Bike suddenly doesn't want to start!

[afterbooster]

A weak battery can cause all sorts of problems. If you suspect it at all, replace it. Cleaning the carbs is a good thing (especially now that you have them off), and checking the valves can only help as well.

Instead of chasing down problems that you aren't sure even exist, get a new battery. I would bet that is your source of everything else. What kind of water did you add to it anyway? Distilled?

IMO... before spending the coin to buy a new battery, hook it up to a car battery... similar to jumping a car... not everyone's favorite technique but I dont have any problems with it... and it'll crank your starter with more amps than the small battery currently installed...

[redge]

got the same bike, same problem at the moment. i feel your pain 

i used jumper cables yesterday and i starts right up, but now it refuse to start again.

[twinrat]

cold weather shows up battery faults, where in warm weather you would get away with it ..

[bombshelter13]

I ended up taking this to my mechanic.

I didn't specifically ask for a diagnosis, since that'd have meant an extra 100$ charge for the service. Since the battery was good on the multimeter, I was pretty sure it had to be something in the carbs, so I had him bill me for a carb overhaul (cleaning, new gaskets, installing the jets/hex screws I was planning on installing anyways) and a valve clearance check (probably not related at all to the starting problem, but it was due for one anyhow).

While he was overhauling the carbs, he took note that the passage supplying one of the slow jets was clogged, and cleaned it out.

After this, the bike starts up fine, so I'm gonna say that the clogged jet passage was probably the problem.

[twinrat]

one carb was affected in the idle circuit and it gave all those above symptons //whose leg do you think you are pulling// with all those symptons there  would have to be at least a boulder in your main inlet hose and your bike electrics are powered by a AAA battery.

[bombshelter13]

twinrat, once it went to my mechanic, I just know what he told me. It didn't work before he looked at it, he gave the carbs a thorough cleaning, returned it, and it works.