Motorcycle Repair: Hard to start 1983 XL250, honda xl250, valve clearance

Question
Hi Gary ,
My 1983 Honda XL250 has become hard to start .Kicking it over 50 times using the choke , no choke , giving it throttle ,no throttle etc. , is no fun . A shot of ether in the intake gets it going right away .I took the carb. apart ,cleaned it and blew it out with compressed air , but it's still hard to start . Should I be looking at the ignition system ? It has a new spark plug and always seems to have spark .
Rick

Answer
Rick, You have done most of the obvious repairs. Here is one more check the valve clearance, Honda's have a tendency to suck the intake valve up in the head a little and you lose the valve lash gap. Set the engine to TDC and pull the valve access covers and check the gap. They dont run much to start with,aroung .003 on the intake and .005 on the exhaust.Any more than that and they will clatter any less and it becomes hard to start. A lot of the XR,s and XL,s and CRF,s run more gap if they use a Hot Cam for more performance. See if this helps.