Forum

[Deanobats]

Hi all,
I do enjoy kick-starting my 2016 B5 bullet. It makes me feel manly as I stride out in my kevlar trousers, apply a bit of the 'choke' when necessary and with one swift application of the powerful man-leg, she fires into life with enough noise to frighten the children in the next-door-but-one-village (we shall gloss over the Wallace and Grommit helmet and googles which does rather spoil the effect). Now, the thing is, this works from cold, as in 'in the deep midwinter' cold all the way through to the marginally less romantic 'three hours in a sunny ASDA car park' cold. One kick and she's away. However, when she's warm, no amount of thrusting and grunting gets the old girl into motion. This usually happens at the front of the traffic-light queue when I stall in front of a line of Audis. After an embarrassingly large number of kicks until I exhaust myself I have to resort to one quick press on the electric boot as she roars into life as if nonchalantly saying 'what's the fuss all about, of course I work..'. Why might this be, and more to the point, what arcane knowledge is there to help me perfect the technique of not looking like a tit and kick-starting a warm engine?

[Jamesy]

I can't give you an answer about why it doesn't kick but I will tell you I wouldn't be fannying about trying to kick start when you have a line of traffic behind you when you have an ELECTRIC START.

[Leon Novello]

As I have said before, Green light sucks the electricity out of the engine, notice how it idles calmly while the Red is showing. Fifty Harley Davidsons behind you, revving their engines have the same effect. I know these things to be true.

[Rattlebattle]

I’m with Jamesay on this one. When I first got my 2015 C5 I used the kickstart. After a few failed attempts to start the b*gger when hot I gave up. I just use it to free the clutch plates for the first use in the day and for servicing purposes now. I always used the electric foot if it stalled at the traffic lights anyway. If you stall it your street cred has already evaporated anyway. FWIW having fitted a carb conversion to my bike I find that unless started hot not long after stopping, I need to lightly tickle the carb. I believe this is down to fuel evaporating in the inlet tract. I suspect that the problem is the same with the EFI. Unreliable tickover is one of the reasons I fitted a carb.

[Chris [Stockport]]

"However, when she's warm, no amount of thrusting and grunting gets the old girl into motion."

My Year 2007 Bullet 500 is the same when warm, though it is even more noticeable to everyone, as it has a chair attached...

It doesn't have an electric start, so I've HAD to solve it.
When hot, it needs a bit of throttle, held in the same place.... ie no need to twist as you kick or anything fancy. Kick it and it works virtually every time.

It is a bit unnerving the first time you try to get used to it, but really is worth a go. I don't even think about it any more, and I'm sure my right leg isn't as manly as yours.
Good luck.

[Barry_Q]

It took me a while to figure out the difference in starting my Lightning, between hot and cold. When cold. The throttle gets held at 10% open. When hot, it's 5% open. Starting on the first kick in now quite common.