Cold Starts

[jawad]

98 Steamer.  12k miles.  New set of Nology coils about 3k ago.

My bikes takes a lot longer to warm up than it used to.  I have to use the choke, and let it idle for a couple of minutes before it is warm enough to go.
Everything runs fine after the initial extended warm up.  It is sensitive to even small changes in weather, and starts up quicker on slightly warmer days.  I am in mild San Francisco weather.

Rejet the carbs?

[BR]

My '98 did the same thing when I first got it... cold blooded as heck and I had to sit there and let it warm for 5 mins before I could get going (or rev the piss out of it if I didn't want to wait).  So I tossed in some #41 pilots replacing the stock #38s, set mixture screws at ~1.5 or so, did a carb synch and now it's much better (also replaced the coils along the way with some Daytona "sticks" which helped as well).  If it sits for a few weeks it will take a little longer to give me normal throttle resp before I can get going but when I'm riding it every day, no problem.  Get it started, set idle at 1500 or so, put on helmet and gloves, and by then it's ready.  Head down the street and thumb-off the "choke" (enrichener) within a 1/4 mile (Note: stock airbox and pipes too but it wasn't much different with the Yosh cans installed, just more noise)

Brendan
'98 BRG Tiger
San Jose, CA

[Mustang]

some #105 main jets  and shim the needles up about .030 of an inch will help a lot also .

[nightrunner]

I have also rejetted my 98 and starts a lot easier.  

But you said it takes longer than it used to so something has changed.  I have also had to replace the thermostat due to it never reaching operating temp.  Presumably it was stuck open and over cooling.    This would of course be more of a problem in cold weather.

[jawad]

Thank you for the replies so far.  So its the carbs, the community has decided (any disagreements?).  

Are there any simple/easy/cheap way to test this hypothesis and possibly fix it.  For example, could my carbs have become dirty/gummy?  Would some Seafoam etc in the gas tank help?  

BTW, if you search for "carb adjustment" in Google, the first thing that comes up is an article in WebBikeWorld about cleaning/adjusting carbs on a Steamer.
http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/carb-adjustment/ (http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/carb-adjustment/).  Any thoughts on this?

Assume that I know next to nothing about carbs.  I am moving and my tools are in storage, so it will be a while before I can take the carbs apart.