Absolutely!

 

what about choke, more choke in the colder temperatures? i assume it needs a higher gas/air ratio the colder it gets

 

I don't know what you have for A CARB
If you have a choke or enrichner , yes use it!

 

are you referring to the 04 ridgeback in your signature line or something else? I've originally from your part of town, so i'm used to the conditions. what bike is it and what is the set up? enigne size and compression, ACR's or not, battery-exact brand and size, what carb, what jetts in carb and what exhaust system. kind of need to know all this info in order to get you some USEFUL recommendations. the other thing to know is how long is the motorcycle ridden in between cranking events? too short of a ride does NOT allow the battery to recover from an extended or deep cranking cycle and will make future cranking events even harder. I've got a LOT of experience with BigDog and the like bikes, so if you can give me the info i've requested i might be able to help you out.
marco

 

Starting Fluid?

 

Yes. The 2004 Ridgeback.
107ci S&S Engine.
S&S Shorty carb. (don't know anything about jets)
Deltek 300cca battery (new in August last year)
When not running, it's on an Optimix tinder.
Rides are 30 miles, all highway.
Roughly sits one week between rides.
ACR means the bubbles in the center of the rocker boxes pop back up when pushed down?
Medusta pipes.
Starting fluid does help but not when it gets down to single digits.
Thank you

 

2 things come to mid at first,,,,your bike needs to have the best battery you can get and what you have is not it,,,,yuasa gyz series. Second is the carb absolutely needs to be perfectly jetted for the Martin Bros pipes that you have and a lot of people get it wrong. The bike will run, but not be as efficient as it should he, and or as strong. 31 or 32 slow jet and 76- 78 main jet. The other thing to think about is in the colder temps you might run a 10w50 synthetic engine oil to help out. Change back to 20w50 when temps warm up. Also make sure that your ACR's are working correctly.(yes the little bubbles in the center of the rocker boxes. All that said, set enrichener, 3. Twists of thw wrist and crank it up.
m

 

starting fluid is a sure way to destroy the engine. in times past, before efi and when carbs were crap, i do not recall much issues, been there, done that.
a well tuned engine is a must and a good battery as the cold knocks them in the dirt, especially the lead/acid ones. i would suggest an oil bag heater but since you do not have power for it, so much for that. most of my motorcycles were manual foot and i threw the newspaper in winter and never had an issue starting it.
as a side note, you could use a relay or aux switch to kill the lights, this would free up some power for the starter.

 

Carbs are no crap.............but that is another subject.....LOL

 

I have retro fitted several carbs to EFI. I have had the best of luck with a HD Delphi system. Dan Thayer still makes the overlay harness. I weld in plates for the XL pump and try to use a ECM that takes a 176 level calibration. I then tune them with the flash base tuner of my choice.