How to Kick Start a Motorcycle.

by pulsed

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Intro: How to Kick Start a Motorcycle.

Kickstarting a motorcycle isnt as easy as it looks.So ive created an instructable to show you how to start two different bikes.

STEP 1: Put the Bike in Neutral.

Depress the clutch and shift into first gear.Then gently raise the shifter until you feel a slight "click" if you can move the bike around its in neutral

STEP 2: Turn the Petcock.

Set the petcock to on.

STEP 3: Choke.

turn on the choke if your bike has one.It will be located on the carb.

STEP 4: Start It!

pull out the the kick starter and quickly push down until the bike starts.Rev the bike a few times then turn the choke off rev it a few more times or until it will idle.

STEP 5: The Beast.

If you have a larger bike like a 200 or 450 (the honda 150r also applies) The bike ma have a hot start.Basically it reduces compression so its not as hard to start.On the 450 you couldnt start it without the hot start.So follow the same steps as the othe bike but while kicking the bike hold thee hot start until it fires up.It should be located over the clutch.Ride safely and have fun!

36 Comments

whipit85 15 years ago

a hot start doesn't lower compression, it lets cool air into the carb, rather than the warm air from the heat of the bike, the cool air cool the cylinder enough to that it starts easier, when the motor is cool they serve no point.

wobbler 12 years ago

A hot start doesn't let cool air into the carb rather than hot from the heat of a bike air. The air to the carb is always coming from the same place. What a hot start does is vary the richness of the fuel entering the cylinders a appropriate for starting a hot engine and actually adds more air to the mixture, making it more lean. A cold engine requires a richer fuel mixture to start (hence the choke lever). The hot start lever is like a choke in reverse.

However, big bikes, especially big single cylinder bikes, are hard to turn over as at the top of the stroke there is a lot of back force from the compression in the cylinder. So, big bikes have compression release levers, which lift the exhaust valves slightly and make it easier to get the piston to the top of its stroke. The lever is then released and the bike then kick started from the optimum position..

mattoverby 3 years ago

Your kind of right.. the hot start actually just opens the throttle a little.
And not all bikes have decompression valves.

wobbler 3 years ago

Blimey, that was a long wait for a reply! I've grown up a lot since I left it. I come from old school British bikes when kickstarting a misfiring 500cc single would break your leg and throw you 50 feet into the air, not a word of a lie . Do you still need to tickle the carbs and put all the oil from the drips back in the oil tank in a modern bike?

takboilaw 12 years ago

For this Step 4 If you are just the right height for your motorcycle you can seat in you bike straddle on it put you 1 leg firm on the ground your left leg on the ground while the bike seat is between you legs and the bike is on side stand. Lift you right leg put your foot on the foot peg for the kickstarter then kick it.(Make sure it is in nuetral not in gear.)

This way you are sure you can control the bike by holding on the handle bars while depressing the brake.

This picture being shown if the side stand become unstable and your bike is bigger than you can handle there is a great possibility it will fall on you.

Kicking it this way for me is not safe your left leg and your body is not properly align/positioned. When you kick it it will tilt to the right and bounce back to the left the Bike.

So For me I rather seat on the bike straddle depress front brake kickstart it with your right foot.

mattoverby 3 years ago

Actually if you jerk the bike to the left at the right time it will overcompensate for this jerk. (Sometimes if your trapped in a rough spot on a trail or buried in mud you might need to kick with left leg lol) or simply if you have an injury or if your leg gets really really tired.

oakironworker 13 years ago

Every bike is a bit different. I suggest buying a modern two stroke as the are not as finicky as the more technical two strokes. But if your like my son and loves his four stroke then find the routine that works. When I came home the first week of ownership I tired different methods I had read about klx300s and took notes on what I did the day before. Took about a week spending ten minutes a day. On his bike it is gas on choke on, prime the carb( lay bike over for a few seconds till gas runs out)one slow kick through. find top dead center and starts on first full kick. Saves you a lot of frustration the morning of a ride. The main thing is to ride often it helps keep you sane. I have heard of people that don't ride and they end up on forums commenting on other pepoles spelling and gramer. Go ride some trails.

mattoverby 3 years ago

Is it a used bike? Does it need a valve adjustment? I never heard of a process like that. I just kick the thing over sometimes having the choke on, sometimes using the hot start

miniminitrck 14 years ago

Thats not a hot start anyways, its a compression release, and it is a very handy thing to have when you have a large bike

mattoverby 3 years ago

In the pic it's a hot start.

kabamba-t 5 years ago

what if it does not bring power to the plug spark

indian741 11 years ago

Never used this lever ,
I always kickstart without this,
I got a suzuki drz400 and a Armstrong mt500
Just get the piston to TDC ( the part where u hear it click )
Then 1 hard kick and i should run without this lever .

SteveD122 7 years ago

I had an MT500 (rebored to 560) that i never used the decompression on too...just little light taps on the kickstart until you felt the "back an forth" resistance rock of TDC, then, whammy, a full kick and it sparked into life. It didn't help that the thing weighed a Tonne and had a lefty hand kickstart though..even after i rebuilt it as 555.
Although I always used it on my road-legal '79 XT500 though because it had a nasty habit of kicking back...and when you got a kickback from that thing it would dislocated your kneecap ( it actually did once...lesson learned and never again did i try starting it without decompression! )

muddog15 11 years ago

will this work on a hard to start go kart?

Haazi 11 years ago

I Had a Honda XR 500 wich have an decompresstoin lever and tha big mestake most people make is holding in the decompresstoin lever in while winding up the motor an the atemting to kick start it, this has broken legs.
The best way of doing it would be as most of you have mentioned push down on the kick start untill you find top dead center or when it gets to hard to push down, release the kick start lever so that it return to the top then use the decompresstion just to get over the compresstoin stroke.Then just kick it.
I have an kniee injury on my right leg so I had to learn to kick start my XR 500 with my left leg while standing next to my bike.

Aron313 12 years ago

What year is it? I have the same thing!

takboilaw 12 years ago

I have a kawasaki 125 it has both electric starter and kickstart. I has a choke level on the handle bar and a kill swith aside from the ignition switch. I usually kickstart it when the battery become low due to my motorcycle audio(it drains the batteries charge)

daveand5 12 years ago

just had to share this!
My cousin and I came out of a bar, got on our bikes, Jack had to kick his Norton over. par for the course it kicked back and he hurt his ankle so he couldn't kick it again. This guy called Tiny, for obvious reasons was standing there, so Jack said, "Tiny, kick it over for me, would ya"
Tiny stepped up, gave it one kick and knocked it over to the ground and said "like that Jack"
Guess it pays to use correct language sometimes, lol

yorniloc 12 years ago

People really dont know how to do this?
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