The weather has been shitty... but I had to make a few laps around the house last night...
With the TPI, there is a choke, but all it's really not needed. It does not enrichen the fuel mixture, but adds air. For a bike that's so close to lean, I'd rather not add air. But, from a cold start, you can simply hit the magic button and go... I'm still a little old school, and will slowly kick the bike twice before hitting the button. When you slowly push the kick starter, the pumps (fuel and oil) kick in. This way I know the oil pump is primed and ready. Then hit the starter and she comes to life. Even stone cold, she will sit there and idle... last night with the temps around 20, it did stall when I tried to blip the throttle, but hit the button and all is good. This was the 2nd full heat cycle. I let her idle and get a little heat in the rads and went around the house.
The bike is very light compared to my ol 380, (it's 20+ lbs lighter and you can tell). It very narrow as well, with a KTM rock hard seat. One feature I like is this model has a counter balance in the engine to reduce vibs. When idling is has a different tone, as the pumps are working their voodoo. The idle is set very low... too low from my tastes, but it's something I will look into after a get a few rides on the bike. The Clutch pull is so light, so smooth. Even in the short time I was on the bike, you could tell power is very linear. Still has the two stroke feel, but very linear. There's a reason these bikes have been called 3 strokes... this one is no exception. I barely got it into 3rd gear, so this was far from a real test, but I did find it easy to loft the front wheel... I really didn't feel any vibrations from the motor, just a rock hard seat. The ergonomics feel good, the suspenders I've not touched yet. I still need to set sag, and get a base line of the clickers. One thing I did notice how it's funny that you get accustomed to something as simple as hand grips, and really notice them when its not "your" brand. I've run pillow top grips for a long time... and the stock grips feel so small, I'll be swamping them out sometime in the near future
Hope to get a real ride in next week and will report back with an real ride report.