My 1972 175 has always been a hard starter since I bought it. Had constant problems with the bing....clogged pilot especially. Decided it may be the coating in the tank breaking down and stopping it. Have now changed tanks and also a new bing from another bike which always starts on the second kick even after setting a year or more. Now the bike does start better, but still takes at least a dozen kicks to get it going. It's getting gas and compression is good. Once running it idles immediately and revs freely. Could it be a weak motoplat/coil ?
Mike,
I had a similar problem with one of my bikes this summer, it was an absolute bear to start warm or cold and I initially thought it may be a weak motoplat or coil. So I started pulling the motoplat and after I got the flywheel off and set it on the bench, I noticed it barely stuck to the steel bench. Generally the magnetism in the motoplat flywheels really grip themselves to the steel bench. So I tried a different flywheel with the same motoplat and bingo, problem solved. It appears that when these flywheels lose their magnetism the result is weak spark at low rpms which makes for difficult starting. So if you have an extra flywheel hanging around give it a shot to see if it resolves the issue. If this turns out to be the issue I believe Vance Smith http://motoplatrepair.tripod.com/index.html can re-magnetize the old flywheel for you.
Thanks,
Kevin