Do amals need a choke

The 32mm amals on my new to me not running yet fastback don't have a choke and the choke cable fitting on the top of the carb is blanked off.

Do I need a choke or will tickling do it?

Thanks

Charles

The air slides are generally unnecessary, tickle both carbs and have at it.

I used to ride Peel in 20'F pretty regularly with a huge wind screen on it so had to brush off thick frost from seat or it'd melt into a wet seat, night or day. This is ONLY time I found chokes to be worth while, to try to stay running till warmed enough to even respond to any throttle w/o stalling instantly. Even then if once started - usually a few times with stalling - for oil and gas mix passenages to warm up some, blipping and blipping can get er going w/o useless cluttering of installed chokes but the darn choke lever is so cute I like it on bars and became functional in my case when I ran a Miki Carb on Combat. Seal the cable hole in cap when removing the crappy chokes to simiply life and working on a Cdo.

Tickling will surely do it.

I have the chokes in place on three bikes, never use them. I removed them from the fourth bike. All are one or two kick starters from cold.
My Mikuni equipped bike on the other hand could use a choke sometimes, or a tickler. The enrichener circuit does work, but not quite as quickly and directly as the "pour some gas down your throat" tickler on the Amals.

Hi Chas
I think it depends where you are what weather you get. Here in Sunnyless northern England I find them needed, I guess in California you would not need them.
I left mine off on a new set of Amals I fitted, I soon put them back though. Yes it would fire and run for half a dozen times until the fuel level dropped and then it would stop and you repeat the process half a dozen times until it will run. Far too much faffing, air restrictors back in, two kicks it runs and keeps running, ride off and take off the chokes when warm.
JohnT

I don't see that they do much for me here in VA. But I use them, and always have, but I bet I could get along without them. I don't ride in the winter.

Dave
69S

Reading John's comments, I am reminded that on really cold riding days early in the season, say in the low 40s F, I do sometimes give the ticklers a quick second hit of maybe one or two seconds before riding off on a cold engine.
The chokes will certainly work as well or better for this, but aren't needed if you don't have them.
Glen

I regard any air-slide ([pedant] not chokes [/pedant]) equipped bike as a source of spare throttle cables, and remove them at the first opportunity.
That said, I really am a fair-weather rider these days.

I removed my chokes & robbed my choke cable splitter to fix the throttle splitter at the International Rally in Spain (I believe Steve posted the saga here, my stator also failed before leaving the UK :roll: - great fun & I met lots of nice NOC'ers). I've never replaced them & never felt the need to, the holes are now closed off with posh Amal screws; Nellie has started without any problems after flooding in temps down to 3 deg C.

I don't live as far north as John though (East Midlands) & tickling is a bit messier (a non riding friend grabbed a fire extinguisher and started shouting in a panicked manner that my bike was "LEAKING PETROL!!!!! "as I tickled it to leave). I'm not to sure of the designer who put the lead to the e-start right under the left carb to be washed at start up & I agree that the design was not the best - the slides are held up out of the way under tension, so if the cable breaks the slides will drop & your plugs will run rich, then foul...

Mike

MK III Commando

It depends entirely on the motorcycle and how it's tuned. My 850 needs the choke, my brother's 750 doesn't.

IMO a Commando should behave like any other 4 stroke engine, requiring a choke when cold and not once warmed up.

I suggest whether you need the chokes depends on how lean you are running your bike. I use methanol fuel, and many guys run it on the rich side, and the bike will still be quick. I run it as lean as I possibly can without burning the internals. I have to use the chokes to start the bike if it is not warmed up. Tuning for petrol is more critical than tuning for methanol, but both must be as lean as possible to get the best performance . I use Mk2 Amals, which have no provision for tickling. When cold the motor spits back and gets ugly without the chokes - as it should.

No choke necessary. A rich choke situation also washes critical oil off of the cylinder walls when its needed most ,on cold startup. That's why ticklers work best by raising float levels for a temporary cold fix to startup.

Lately as its season warmed I've taken to following others practice of just tickling one Amal for today first kick joy. Usually cold starts with both tickled take two kicks w/o any pre kick cam wearing useless effort - like today one kick for sound of life with a Commando. An effective tickle only needs to fill the tiny mixing chamber so any dripp-age is just excess ground and air pollution. Chokes are like the little scar like knobs of horse's useless evolution left over little toe that's half way up their legs. Do leave the choke lever on just for show though.

The way my bike is jetted, I have to use the chokes for starting whenever the motor is still cold, regardless of the weather. My Mk2 Amals have choke levers like Mikunis, so the getting the one on the right hand side to come off once the motor has started is a problem. I often have my fingers worming their way past the bits under the tank including the spark plug leads .

Don't be doing any worming about with wet leads or moist gloves. Now that would be a jump-start !