My goodness this sub forum is nowhere as busy as my beloved Yamaha XT sub forum.

Nevertheless I need some advice from those of you with a better understanding of all things mechanical.

My newly acquired 2004 Triumph Bonneville is a low mileage (4,000 mile) minter. It looks lovely BUT it does not start well.

It's currently laid up for the winter in my warm dry garage. I tried to start it up today but had great difficulty doing so. I had to press the button up to 20 times before it coughed into life. I experimented with the choke and it eventually fired up on full choke. If I tried to open it up during this process it just died.

I appreciate it's not always a good idea to start the engine up when in storage. I'm also aware of fuel issues. The fuel tank contains recent fuel (1 month old).

I always allow the carbs to run dry before putting it into winter storage.

My question is -

Is it normal for the Triumph Bonneville to have starting difficulty? My understanding is that it normally fires up instantly.

I don't trust that the bike has been properly serviced or maintained. The idiot I bought it from had stored in in the garage for over a year without protecting the chrome wheels with WD40, result rusty rims. He obviously had more money than sense. He did tell me it was serviced in July last year but said he had lost the paperwork.

I did not get any history with the bike - He lost it all in just over a year.

When I bought the bike, I noticed his son (a proby Copper) enjoyed tinkering with the carb settings on his own bike (a rusty knackered old Fazer 600).

The seller and his son literally laughed at me when I started to clean the brake disks with a cloth (I was looking for a older low mileage minter as I knew this would get me a bargain). After seeing the rust on the wheel rims, I knocked him down from £3,800 to £3,000. It does annoy me when a seller can't be bothered to even clean what they are selling. His loss - I got a bargain due to his laziness.

The battery had been recently changed but the battery strap was missing (replaced now).

By the way, I only paid £3,000 cash for the bike which seemed a good price for a sub 4,000 mile bike.

No doubt the bike is a good one apart from rust on wheel rims. Everything else is now immaculate (due to hours of cleaning, polishing and getting rid of surface rust).

I suppose the best option will be to service the bike properly?

Is there anything in particular I need to check or adjust such as the carb balancing etc?

Any advice gladly accepted....

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Triumph Bonneville 800 (2004), Yamaha XT600E (1999), Honda XBR500 (1986).