How the fuck... do You kick start this bike?

[1977 bastard]

Hi All! might be my first post, not sure.
Anyway, I had an xs 650 back in the eighties, various other more modern motorcycles for the last thirty years, now I'm back with my first love. Question,

How the hell do you kick start these bastards? I never was good at it with my old XS, I'd usually just push start it, because it was so easy.

uh, important stuff,
75 xs650, banshee permanent magnet, 19.99 ignition system, no battery, capaciter/ no starter. new top end.
Using 2-1 ceramic manifold from,,, forgot, he's on here though, and a mikuni 36mm carb.

all the ignition has just been gone through and re-checked/re-wired/replaced. My buddies, who all ride kick start only bikes can start this bike with one or two kicks, while I wheez and kick and kick and kick and bitch and kick......

School me please.

Every sensible reply is based on your bike being near factory- stock condition
The further the bastardation of your bike the less reliable and more inconsistent it starting procedure will be.
Cheers
Tampered, modified, chopped and F×d up bikes are lost to idiots, be forewarned.

 

[650Skull]

Great first Post............Check the dates your a bit late to the

 

[1977 bastard]

Yes, I know, I appreciate your effort to wake me, but I prefer to live In the past where carbs were carbs and riders had greasy fingers, little money, and paper maps.

Happy New Year, 1979 is gonna be great!

 

[nj1639]

Hey Pip! Is that Miss Havershams' wedding banquet table?

 

[650Skull]

Yes, I know, I appreciate your effort to wake me, but I prefer to live In the past where carbs were carbs and riders had greasy fingers, little money, and paper maps.

Happy New Year, 1979 is gonna be great!

No i was making you aware that spiders inhabit that time line

If you think the guys/girls/riders on here don't get their hands dirty or use paper manuals anymore. Then get your info, or communicate with the spiders, from 12 year old threads, when there was only 20% of the information about XS650s was known, compared to today's info posted.

Hey Pip! Is that Miss Havershams' wedding banquet table?

Yep

 

[jetmechmarty]

Happy New Year, 1979 is gonna be great!

BTW, I still carry paper maps on my bike.

 

[Beags64]

BTW, I still carry paper maps on my bike.

Me too

 

[Adamc]

BTW, I still carry paper maps on my bike.

I love paper maps and have many ordinance survey maps of rivers that I like to fish. They also show good biking roads too!

 

[gggGary]

Hey @1977 bastard Welcome to the madhouse. Don't mind skull He's a grumpy old codger, but a font of knowledge.
Um you aren't REALLY a member here til we see pics of your girlfriend bike

 

[1977 bastard]

No i was making you aware that spiders inhabit that time line

If you think the guys/girls/riders on here don't get their hands dirty or use paper manuals anymore. Then get your info, or communicate with the spiders, from 12 year old threads, when there was only 20% of the information about XS650s was known, compared to today's info posted.

Yep

Hahahaha, this gets juicier and juicier.
Wow, such defensive behavior !
Im not hating on anyone's skills...but for gawds sake let's be honest, the last 20 yrs have served to make idiot travelers of us all.
As Dylan said...You go your way and I'll go mine...
Calm...the ..F...down

 

[650Skull]

No worries 77 Bastard.............all good

 

[grizld1]

Welcome, bastard. Paper maps, yes. On one 650 Society Ozarks Rally ride, our technophile leader didn't know where we were when his GPS failed. I said nothing and handed him a map from my tank bag. Nobody else had thought to bring one.

Even when GPS works it takes the fun out of exploration. I hate 'em worse than I hate smart phones, and that qualifies as serious Luddite rage.

 

[gggGary]

Welcome, bastard. Paper maps, yes. On one 650 Society Ozarks Rally ride, our technophile leader didn't know where we were when his GPS failed. I said nothing and handed him a map from my tank bag. Nobody else had thought to bring one.

Even when GPS works it takes the fun out of exploration. I hate 'em worse than I hate smart phones, and that qualifies as serious Luddite rage.

Haven't had a GPS yet that didn't send me on an "adventure" route at least a time or two.............

 

[kshansen]

Haven't had a GPS yet that didn't send me on an "adventure" route at least a time or two.............

Have the same problem with GPS. I think sometimes they will send you a strange way to get some place because it is maybe 2 feet shorter but takes three more turns! But they can be helpful when going someplace you know nothing about. Then again if you have no idea how to get someplace how would you know the route is stupid that they use?

 

[Mailman]

Haven't had a GPS yet that didn't send me on an "adventure" route at least a time or two..........

The last ten years I worked at the post office I was in building maintenance, but they never forgot that I was a mail carrier before that. So every Christmas I would get pressed into service delivering parcels. Since I was being bounced around all over, I found the fastest way to locate a destination was often my GPS on my phone. More than once it led me to a dead end and said. “ You have arrived at your destination.”

Way before I worked for the post office I was driving all over the Phoenix metro area and all it’s surrounding suburbs for this company I worked for. I was using city street maps, that come in a binder like a big book.
One night I had to drive from Tempe to Scottsdale, both are large modern cities, all the main roads required a big looping path, but I noticed there was a lone road that was almost a straight shot between them , so I took it.
About 5 miles in the nice paved road turned to rough dirt. I was driving a large heavy unreliable water truck, I pressed on. That’s when I saw that I was that I was about to pass through a native Indian village, it was a cluster of single room hogans with dirt floors and no window or doors, just blankets draped over the openings.

There were groups of men, women and children milling about outside. It was like stepping back in time 150 years. I didn’t realize that this road took me straight through Indian reservation land. They are famously unfriendly to outsiders and I just about choked when I realized where I was. People have been known to disappear out here, they are a nation within a nation and they are the law out here. Every eye in the village was on me , nothing I could do but press on, the going was slow, the road was in bad shape and the truck was heavy. After about twenty miles I popped out right in the heart of beautiful Scottsdale and thought to myself, these people have no idea what’s just outside of their comfortable homes!

 

[gggGary]

these people have no idea what’s just outside of their comfortable homes!

Sure they do, Tempte and Scottsdale. And for good reason they want nothing to do with either.

 

[motormike]

Hi All! might be my first post, not sure.
Anyway, I had an xs 650 back in the eighties, various other more modern motorcycles for the last thirty years, now I'm back with my first love. Question,

How the hell do you kick start these bastards? I never was good at it with my old XS, I'd usually just push start it, because it was so easy.

uh, important stuff,
75 xs650, banshee permanent magnet, 19.99 ignition system, no battery, capaciter/ no starter. new top end.
Using 2-1 ceramic manifold from,,, forgot, he's on here though, and a mikuni 36mm carb.

all the ignition has just been gone through and re-checked/re-wired/replaced. My buddies, who all ride kick start only bikes can start this bike with one or two kicks, while I wheez and kick and kick and kick and bitch and kick......

School me please.

I went to push..bump start my 450 Ducati...... can you say.... sheared wood ruff key. ? Aaaaaargh

 

[Jan_P]

Yes Sir

these people have no idea what’s just outside of their comfortable homes!

Or Air Conditioned Office ...Strictly speaking there should be a law that Bank People and so should have a
weekend on an XS650 +No Credit card + No GPS + No electric starter.
I think that it was Dick Cheney -- " Lets get back to Reality "

On

How the hell do you kick start these bastards? I never was good at it with my old XS, I'd usually just push start it, because it was so easy.

Your friends can do it so I assume them being big boys ...If lighter the trick is to put the body weight behind it.
Try ignition off test different choke and throttle positions move the kick to the position where the compression give resistance
turn ignition on
The other foot on the foot peg or ground depending on if this happens on the side stand or central stand
Then you jump upwards so the right leg is more or less straight still foot on the kick. all the time.
On the way down ... with the body mass falling down .you kick it with the leg muscles .
Pay attention so the leg is not fully straight doing this. .Because should it backfire you can get hurt or airborne should it backfire
Like a poor quality switch blade knife without locking mechanism that has a normal opening and closing possibility
It folds again if forces act upon it ..if locked something else must give . On motorcycles the knee perhaps

If the motorcycle is well kept and serviced the leg only and even with the arm can do it If compression is not so good
But as Mr Sutton put it A piece of leather or rubber between the teeth and put some effort into it might be necessary.

If it don't start first 3 kicks it is getting increasingly difficult ..Because unburnt fuel makes it more difficult.
Switch off ignition take a break .. For a moment ... Taking a breather half a minute or so
and then go all in on the next try. Rubber + Leather

 

[Tinker Taylor]

@Mailman you could at least have watered their dirt patch as you drove through.
'TT'

 

[Grimly]

How the hell do you kick start these bastards? I never was good at it with my old XS, I'd usually just push start it, because it was so easy.

I dropped the starter out of mine so it's kickstart-only until I get around to rebuilding the carb.
I rapidly found the way of the kick, and only nearly dislocated my ankle once or twice.
Given that I was brought up with kickstart bikes, it was a lost art but rediscovered.
Ignition off, choke on, give it a kick over.
Ratchet the kick lever until it's just coming up on compression on one of the cylinders.
Ignition on, foot on the lever, give it hell. Don't pansy around, else it will eat your foot.
Brooommmm....

I should mention that my 79 GS850 has a kickstart and it's a sheer delight to start, with no vices. It's like kicking a marshmallow. Comes from four smaller cylinders and tamer timing, I suppose.