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On a cold start, she turns over and starts fine with choke lever all the way up / fully on. However, am supposed to push the choke down to detent position after it starts - she dies. Have tried to run for a while with choke fully on; still dies when I move the choke.

It's fairly nice outside (59degF).

Haven't done anything recently (other than change oil a month ago - haven't ran it - and had to drain and tap float bowl due to fuel coming out overflow - tonight).

What to do?

2003 CRF-230F

If you had fuel running out the overflow then your float valve stuck which means your probably have a dirty or gummed up carb.

Since it runs you can try a dose of Seafoam and it might clear up. A much better solution is to clean or replace the pilot jet.

While it sat for the month was the float bowl empty? Was it ethanol gas?

Yes, I guess it contained some ethanol. Don't know if bowl was empty. I drained the bowl via the drain screw. Btw, am I supposed to take seat off etc to get carb off or just loosen band clamps and pull out from the side? Is there enough room from throttle cable to do that? Service manual suggests taking seat and gas tank off before removing carb, but it looks from a video that that isn't required?

Comments on the partial ethanol gas?

Thanks for your time and reply!

You can rotate the carb with the bike together, but for the little effort of removal of seat and tank it makes everything much easier to see.

Ethanol was meant for drinking. It does little for 4 strokes unless you jet for it. Should be banned in any 2 stroke, leaves moisture in crankcase.