Thanks for the warm welcome to the zone.

Hello all, and thankyou all for the warm welcome to RSVzone. My new purchase (and first Vtwin) is a standard 2002 mille. I have been reading some of the most popluar upgrades on here and have already just been outbid on ebay for a Titanium leovince race slip on complete with chip !! All is well with the bike but I have been experiencing troubled starting. I know it's cold here in the uk at the mo which doesn't help and have been only using the choke, no throttle ! Bike has a 14 ah Varta battery which charges fine and I get good voltages showing on the display ( although I have yet to check charging amperage ) and the guy I bought it from tells me he had to replace the starter relay before he put it up for sale. I haven't looked too deeply into the starting systems electronics yet but is there a solenoid and a relay ? Or maybe he meant the solenoid. Anyhow the main question was does anyone have any pics or know of the markings on the original solenoid, the yamaha one and the uprated aprilia ones. I don't want to go buy an uprated one if it has already been done !!! Connected to a Ctek 800 optimising charger 24 hours a day and will change to a YUASA battery ( I use them in my job as a security engineer so I know they are the best !!) But in the mean time if I can improve on the solenoid it can only help....

Thanks Nick, so the "choke" on the Mille is in fact doing more than if you slightly open the throttle or to compare it to carbs just turning up the idle screw ? From experience I know there's always a trick to starting any bike as they all have their quirks and my experience so far tells me if you flood a mille you are buggered because chances are you haven't got enough go in the battery to clear it before it goes flat. Unless you fully open the throttle to get more air in there ( I understand that if the engine isn't revving too high it won't squirt any fuel in ?) but that practice also seems risky.

Hi Bad Boy, I'm in Tunbridge Wells mate.