Honda Reflex 250 issues

[bigredReflex1]

Hello everyone, I am new on this site and I have a problem with my Honda Reflex 250.

I just bought a 2005 honda Reflex with 8000 miles and when I sit it outside in the heat/sun I have a hard time starting it up.. why? Then I bought a cover because I thought that was the problem but it worked for only 1 day.

Everytime I keep it out in the heat (80 to 95 degree's) with the beating sun on it, it takes 3-5 times to start it everytime.. please I hope anyone can help me out.

I never worked on bikes before and I bought a service manual for this scooter so this will help find the problems.

Duane
From Pa..

[jayhawk]

What exactly happens when it has been out in the heat? A good description of what you do to start will help, also.

For example, my scooter sometimes needs a slight twist of the throttle when hitting the electric start button, but if I do that when it's been sitting out at work, in the sun, on a hot day, it's very hard to start. On those days, just hitting the button for a few seconds and the scoot fires right up.

When the scooter gets hot like that, it can be primed to fire right up without twisting the throttle any. You could be flooding it if you twist the throttle at or prior to start up.

Eric

[DocTurtle]

My scoot normally starts better when it's been sitting in the sun, lol. Like Jayhawk said, try to just give it a little bit of throttle and see if it starts up easier?

[Gary]

Just a wild guess, but it may be that the valves need adjusting. This is very easy to do on the Honda. See the How To section for a couple of different methods.
Gary

[mafunsalow]

BigRed, welcome ! Sorry to hear about your starting issue, the reflex is quite a dependable machine. At 8000 miles a valve adjustment may be needed, but because it varies with the temp, I would lean more towards a fuel problem. Assuming you have summer gas in it and not gas left over from the winter (different volitilities) it sounds like you may be suffering from "heat soak" where the gas in the carb , line and filter can be brought to boil. A cheap fix is to buy some pipe insulation and wrap the lines from the tank to the carb. On cars and some bikes they make a spacer for the carb to help prevent this. Don't know if they make them for our engines though.
I would also try running some seafoam thru in case you have some moisture in there somewhere.
Also take the battery and have it tested, it may not like the heat.

[scosgt]

Hold it about 1/2 throttle and hit the starter. When it is hot, the choke/enricher does not engage, and it needs some gas to get started.