken yours up to Silver Lake yet? We're going next weekend. I'll have to baby it around to break it in, but still expect to have a blast.

 

ok, so 35 degrees was a guess [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

No, haven't been to silver lake yet. Wanna wait for the paddles. Where did you pick your Raptor up, Full Throttle Motorsports? We made the trip over to Pilgrim.

If you want to rethink your trip a little, we are making a trip up to the Atlanta Trail (84 miles of legal ATV trails) next weekend if you are interested. There will be two of us on Raptors and one on an LT250. Probably head up thursday night or friday morning and camp at the Pigeon River Country State Forest between G*ylord (ok, I think the bad word filter is a little TOO strict) and Atlanta.

Drop me a line, good to hear from someone almost loacal with another Raptor. Looking for some good places to ride [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Although I live in Maryland and it stays warmer alot longer, we get some cold spells too. My stock Raptor never had any trouble starting with the choke pulled even when it was as low as 15 degrees outside. Same for the Kodiak and the 400exs.

/NotuRaptor

 

I bought mine at Town & Country ... intersection of 127 & 12 south of here. We've planned the Silver Lake trip for awhile, so I'm gonna stick with that plan for now. I want to try the Dakota out on the dunes with new Mickey Thompson rubber under it, too. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Do you need anything other than an ORV sticker to run the trails up where you're talkin bout? I've just been running the power line trails along the railroad tracks around here. Lots of standing water from all the rain we got the other day. Forgot how much fun it was to get DIRTY!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Paintballer
I know this sounds stupid but make sure your choke lever is actually all the way over on its guide when you push the choke on. This happened to me the other morning. I was cranking the Raptor and I thought it has never done this before and when I looked at the small choke lever from a below angle it was not all the way over or full on choke. I got some silicone spray and sprayed in down the cable and the movement of the choke cable was much better. Chet

 

My cold weather experiences. The choke seems to have a sweet spot. Too much or too little choke and the bike will skip, stall or backfire when you goose it. To find the sweet spot, after starting I adjust the choke (higher or lower) until it idles the fastest. Then it generally runs fine.

Also, depending on how cold it gets I sometimes had to run with the choke on slightly all the time. Runs OK with no choke, but idles better with choke. During summer choke off is best.

 

Another thing, might be to make sure the parking brake is off. I have done this before, I started it and went to rev it and thought what the hell, then I see that the parking brake is on and with it on there is a governer that will do that.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

Paul

 

I bought mine almost a year ago and during some of the cold spells, the choke cable seemed to freeze up. Many Raptor owners reported similar choke problems during the winter months last year.

 

Mine ran fine this weekend at Silver Lake, including Saturday morning when it was colder than a... We had about a 30-35 mph wind coming in off the lake, so the dunes changed about every hour. I was buzzing around at about 50-51 mph (I got a Trailtech computer) and it seemed like the acceleration slowed quite a bit. Which got me wondering what effect cold weather has on jetting. It's going to run leaner, but enough leaner to rejet? The parking lot was a dustbowl, so I didn't really want to have to tear in to the carbs out there.