Was race gas to blame?

[Blown 331]

I have a 1984 XR500R and a 1976 Yamaha TT500. They both start within 2 kicks when cold. To my knowledge neither one has been rebuilt. A 28 year old bike starts like it's new, I don't think age has anything to do with ease of starting. As long as the bike is in good tune and in good mechaically condition it will fire right up regardless of age.

[thomez]

Originally posted by TCracin440ex
i know i had a 1992 250x and boy that mofo was a pain in the arse to kick over simply because it was old, an the compression release cable was worn out and wouldnt open the valves correctly.....the 450r is proally the best 4 stroke kicker set up ive ever seen....i dont know if this is true or not....so dont flame...but ive been told by many people not to put the kicker on the yfz 450 because its a pain in the *** to kick because it dont have an auto compression release...and that is why many of the yz450fs are harder to kick also...i dont know if its true...

A lot of guys are running the YFZ kicker only, no decompression mechanism, and I haven't heard of a complaint yet.

[joe1l]

A lot of guys are running the YFZ kicker only, no decompression mechanism, and I haven't heard of a complaint yet.

I was under the impression the YFZ had a decompression mechanism...if it didn't I wouldn't try kicking it. No decompression device on the Yami and trying to kickstart it, is a bit too intense for anyone's leg, on bad kick and booom, it will kick you back to next week!!! Anyhow I think the YFZ comes with an autodecompression like the TRX...if not then man someone is going to get HURT!!!
Joe

[86atc250r]

Well, since *you* haven't heard any complaints then apparently there aren't any...

Actually, I spent a little time talking to a YFZ owner that has the kickstart setup a while back - he didn't have good things to say about it. Don't remember what all he said, but I do remember he didn't like it. He also asked me several questions about the 450R's starting and was anxious to try one out.

The thing with the 450R that people who haven't ridden them don't realize is how much effort Honda put into making this quad easy to kick and start quickly.

As far as aging and becoming harder to start --- it's all about maintenancing your equipment. If you let your engine get down on compression, develop valve sealing issues, and just generally roach it out, you probably deserve a machine that doesn't start easily.