MT Riders Club

as i am now working towards an MT and after hearing of kickstart/shin problems, i decided to try utube for a visual show of kick starting an MT500. there is a guy that does barefoot starting on one. is he a member anyway, seeing as im 24 months short of 50 years i was brought up on kick start, i am wondering if the MT500 is harder to kick over that the average large thumper or, absolutely no disrespect, is it the younger(lucky people) crew that were perhaps used to the electric start bikes.
all asked with respect.

Compression wise, I would say its easier than most 500 singles, certainly no harder than some 250s'.
But more awkward due to the left hand kicker, once a technique is mastered, they are easy.

i dont find it difficult at all ...i use my right foot and stand to the left hand side of the bike , i have on occasion when stalling at traffic lights used my left foot but i prefer my right

hi,

as said, when you get the technique its ok, i persevered with my left foot, only for those stalling times, at traffic lights, roundabouts. as for the amount of pressure on the kickstart
i do not find it to bad. i'm catching you up rapidly in years and start mine easily(most of the time)

regards

george

hi i put bike on centerstand right leg put kick start about half way down after bringing her just over compression 1 sharp kick or two and she's a way Dave.

Very difficult for the first 11 years! Now its set up right its a doddle (most of the time )!

joejoe

this is good, thanks guys.

Id only kicked left footers until i got an enfield... i couldnt kick that for ages!!! So it is what you get used to. It really does come down to knowing your bike. My Husky 510 was a bitch, but i adjusted the mixture screw a tiny bit and it kicked 1st or second boot from then on!!

Pete

Not!

Two reasons most find it hard.
Poor setup of valves/carb/etc, (if it takes more than 4 kicks cold you're doing something wrong or it beds a service and proper setup)
People to used to electric start/not used to left kick start.
I've had tuned 125 strokers that are harder to kick over.

Same way lots of people say these are heavy, when I bought mine I wondered if there was something wrong with it as it was so light but I guess if you're used to modern small capacity dirt bikes then they are heavy.

Good engine and carb set up, and regular use are the main factors with the bike. For the person kicking, it's all in the preparation and not just stabbing at it.

Supposed to be able to see the white mark in the window, but from using them when they were in the Army, getting the right feel for the compression was all that was needed.

Although it's a 500 single, as standard, it's not particularly high compression.

Not just the young ones that like the button