Motorcycle Repair: General Repair, honda rebel, starter button

Question
Hey Chris, I am just learning to ride and have a mate's bike - a 99 Honda Rebel (CA250). It has two problems that make me reluctant to ride:

1. The starter button no longer works. I have to push start to get going. It was working only a couple of weeks ago but now if I have the stand down it just flashes the side stand LED.

2. The engine idle is too high (or low?), ie: if I don't rev the engine when stopped the bike just conks out. This makes it very scary to leave the local area.

I was hoping you could help me out here - especially with the starter button thing - the bike doesn't do anything - not a whimper out of the engine.

Appreciate muchly any help provided,
Cheers,
Aaron.

Answer
Hi Aaron.
 It looks like you have the makings of a potential basket case, there.  So let's take one problem at a time.  You will need the repair manual to check these things.

1)  The starter button.  Check the starter circuit for shorts, the starter motor for burned up brushes and the sidestand cutoff switch (it could be shot).

2)  The engine idle is too low.  If it were too high, then it would rev up on it's own when in neutral or with the clutch engaged.  The repair manual will have the correct idle setting.  The idle screw is normally a little gnurled knob down at the carbs, usually protruding down from between them.

Good luck.
FALCON