How To Kick Start a Motorbike.

 by Steamdnt
This is my first burning questions entry on how to start a 1977 Suzuki RV 125 trail/Road bike. We acquired this bike from a farmer, who was selling his farm and moving into Edmonton to live out his retirement . time my Father At that time my Father had owned a machine shop and had a reputation of taking on almost any job and completing it. Said farmer drives up to the shop suzuki crotch rocket in the back of his pickup. Goes in and says "I'll give you three motorbikes if you can start mine" of coarse we said yes, he wheels the bike in and my father looks at it, kicks it over, nothing, again nothing, he turns on the electric start the motorbike putses, pops then stops. He says to the farmer, come back in three hours. Three hours later the farmer walks back in expecting that the bike was doomed. My father Stands up from his desk and says "finally come here" He walks over to the bike turns on the ignition, gas and kill, hits the electric start and it starts and runs fine.I turns out the points needed to be adjusted.
This bike when we got it, was not running, the handlebars had been bent in half,and the turn signals had been knocked off.
We got the parts from a local wrecker and the only thing wrong with the engine was that it had the wrong sized piston in it and the exhaust pipe was broken.
 
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Step 1: Disengage the Kill Switches

Turn the Key to the second click like you would on a car , Then on the right hand handle bar turn on the secondary engine kill.
2 stroke says: Sep 25, 2011. 12:40 PM
i must ask where is your bikes fuel tank lol
One. says: Mar 12, 2011. 7:20 PM
my honda crf100: pull clutch, kick motor.

good instructable, too, my friend oscar has an old suzuki, he took off the exhaust and it sounds insane : )
Rishnai says: Jul 24, 2008. 11:33 PM
Good advice. I'm going to have to post "How to kick-start a bike with a manual spark advance" sometime. It's an art, and when you do it wrong (and stifflegged--which you shouldn't be doing, in case it kicks back), the motor can throw you clean over the handlebars. Not cool in front of your girlfriend.
Steamdnt (author) in reply to RishnaiNov 24, 2008. 8:17 PM
OHH, i just had a bad experience with a friends bike, I kicked it, Didn't do it right, and it started in reverse, without me knowing, and when i tried to take off, well, you get it.
uglymike says: Jul 22, 2008. 6:18 PM
An extra note. If your bike has an automatic decompression device (fairly common on larger singles) you can use it to find the "sweet spot" for kick starting. Slowly and gently push the kick starter. It will start to give some resistance as compression builds in the cylinder. Then it will go very soft as the decompresser opens the exhaust valve. Now your right at the beginning of the intake stroke, the optimum spot to kick-start. It takes some time to get the "feel" for this, but once you get it you'll amaze all you friends by getting your bike to start on the first kick, every time.
Steamdnt (author) in reply to uglymikeJul 23, 2008. 3:08 PM
Thanks, but most of the time it starts in one kick anyways. Its a pretty tough bike for a 41 year old!
skunkbait in reply to SteamdntJul 25, 2008. 11:16 PM
Don't make it old before it's time! It's 31 years old. I'm a '71 model, and I'm only 36.
Steamdnt (author) in reply to skunkbaitJul 26, 2008. 3:20 PM
I calculated wrong your are correct.
uglymike in reply to SteamdntJul 23, 2008. 7:56 PM
HaHa you're so old! You were in kindergarten when I was born.
Steamdnt (author) in reply to uglymikeJul 25, 2008. 8:11 AM
On the contrary I am only 13. We got the bike only a couple years back
uglymike in reply to SteamdntJul 25, 2008. 5:22 PM
Oh. It's the bike thats 41. D'oh
Rishnai says: Jul 22, 2008. 4:22 PM
One addition to starting it in neutral: hold the clutch in while you start it. Sometimes neutrals are a little squirrely, especially on old bikes.
skunkbait says: Jul 22, 2008. 9:54 AM
Dude! Awesome job on this ible! I'm writing a similar one, but you set the bar pretty high. Also, we added this ible to the Scooter Trash Community favorites. Great job!
Steamdnt (author) in reply to skunkbaitJul 22, 2008. 10:55 AM
Thanks It took almost a week to get the right pictures.
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