kick start, magnetos

 

Why are kick-start motorcycles with magnetos (no batteries) no longer
available?
Conrad "Connie" Eaton

 

On 7 Feb 2007 18:52:13 -0800, conradeaton@hotmail.com wrote:


I'm not really an expert (though I've been riding for decades) but
I'll venture a guess.  It's because nobody wants to buy them.  Also
because most civilized countries require lights at night (in fact here
in California they're required in the daytime!)  

But I think there are still a few of those 'pocket bikes' that have
magnetos and no electrical system.  Also those small motors you buy
for bicycles.  Motorized skateboards and 30cc scooters and 'gopeds'
probably all have magnetos.

Personally I miss kick-starters.

 

On Feb 7, 9:52 pm, conradea...@hotmail.com wrote:

Because people have become too fat and lazy to ride a "real"
motorcycle?

Try this experiment; go out and buy a 71 Sportster XLCH with a kick
only and a mag, and after riding/maintaining it for a year you'll have
your answer. ;^)

 

On Feb 7, 6:52?pm, conradea...@hotmail.com wrote:

Even motocross and trail bikes are coming equipped with electric
starters nowadays.

Like the little kid tells the drill sergeant who is trying to teach
him to kicks start his bike, "Excuse me, sir. I just wanna ride."

Kick-starting required more awareness of the procedures necessary to
start an engine, particularly a large single-cylinder 4-stroke engine.

You kick as hard as you can and the engine goes blub-blub about twice
and nothing happens.

Whatever gasoline got sucked through the carburetor falls out and
condenses before reching the cylinder.

You kick again and it goes blub-blub some more.

More gas falls out of the intake air, puddling in the intake tracts.

About the third blub-blub and the damned thing is flooded from too
much gasoline puddling in the cylinder.

The beauty of an electric starter is that it cranks the engine at a
steady speed as long as the battery holds up and the rider's thumb
doesn't get tired.

I used to watch Harley riders jumping up and down on their
kickstarters until they wore themselves out and almost had a heart
attack.

I would casually reach over and push the starter button with my little
finger and my motorcycle would start.

But the Harley riders never noticed, they were too caught up in their
own misery...

 



That was one thing I liked about it.  Riding a motorcycle 25 years ago
was different.  It was just you and the engine.  The engine kept you
company on rides, you heard every little sound and felt every little
vibration.   You had intimate knowledge of your particular engine's
eccentricities and special quirks (and all bikes had them!  They were
as individual as people!)   If you were a REAL rider, you  had
probably rebuilt the engine yourself, from the bearings out, sometime
in the last couple of years.

Kickstarting was a sort of privileged interaction with the engine.
You felt the compression.  You calculated how hard a kick it took.
You might have controls for choke, spark retard, and compression
release, and you'd learn to handle these masterfully, like a musical
instrument.
 

All the technological progress made in bikes in the last few decades
has had the effect of making them more like cars.  An electric starter
allows you to be blissfully unaware of just what's going on beneath
you, between your legs.  I know motorcycle riders today who don't even
know how many cylinders their bikes have!


I forget now when it was that Harley dropped kick-starters.  It was
earlier than most bikes because they were dangerous on Harleys.  I
read somewhere that in the following years aftermarket kick-starters
were among the biggest-selling accessories.  People WANTED to
kickstart them!  It was macho!  It was an accomplishment!


Back in the 70s I had a Honda 350/4.  Really a nice little bike at the
time.  It had both kick and electric start.  I used to start it with
my hand on the kickstarter!