How do you start your bike?

[womper]

here's a question... can you add on a kick start to a fuel injected bike?

[donny662]

Originally Posted by womper

here's a question... can you add on a kick start to a fuel injected bike?

Originally Posted by Kawasaki Website

Designed specifically for motocross, the KX450F’s lightweight EFI system doesn’t require a battery –the engine can be started within three rotations of the crankshaft, using only the electricity generated through the kickstarter. Kawasaki engineers achieved single-kick start capability by having the ECU power-up at the initial movement of the kickstarter. The system delivers electricity in the following order: ECU, fuel pump, and then injector.

KX450F

The kick start is certainly possible, but the difficulty is in giving power to the fuel delivery system. If you only need the kick start to work when the battery is still good, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to implement, but if you need the kick start to work with a dead or non existent battery, the KX450F shows that it is possible but that may need to be considered in the fundamental design of the motor and fuel system.

[inspiron]

Originally Posted by womper

there's something about a kick start that i always found 'romantic' and old school... i wish i had one on my bike

LOL! I wouldn't want to kickstart my 1400 ... the kickback would probably break my leg.

On a similar note, my fire department has a pump which we use to suck water out of swimming pools or streams, as well as increasing pressure to pump water up a hill. Our old pump is a 1964 VW beetle engine - an air-cooled 4-cylinder 1300 boxer. It has an electric starter, but if the battery is dead, there is a lever to start it manually. It's not hard to start.

The department in the next town just bought a new pump - and it has a BMW motorcycle engine - the water-cooled, 2 cylinder 1200 boxer. It's totally computerized (engine start and stop, as well as pressure control is controlled through 4 buttons), but it has a rope starter (like a lawn mower) just in case the battery is dead. One of the colleagues tried to start it like that, and nearly broke his arm!!! They all agreed, if the battery is dead on the pump, they'll drive back to the station and load up the other pump. There is no way to start that BMW motor manually!

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by womper

there's something about a kick start that i always found 'romantic' and old school... i wish i had one on my bike

Sometimes I wish the Bandit had one.

[KD57]

My old Merc 200 hp outboard had a rope pull for emergency starting, the rope was kept up in the cowling. It had no decompression release, and no way in hell could you pull it over w/ that tiny rope. The manual stated to "pull to through briskly", yeah right. Only if the spark plugs were out of it.

FWIW, I love electric start, on anything.

[womper]

from what i know, my bike needs 9 volts on the battery to push start it due to the FI...

kick starting just looks cool... seen it on big bikes when i was a kid and always thought it looked cool... probably a real pain in the butt though

[Rickster]

The machining to put it on your M50 would probably cost more than you paid for the "M".

[womper]

true... but it would be a 'real' custom bike at that point

[omegajim]

even on the old yamaha, electronic ignition requires a certain amount of power to function properly, w/out it, forget it.

So, the long and short answer, on a bike with fi and electronic ignition, it's entirely possible to have a kick start. The battery would only need enough power to energize the fi and ignition system.

Not requiring the power demanded by the starter, I would think even a fairly weak battery would start with a kick start, fi and eletronic ignition and all.

[womper]

btw, the M50 needs 9volts at the FI to start the bike...

i doubt a little 9v battery from the smoke detector would work though