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Modern bikes. You have one?
- Thread starter JesseeS
- Start date
2016 Triumph Tiger 800 XRX
Isn't insanity defined and as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Why Yamaha won't install a electric starter on the SR400 is a mystery to me. The bike rags have bitched about the lack of a starter since the bike was introduced.
When I bought my brand new 3 year old SRX600 I got a really good deal because they couldn't figure out how to start it. They got a young kid to make it ready and after a hour and a half he came out and sheepishly admitted he couldn't get it to start . I told him to take me to the bike. A small crowd formed in the back shop as I mounted it to try and start it. Started up on the second kick.
Bottom line. The art of kickstarting has disappeared.
When I bought my brand new 3 year old SRX600 I got a really good deal because they couldn't figure out how to start it. They got a young kid to make it ready and after a hour and a half he came out and sheepishly admitted he couldn't get it to start . I told him to take me to the bike. A small crowd formed in the back shop as I mounted it to try and start it. Started up on the second kick.
Bottom line. The art of kickstarting has disappeared.
Ain't that the truth. But personally, I blame the m/c press not Yamaha. Bought a brand new SR500 in 1979:
Kickstart only, decompressor lever, hell they even provided a little window on the cam box so you could see when the engine was past TDC. Pretty much started first kick every time.
Road-bike sibling of the XT500, the idea was a narrow, light, simple machine. IMO fitting an electric starter would have been wrong - unneeded weight and complexity. But everywhere I went people told me 'Oh yeah, great bike except nobody can start the f**kers.' Not from their personal experience but just because a bunch of know-it-all journalists preferred to jump on the latest 4-cylinder UJM rather than learn the - really very simple - knack of kick starting a single. Shame that killed off so many sales.
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It's a thing among Norton owners to say; sure you can ride it, here's the key. 
Then sit back and watch "the expert" turn into a sweaty lump of pain, before limping away defeated. If they can start it, odds are they're experienced riders, OK to trust with the machine. 
Then sit back and watch "the expert" turn into a sweaty lump of pain, before limping away defeated. If they can start it, odds are they're experienced riders, OK to trust with the machine.
Guy told me once his first bike was an NSU Quickly moped. Used to go down the chip shop of an evening to hang out with his pals. Course, you used to get a lot of older blokes with proper bikes - Kawasaki KH250s or whatever. Bloke would say to them, 'Bet you can't ride my bike!'
Thing was, it had a manual advance retard. Being a moped, he used to start it on the centre stand by pedalling. Retard the ignition far enough, and you could make the engine run backwards by pedalling back wards. Which the big bike heroes never noticed.
Jump on the bike, push it off the stand, big handful to engage the auto clutch, bike shoots backwards and they fall off to general hilarity.
Thing was, it had a manual advance retard. Being a moped, he used to start it on the centre stand by pedalling. Retard the ignition far enough, and you could make the engine run backwards by pedalling back wards. Which the big bike heroes never noticed.
Jump on the bike, push it off the stand, big handful to engage the auto clutch, bike shoots backwards and they fall off to general hilarity.
Had a Benelli 125 (65-ish?). Once and a while it would pop back at you... kick the lever back up and start runnin' backwards. First time it happened I damn near flew over the bars... dropped it. After that, whenever it happened I'd look around for a victim and offer to let 'em ride it. Not many takers after word got out, but was highly entertaining for a while. The thing was it ran like crap backwards, so you'd have to rev the hell out of it just to get it going. I'd tell 'em to just rev it and dump the clutch. All that inertia would guarantee it shooting back.
The bike was an indestructible beater anyway, so.... loads of fun.
Totally agree with that, I had a lot of kick start Japanese bikes in the 70’s and they were easy to start, then in 2004 I bought my first proper British bike, my ‘76 Bonneville. When it was first delivered to me, that was the first time I had ever even sat on one. I did the same thing as that kid you mentioned, I stomped and stomped until my foot felt like it was going to fall off.
It’s all a matter of technique, once you learn it , that was an easy to start bike. I remember this guy I worked with who was born in England and rode bikes, was keenly interested in my Triumph and I asked him if he wanted to ride it, he’d never ridden a classic bike. He was gone so long that I feared he crashed it. When he finally made it back, it turned out he just killed it trying to take off and couldn’t kick it back to life! 
I had an XT500 and it was always a one kick bike, super easy to start. Man I loved that bike! ( not my bike, but mine was exactly like it )
If they can start it, odds are they're experienced riders, OK to trust with the machine.
That was my mantra with my TT500. It was a bear to kick. Much worst than my xt500. I don't car what the specs said. The TT had a lot more compression than any of the XT's that I rode. My standing rule was if you could start it you could ride it anywhere you want. Oddly the only other person that could start it was a friend of mine's wife. Go figure.
I'm enjoying these tails of old bikes. I got my first bike when I was 24 years old and it was a brand new XS650 that still resides with me. (Miss June 2022, thank you) By then, kickers were all but gone. The XS650 is certainly no challenge to kick to life. I wanted a motorcycle, probably from the age of 10, but...
Ya see - ahhhhh tole' ya this would happen. The J4 are bringing back their old models to compete with the Indian Hordes.
Watch for the 2023 Yamaha XS650...hmmmm...what would that be?...Z?
No, that would never do....they'll have to come up with a<nother> new naming convention.
TXB650 ?
A oil cooled 650 would be awesome.
A oil cooled 650 would be awesome.
I like tractors and big jugs.
Too old (and disabled) for racing, fast reaction, high-skill stuff.
Never cared for buzzy, high-revs.
Prefer laid-back scenery gawking, got plenty of time.
Plus, I can't bend my left leg much for long rides.
So, big V-twin foot-forward cruiser it is.
Reliability and minimal/easy maintenance preferred.
2016 Victory Vegas
Too old (and disabled) for racing, fast reaction, high-skill stuff.
Never cared for buzzy, high-revs.
Prefer laid-back scenery gawking, got plenty of time.
Plus, I can't bend my left leg much for long rides.
So, big V-twin foot-forward cruiser it is.
Reliability and minimal/easy maintenance preferred.
2016 Victory Vegas
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I got lucky and found a clean, original 1990 Suzuki VX800 2 miles from my house that had been sitting for years in a heated garage that needed brought back to life (carb clean, sticky calipers, etc.) for a fair price. Great-running bike and fits me well, I like it! Not the bike but identical to this pic from the interwebz.
Attachments
Well back a few months I mentioned I had a 1992 Sportster and was told that would not count. So how about
this:
Actually not mine but wife let me ride it once so far!
this:
Actually not mine but wife let me ride it once so far!
How does it ride? They’re not really my thing but I’ve always wanted to try one out
