Kick Start conversion?

[GeoBloke]

Anyone ever do one on their @? After my moaning about missing my old kick starter, mechie friend of mine has me half convinced I should do it on my @. Just for the novelty of it.

[lootch67]

I'd prefer a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...

[GeoBloke]

You mean compared to the conversion process or having to kickstart your bike?

[anton88]

That would be cool but Jeez - where would you start ?

Is there a blanking plate/hole where you could fit a kickstart on the @ engine?

[GeoBloke]

Dunno. Guess that's what I'm asking: Is it possible? If so, I think it'd be extremely cool. I've had loads of kickers before (including an old Harley that would rip your lower leg off when/if it kicked back) and loved them all.

[Dilbert]

I suspect this would be quite difficult, apart from having to bore a hole in your casing and fit a seal you would probably need to add a bearing to support the kickstart shaft and some way of joining it to the starter input shaft, the gearing of the shaft could be all wrong too.

I suggest getting the fuelling and engine set up right so you don't need to kick it over.

When electric starters first came in vogue (early eighties) they either left the kick starter on as well or just blanked the cover off, so they were possible to back fit, modern bikes have no facility for a kick starter, so I doubt it would be easy or practical to do.
Only way I can think of is to remove the electric starter and bolt a kick starter where the electric one was, this would mean bringing it out to the left hand side of the bike and losing the electric starter altogether

[raymo]

me dr600 is kick start only and has a decompressor.. manual and a secondary on the other exhaust valve operated by a cable to a cam on the kick start segment.. ( yup 600 single 4 valves 2 spark plugs.. one kick start ) would not like to kick over a @.... if it was never designed for one .. cant see ow to convert it ...

[stoo]

me dr600 is kick start only and has a decompressor.. manual and a secondary on the other exhaust valve operated by a cable to a cam on the kick start segment.. ( yup 600 single 4 valves 2 spark plugs.. one kick start ) would not like to kick over a @.... if it was never designed for one .. cant see ow to convert it ...

I think a multi cyl bike would be easier to kick than a big single with no manual decompressor. Smaller cc per cylinder should mean less of a compression bump to get past for each cylinder.

It's why multi cylinder bikes are relatively easy to bump start, but high compression big cc singles are near impossible without the aid of a hill.


I'd think the mechanics of adding a kickstart mechanism to an engine not designed with one in mind, without removing the electric start, would be a pretty nasty job....

[raymo]

I would imagine it would be very much like my BSA 560 to kick-over.. still not the easiest

[raymo]

thats BSA 650... bloody dyslexia again and another thing who made up that spelling for dizlexia.. some sick buggers about...