Retro fitting a kickstart?

[Itchy]

In that I was watching a film the other night where you had a bloke spinning a handle on the side of an airplane at which one bloke shouted contact, and the engine turned over....

A starter motor is just an electrical motor which does this electrically right?....

I was thinking on some old school hondas you can turn the engine over for valve clearance purposes using a socket on a removable bit on the side of the engine....

I thought hmm , so couldn't you just put some sort of undo this cap and use it as a crank exactly like those WWI airplanes? , or if the crank bolt not designed for such rigours and would snap , cracking and sending bits of metal into the engine case?...


I'm not a fan of electric start , as your leg will last a lot longer than cranking with a battery.... and for some reason my bump starting ability has gone arwy.

Any thoughts?

Ta
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[MarJay]

I don't know if you've ever used a bike with a kicker, but the kick start does not go onto the end of the crank.

It goes through the gearbox first and has a shaft of its own.
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[SoND]

I'm thinking you would need some sort of ratchet so when it starts it doesn't spin the handle and rip your arms off.
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[G]

As above; I'd expect the kick start generally turns it a fair bit more than you would turn it with something on the end of a crank; so you'd have to gear it up, somehow.

Just bumpstart it if you've got a dead battery; tends to be more effective than a kickstart anyway .

[Kickstart]

Hi

Find an old car with a hand cranking handle. Try and start that. You might change your mind!

The cranking handles just ended in a pair of flats in line with the shaft, with a ramp on the other side. So as you turn it the flats are pushing against the "crank", but when the engine starts it can only push against the ramp, hence just pushes the handle away.

No real reason it couldn't be done. Be best to modify the outer cover over the end of the crank to allow through an extension on the end of the crank. And then just machine that extension to match the cranking handle.

Proper kickstart would be harder, but probably a hell of a lot easier to use. Last 4 cylinder bikes I can remember with kick starts were the GS550s, but no doubt there are other more recent ones.

All the best

Keith
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[MarJay]

[Smooth]

[Finglonga]