Two Stroke Motocross
Two Stroke Motocross Forum => Vintage Two Strokes => Topic started by: JETZcorp on April 30, 2010, 03:28:37 PM
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Welcome to the great kickstarter debate/discussion/thing. At the veiled recommendation of TMKIWI, I'm making this thread in here because it's come up a couple of times and I'm curious to see what people think. I think you all know that I'm a left-side kick guy, but I think it's reasonable to say that most riders aren't, considering that just about everything aside from Maico runs right-side. So, let me know what you think, and hopefully we'll all understand each other and flowers will bloom worldwide, only to be thrown skyward by a fresh Metzler.
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Ok,so I voted left.The main reason is that my Berg had a ls kick and I preferred that simply because of my RM hip.(So called because while riding my rm I had my rt leg out and went down and dislocated it.)If my right hip still worked good,I'd go for rs kick however.
Failing that,foot clutch and hand suicide shift ;)
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I want a mind controlled electric start... just because I'm too lazy to push a button. :P :P :P Yeah I know it'll be complicated and expensive... probably will stop working and no one will be able to fix it... then they'll run a CAT scan and find out that I stopped thinking....
Oh yeah... back to the "debate" who the hell cares what side it's on? As long as the bike starts!! I've had both and did not give it much thought either way.... only takes a couple of times to get used to either one.... unless you stall your bike alot.
I'd imagine that most racers would prefer a right hand kick.. only because if they stall in a race, they can swing out the lever and kick without getting off and then on the bike....
Imagine something along the lines of a Chinese fire drill... how fast can you start your bike with the least amount of movement?
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I've had a couple left kick KTM's and many right kick Japanese. I prefer right kick, but the fact that I have permanent nerve damage in my left leg from two back surgeries might have something to do with me not liking left kick bikes.
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When I first saw the results at the top of the page I was going to insist immediately that whoever voted "electric start" should be thrown off the forum immediately for being a wuss!
However having read the third post maybe that's not such a good idea! :-[
Oh and as for the vote, I'm equally at ease with either.
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When I first saw the results at the top of the page I was going to insist immediately that whoever voted "electric start" should be thrown off the forum immediately for being a wuss!
However having read the third post maybe that's not such a good idea! :-[
Oh and as for the vote, I'm equally at ease with either.
Yes but mine has to be mind controlled!! LMAO :P :P :P :o :-* :-*
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I've got steel in both my legs so I'll go with electric start (and use the battery for DFI).
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Did you know that brp's DI is a battery less system ?
But of cause you need one for electric start.
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BRP's snowmobile DI is estart,and reverse which simply puts the engine 180' out and runs backwards 8)
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As a kid I had a Sachs powered trials bike ( a Saracen - the orange "thing" on "On Any Sunday") that , if it stalled near the top of a steep climb,would sometimes suddenly fire up backwards back down the hill with me hanging on for dear life!
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My dad has a story about that. He was talking with a friend who had a Yamaha 250MX (this is before the YZ was created) and they were about to take off on a ride. He kicks the Yammie a few times, then it goes "kerBANG!" and then starts running normally. Weird. Well, it wasn't that loud of a bike so they exchange a few words about where they're going. The guy pulls in the clutch, leans his chin over the front fender, revs the bike up and dumps the clutch for a big impressive roost. The bike shoots backward with a big impressive roost, throwing him over the bars instantly and leaving the bike to flop over onto the ground. Total time from clutch-popped to everything being still was about half a second. Apparently, the bike kicked back with enough force to start the motor backward. Being a two-stroke, which doesn't know or care if it's running forward or back, everything seemed normal after the first kerBANG.
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I had a '76 Husky 360wr and being a little on the short side it was easier to stand beside it to kick it over than it is straddling the seat of my '89 YZ490, but on a shorter bike it is convenient to just flip out the kick lever and go
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I agree, on a very low bike right-side kick is nice to have. I have no complaints with the position of the starter on my Kawasaki. But I would hate to deal with having to start AND straddle a bike 40" high at the seat. It would be like playing soccer whilst giving birth to a walrus, compared to the stand-next-to-it approach.
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I stand about 6' 4" tall, so no worries about on or off the bike for me.... :P :P
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So I guess it's pretty well decided right side kicks preferred, so now how many of you have had a right hand shifter and what do you think about that?
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That would mess me up pretty bad. I already have enough trouble with the 120 and the way it shifts. It was made before there was that big agreement about the shifting order. So instead of 1-N-2-3-4, it goes 4-3-2-1-N-4-3-2-1-N-4-3-2-1-N etc. You can shift directly from neutral into fourth, and fourth into neutral. And, to shift up, you push the shifter down, hence the reverse ordering above. It's really nice when you're banging through the gears, 'cause you can just stomp your foot a couple of times rather than trying to thread it in there. But, on a hill it's just vicious. You keep thinking, "Am I in first? I don't want to check, because if I am, I'll go to neutral and just stop." And when you're on a fast road, you think, "Am I in fourth? Let's try another gear." WIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG "Okay, there's neutral, so I was in fourth!" The only think it's really good for is compression-starting the bike at 45mph. Oh, you'll impress the hell out of people with that one.
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One time when I was young I was riding a friends Bultaco (R/H shift), flying down a straight away and up pops the 90 degree flat turn, I stomped and the shifter with my right foot and was dancing on the brake with my left foot trying to downshift... blasted straight off the edge of the trail through the orchard :o
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Oh yeah, we're talking around '74 or so Bultaco 350 Alpine I think.
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I had no idea they were backwards as late as that.
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Bike may have been slightly earlier year but was definitely a early 70's vintage, oh and it was actually an Alpina,
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When we were kids my dad would drag home every old bike under the sun and we would fix it and ride it.At one point we had a Ossa, Ducati, Bridgestone ,Bultaco and a Sachs. Some shifted up, some down, some on the right and some on the left. After a while we could move from bike to bike without a problem, roaring around the neighbourhood.
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I have a very strange kicker set up on one of my bikes. I cut the center cases and I mounted the kicker in the MIDDLE of the engine. Yes, this is a middle kicker, that way lefties and righties cannot complain. It is a bit hard to get your foot between the carb, the gas tank, the monoshock and the frame but its doable. Every once in a while you brake your ankle when it you get a kick back and your foot is lodged between the monoshock and the frame.
A lot of people I talked to actually prefered it because it makes them feel like Jackie Chan. When the big bore is cold you can actually get in a few push ups while attempting to kick it over as the side ways superman is one of the easier positions to be in while using the middle kick. One of the guys I know was a quite a whimp and he takes off the carb, then kicks the bike over and puts the carb back on. He's got thick thighs I guess.
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Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Make the starter such that it can fold out either way, so that it's exactly like a right-side kick, or a left-side. It'd be a hell of an engineering pain, but I think it might be possible. Way too much trouble than it's worth, but possible.
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The old BMW boxers had a kickstart that pivoted out of the side of the motor.
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It does'nt really matter too much to me as long as the bike starts but if I have to pick left or right side I'll have to go with left side like those good ol' German bikes use to have!However I don't think I'll be disconnecting the E-start on my KTM anytime soon either!!! ;)
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Don't forget the awesome Swedish bikes with the L/H kick starter ;D and I found out the '75 Alpina could be changed from L/H shift to R/H shift ???
"Like the rest of the 1975 Bultacos, the Alpina now comes standard with a left-foot shift and right-side braking, but. . .the design of the rear hub and the continuation of the shifter shaft through both sides of the engine will allow anyone who prefers it the old way the option of making an easy switch back. That's neat."
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Man, the clever engineering solutions they come up with these days... no wait, that's not right.
Man, the clever engineering solutions they came up with those days! There, that's better.
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Then again, my 1972 Yamaha 125 AT2 had the obligatory Japanese R/H kick starter but it also had an electric starter. This is what it looked like before I turned it into an off-roader
(http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/images/thumb/c/ce/1972-Yamaha-AT2-Orange-1169-0.jpg/300px-1972-Yamaha-AT2-Orange-1169-0.jpg)