Kickstart bend for Tarozzi rearsets?

Well, as part of my attempts to turn my ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, I dug deep and bought horribly expensive but rather lovely Tarozzi folding pegs. As the product info says
"NOTE: Kick start cannot
be used with this kit
unless kick start lever
is heated and bent."
So no surprises here:



I thought I'd be clever and found an SR500 kickstart on Fleabay - it's already got a crank bend in it so maybe that would be enough, and I wouldn't need to resort to nastiness on a perfectly good kicker, but no .......



So, has anyone done this for these pegs and can share a pic or two before I resort to heat and violence on one of these two? Any advice, because it looks like a pretty sharp bend to make?
Thanks - Cliff

Ya, it's tricky with rearsets and the kickstarter on these bikes. There are three options that I can offer, all kind of suck, but it's what I've found in my attempt to do the same as you.

1) Find a set of rearsets that is folding like you have, but where the pedal/lever is straight vs. kicked out at an angle (Or bend your rearset lever back a bit). Regardless, the tip of the toe pad may still clip the kicker a bit, so that may be an issue...as well as the brake lever may not clear the nuts that hold the rearset on as a product of it being straight. Sucks, right??

2) Come up with a quick release for the rearset, so that you can release it from the brake actuator and let the lever dangle straight down, which in-turn will allow the kickstarter to clear the entire assembly. This requires a little pre-kick process, where you pull a pin, or whatever you come up with, prior to kicking it. And then re-assembly when started up.

3) Don't use the kicker at all...and stick with the e-starter.

For me, I went with # 2, but only use it if the e-starter doesn't work. I have a 6mm bolt connecting brake rod and brake lever, just like you do, but instead of a nut, I added a washer and drilled the bolt to accept a small hitch-pin R clip. It's a tight fit to minimize the slop, and when I pull the hitch pin/washer and the bolt. The brake lever rotates down and the kicker works as it should. Putting back together takes a few seconds, and I'm off. But again it's not ideal and I can see how easy it might be to lose parts on the side of the road...nor do I use it frequently...in fact I don't think I have kicked the bike over in about a year. But knowing I can use the kicker in a pinch gives me piece of mind and no issues with this system and braking power or functionality. I have had it on my bike for 3+ yrs now.

If there are other options, I would be open to hearing them...but so far, this is what I have.

Thanks, Brassneck. All workable ideas, however ....
1 As these are brand new, I'm reluctant to try and modify them but may need to resort to that.
2 I hadn't thought of that. Good idea and will, I think, be my option of last resort.
3 Really don't want to do this - I only use the electric boot rarely and don't want to rely on it.

Heiden Tuning sell a kicker for use with rearsets but I'm not clear if it would do the trick and anyway, it's yet another pile of cash. I think heat and bend will be the way to go but it would be nice to see something that's proven to work. Surely somebody's done this?

I’m interested to see how you overcome this issue as it’s one that I’m due to face soon.

I’ve seen the one Heiden sells, it is quite pricey though and I think I would me more inclined to heat & bend.

Watching.

nighthog said:

Well, as part of my attempts to turn my ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, I dug deep and bought horribly expensive but rather lovely Tarozzi folding pegs. As the product info says
"NOTE: Kick start cannot
be used with this kit
unless kick start lever
is heated and bent."
So no surprises here:
I thought I'd be clever and found an SR500 kickstart on Fleabay - it's already got a crank bend in it so maybe that would be enough, and I wouldn't need to resort to nastiness on a perfectly good kicker, but

So, has anyone done this for these pegs and can share a pic or two before I resort to heat and violence on one of these two? Any advice, because it looks like a pretty sharp bend to make?
Thanks - Cliff

Click to expand...

It looks to me like moving the pegs forward a bit, or maybe 2 inches back, could make it work with the SR500 kicker. This may require some drilling or other machining, alternatively new plates.

Thanks, nice thought but I don't have any machining facilities beyond a hand-held drill! At present I think bending the SR500 kicker some more will be the way to go but I'm still open to ideas, of course.

You may be able to find a folding toe peg?

I was able to get my kick start lever to clear my toe peg but it isn’t the same kit as you got. I used a SR500 kickstart like you already mentioned and had to get the level of the toe peg just right. However my toe lever arm on my old school speed midsets is straight where your appears to angle out. I guess you could bend that but if it was me I’d want to maintain integrity of a nice kit I just bought.

Brassneck said:

You may be able to find a folding toe peg?

Click to expand...

I actually like this idea and may end up using it myself @Brassneck

This is how we do in France, we bend the kick using an hydraulic press.
But from your picture, I guess it won't be enough.

Anyone ever try an extension on the kick shaft itself? Or would that be getting into too much radial load on the bearing/shaft? Just a thought.

Well, as it happened, a Very Kind Person Indeed helped me out with exactly such a device:




It needed a little dressing of the splines with a needle file, and grinding some away so the clamp bolt could do its thing




And here's where we are now. It's certainly helped, but it's electric start only for now until I get a chance to apply the heat+violence. Hopefully that won't be toooooo much longer.


It's a marathon, not a sprint

Wasn't sure how far out that was going to get you, looks like there's still going have to be a fairly serious bend to clear. Fingers crossed

Here we go then, I finally got it sorted. I started by working on the SR500 kicker and bent it to clear the brake, but it left the pedal out a loooong way, far too far for my liking

Then I had the idea of visiting a blacksmith. Wiltshire is quite rural and there are a number of them around, one in my own town as I discovered. Went to see them this morning - amazing what oxy acetylene, a forge and a press can achieve!
Here's my shite SR bend and the 'amended' standard kicker

And how it looks on the bike

It actually works better than this pic suggests


This afternoon I dropped it off at a plating works for rechroming.
Fundamental problem of course is that the lever should have been designed with a flip-up end to match the flip-up peg. I guess that's far too rational, but hey, we got there in the end.

Where did you acquire the kickstart lever extension adapter?

The extension was a one-off very kindly provided by one of our number on this site. I'm sure you'll understand that it's not really for me to say who as he might not want it known, but if he does I'm sure he'll make his presence felt.

nighthog said:

The extension was a one-off very kindly provided by one of our number on this site. I'm sure you'll understand that it's not really for me to say who as he might not want it known, but if he does I'm sure he'll make his presence felt.

Click to expand...

No worries saying where the extension came from, made it for a couple reasons. First off to try and hep out a follow member but also to see if I could even pull it off. So I guess that makes you the "European R&D Dept." Cliff.

Beags64 said:

No worries saying where the extension came from, made it for a couple reasons. First off to try and hep out a follow member but also to see if I could even pull it off. So I guess that makes you the "European R&D Dept." Cliff.

Click to expand...

@Beags64 I think you have a market for that design. I would definitely buy one and be an American test dummy. My SR500 kickstart lever barely clears my mid set toe peg, but at the expense of a little comfort since I have to set it a notch lower.