Well, I cleaned up my reed valve and flipped the fiber-glass paddles over. This just about completely sealed the valve. I would suspect 99%. I bought a 185 main jet and pulled out the 188. I reset the air screw, set the float height and the jet needle all back to factory spec. After 4 kicks, it fired up! So I am way far ahead now. Thanx for all the help so far.
Big news now is that I have discovered that the cylinder base gasket is blown. I had noticed that there was some residual oil seepage but didn't inspect it too closely. Upon closer observation, I can clearly see about a .5" gap in the gasket and thats where the oil is seeping from. Guess that doesn't help with my compression OR my starting problems does it?
Finally, the sparkplug in the bike is a B8ES which is NGK's standard economy plug. The manual and NGK's site says BR9EG which is a "racing plug" or the iridium version. The second letter in BR9EG means "resistor type" and as you can see, there is no second letter in the plug that came in the bike. Does this mean it is completely the wrong plug? The heat range is also different. I will be plopping a iridium version in asap.
Cheers
Bernie