I just had the wierdest thing happen when starting my bike that changed my outlook on riding this beast.
In my first two outings (and home testing), I had not really mastered any sucessfull starting drills. I was dreading starting this monster as it was really killing me and rapidly wearing out my riding soles. So I turned to the resources here on the forum. Made notes from searching posts by Mikesmith, 91KX, Sharc, Gowen, kxcam, kmac, bigborefan, twist-a-grip, hogwild, etc. Determined that for cold starts, best practices would be: gas on, choke on, slowly push kick starter through a few times, rock bike in gear to turn the piston over 3 - 4 times, throttle @ 1/8 or less, then kick HARD. If not started by 5th kick, wait a few minutes, try with choke off, then try with throttle @ 3/4.
On my next big ride, this seemed to work 2/3rds of the time, and hot starts were first kick about 85% of the time. The remaining 15% hot starts were killers.
Before my fourth big ride, I changed the plug. It only had one ride on it (BR8EG) and was carboned on the white insulator and electrode ONLY. Put in a fresh B8EG, switched to a new filter oiled with PJ1 spray-on in lieu of MAXIMA pour oil (MUCH easier to ensure a proper oil job with the PJ1), lowered the float height to -2.0 mm (fuel level below the lower carb body flange lip). It was 1.0 mm above the lip.
Got to the trails, unloaded, and went to go through my new starting drill. Gas on, choke on, first real slow, easy push though of the lever while sitting on the seat, and....RING-ding-a-ding. It was running. Jeez. Went off in my holster, I guess. DANG, I was surprized. Great start for a great ride.
I'm hoping this is the sign of things to come and can't wait to go riding again. This is the way it should be!
So a BIG THANKS to all you guys that helped me find a system for starting. Once again, the power of the forum is invaluable.