kick starting

[kazoo]

I've seen no posts about kick starting these bikes. I like the option of a kick or electric starter. How about it, do they start easily with the kick start?

[TWinOKC]

Try this, I don't have a kicker 

http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php/topic,14282.msg152214.html#msg152214

[ace.cafe]

Yes, they kick start easily.
Electric starters have only just begun being available on these bikes since late 2001, and they were optional. After 2004, they became standard.
For all 100 years before that, Royal Enfields had no electric starters.
I have a 2000, and it is kick start only.

[Lwt Big Cheese]

My 350 iron always starts first kick.

[single]

There are actually a lot of posts on here about this and,yes they are easy to start.
But,yours may well have a slightly different ritual,which you will have to discover thru' trial and error.

[Arizoni]

kazoo
If your RE is one of the new UCE powered bikes, this link should interest you

http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php/topic,14198.msg151037.html#msg151037

That method should work with any of them but if your RE is the older type with an ammeter you watch the needle move from the - (minus) position to 0 (zero) to find Top Dead Center of the piston before you kick it over.

[AgentX]

If I had an electric start iron-barrel Enfield, I'd remove it when time permitted.  I have had both a UCE and an iron barrel engine and the e-start on the UCE was spotty; most of the time there was a solenoid click and no start.  Kicking was dead-easy on the UCE, not too bad on the iron-barrel which is kick-only.

Too many failures on the iron barrel e-start, and the kickstart works fine.  I guess if you use the e-start only when time is critical, like being chased by some Hells Angels, then it might be useful.  But it does seem like you're setting yourself up for failure at a critical time that way.  Plus, the Angels just might catch up to your Bullet on the road anyhow.

When the kickstart doesn't start it, it's because there's another underlying problem, not because you don't have electric start.


(Modified for [in]correct punctuation of "Hells" because I don't want to end up stomped like Hunter Thompson.)

[single]

Yeah,if the Angels are after ya,may as well pull over and take it like a man.

[barenekd]

They're just going to ask you what year the bike is anyway.
And who makes it.
Bare

[GlennF]

Biggest noob mistake with the UCE bikes is flooding them (the fuel injector fires every time you kick through with the kick lever).

They pretty much fire up first kick with no choke or throttle. If they do not start first or second kick you need to turn the ignition off and kick through a couple of times to clear the fuel out find TDC and try again.

When first learning to kickstart use the center-stand and stand beside the bike and kick, you get more reliable kicks that way.

[Lwt Big Cheese]

When first learning to kickstart use the center-stand and stand beside the bike and kick, you get more reliable kicks that way.

I say poor show old chap. One should never ever use either stand, that's not what they were designed to put up with.

[AgentX]

If you'd only shave, LWT, you'd lose enough weight that your steel centerstand wouldn't threaten to buckle under your mass every time you kickstarted off it.

[JVS]

LOL, nice comment, AgentX 

And yeah LBC! your rusty iron barrel center-stand is out of shape. Better get a new one. (Just saying) Besides that, your RE is awesome. 

[geichal]

A proper tuned Bull, kickstarting is a piece of cake!  Keep her tuned, and you will have no problems!
geichal

[tooseevee]

    I'm 74 years old with an almost totally ruined 137 pound body that the best orthopedic guys will not touch with somebody ELSE's ten-foot pole & I kick my '08 AVL into life all the time with no problemo & have from the beginning. I've started it electrickally maybe three times since it arrived here with zero miles & dry in December of 2010. What's with all this fear of kickstarting? There's nothing to it. Learn your bike. My other bike is also kick only as were my other three, woops, four. Forgot the BSA on the island in '59. (I know I'll be sorry. Oh, well ).