352 and Feeling Blue

Here's what is probably the main attraction of the CRF-450X9:
The big (for a bike that's made for some real off-road use, not mainly street use with a dabble of off-road use) engine, and the power that comes with it.
Just behind the CRF-450X9, you can see the WR-250FY, awaiting springtime.

I'm feeling blue because I'm sick today, and I first felt it coming on Saturday morning when I could feel a sore throat festering itself when I woke up.
Sometime, I get lucky and nothing more comes of it and the sore throat goes away.
Not this time, as I now have a typical cold, and that means a couple of days of sniffling nose and sore throat and less-easy sleeping.
I wonder who breathed on me. ;)

I went riding yesterday out on the ol' Pachaug enduro loop, but it wasn't a normal day of riding out there.
This is mainly because the weather didn't turn out as predicted, and it seemed to take forever for the temperature to get above freezing.
I waited until the last possible minute, and didn't get to the usual unloading spot until 3:45pm.
That gave me about 45 minutes of riding before dusk, and since I also felt sick, I stayed away from any water on the ground, not wanting to get my feet wet.
This also allowed the bike to stay very clean, and because of that, I didn't have to wash it when I got home after sunset, and this also kept me from getting wet.
That's something to consider when it's in the upper 30s for a temperature and you're already feeling sick at the time. ;)

The trade-off with this riding strategy is that the route I rode was on the short and boring side since I stayed mainly on the street (which bypassed the wet portions), the dirt roads within the state forest (that are tame enough to drive a car down), and just one actual trail which I knew would be dry.
It was a 20-mile ride all told, so that's a fair bit shorter than the typical 55-or-so miles.
In all honesty, it was just barely worth it, but, I did get to do some nice-feeling wheelies and power slides while on the bike. :)

Also, I got to get more familiar with the new-to-me CRF-450X9, and honestly, not every feeling I get is good or positive.
A nagging problem I've been having since nearly day one is that the electric starter does not want to crank the engine over at certain times, and it is usually when I'm starting the engine for the first time that day.
Yesterday when I got the bike unloaded, got all suited-up, plopped myself on the seat, and hit the starter button, the engine barely moved before the starter motor refused to turn the crankshaft any further.
I then used the kickstart lever to turn the engine over a couple of times, hit the starter button again, and this time the engine cranked over and started running.
I've load tested the battery (which tested 100% A-OK), tried a second battery, cleaned where the main ground wire attaches to the engine crankcase, and the problem still persists.

I have read about other CRF-450X riders on message boards having trouble with similar problems.
That is:
The electric starter not starting the bike every time you ask it too.
Hopefully, I'll someday discover the reason for this and correct it.
The only things I can think of right now are that maybe the starter motor, itself, needs to be repaired (maybe worn or cooked brushes), or that the automatic decompressor built into the camshaft is leaving too much compression pressure in the combustion chamber while starting the bike (which seems unlikely to me, in all honesty).

All I can say right now is thank God the engine has always started once I get it running and warmed-up.
Looks like my share of legendary Honda reliability needs a bit of an adjustment. ;)
Hope nobody takes offense to that statement because, after all, I did buy it with my own hard-earned and feel I have a right to write what's going on with the bike.

At least it's fun to ride once running. ;)

Off to jerk,
-John

Edit:

Seems that the bike could be suffering from too much compression pressure while starting, after all.
While surfing message boards about Honda CRF-450Xs that act like mine does, I found out that American Honda actually had issued a recall and matching Service Bulletin a couple of years ago which were used to repair 2008 and 2009 CRF-450X models that were having this problem.
What takes place while performing this recall repair is that stronger parts are installed into the camshaft, parts that actuate the automatic decompressor feature while starting the engine.
If this automatic decompressor isn't working properly due to bent parts, the starter motor will have a tough time getting the engine turned over.
These new, stronger parts are supposed to resist bending and end any hard-to-crank-over issues.

Hmmm.
Ain't the Internet neat-o?

Looks like my local Honda motorcycle dealer, the very place I work for a living, may be performing the recall on my CRF-450X9 in the near future.
Either that, or I'll just get the parts and special tools needed and do it myself.
With any luck, this will return my fair share of legendary Honda reliability. :)