Total Motorcycle Community Forums

hey all. my name is Monica. i just started riding and am attempting to master the fine art of starting on hills. my boyfriend (storysunfolding) got me into bikes and i'm having a blast cruising around at slow speeds. i am from northern virginia.
I have an 81 Yamaha XS 400 as my starter bike with both kick and electric start. I want to use the kickstart but I can't manage to kick it fast enough to start. I really can't get it past halfway sometimes. Are there any special techniques/tricks/tips for a kickstarter? Maybe I'm just too small to use one? I would appreciate any help you could give me.
Thanks!

She's a kidder. She pretty much has hills down. We went for a small road ride the other day through some quite neighborhoods. She took us to the steepest hill she knew about, started at the bottom and did a start every 5-10 feet perfectly.

I haven't been able to teach the kick start to her. I pretty much jump and bring my considerable weight down on the kickstarter which does the trick for me. Monica on the other hand is much lighter than than I am so the weight dropping trick doesn't quite work...

Welcome to the forums Monica . Glad to have ya .
Kind regards, Wizzard

bluemonkie99

I'm glad your having fun & getting into it....As far as the kickstarter goes.....WHY?

well the battery on my bike isn't the best and should probably be replaced, but until i do that the kickstarter is amazing on these cold winter days. the only problem being my inability to use it...

I can relate. The one complaint I have about modern bikes is that they've done away with the kickstarter. Now we have to rely on these puny batteries.

As for your problem, if you're putting all of your weight on the kickstarter and it's still not going all the way down, there's really not much else you can do.

I used to kickstart my bikes regularly. I'd start with the bike on the sidestand, standing with my weight on the left footpeg and my right foot on the kickstarter. Then I'd sort of jump off the left peg, transferring my weight to the handlebars. At the top of the jump, I'd transfer all of my weight to the right leg and start to straighten it out as my weight came down. This will give you a little extra downward momentum and may help you get the bike started.

When I started riding I weighed about 125 lbs. and used this method to sucessfully kickstart big twins, from 650s to 1100s.

Best of Luck and welcome to the two-wheeled world.

CentralOzzy wrote::As far as the kickstarter goes.....WHY?

so true..

I second that WHY?

ZX6R-lover wrote:

CentralOzzy wrote::As far as the kickstarter goes.....WHY?

so true..

I second that WHY?

Good backup? though this is coming from my dirtbiking perspective. I'm sure one of the time's i've dropped my bike in a foot of water/mud woulda fried the electric start. But after enough kicks, the sucker started right up.

It sucks bigtime kicking over a streetbike, especially an ol GS750 four. The 400 might not be too bad.

Welcome. Glad to see another couple on the board. Loonette and I live and ride together, and also both post here. Enjoy!