Dane asks to try and start the KX500!He was telling me In his family if you can start it you can ride it.That sounded fair enough for me and this is the video about it.
I remember back in the good ole days my dad had a KX 500. I was about Dane's age when dad had the 500. I pretty much made that same deal with me. If I could start it I could ride it. I got smart one day after 30 plus kicks. I sprayed the air box with a little starting ether and pushed it down the hill we lived on. Fired right up. It was the only way I could get it started when the engine was cold.
Nice. You probably don't even remember leaving this comment, now that "back in the good Ole days" is REALLY back in the day...hope ya still have those memories and are doing good 👍. Maybe I'll come back 12 years from now as well
My dads Yamaha 500 was like that too. The same as hand cranking our old case tractor😆 thing could snap your arm if it kicked back. Almost sent myself off the low side kicking that big old yellow thing😂🤨😂
haterhater1976. While sorting out ignition problems on my LT500R it kicked back and left a bruise covering most of the bottom of my foot. I could barely walk for 2 days. 500 2 strokes ain't no joke.
I remember my first ride on a cr500, still to this day it was one of my favorite moments barely twisted and was on the back wheel ,you never forget stuff like that .
My first ride on my friends dads 86 cr500 put me on my ass I was 13 and i had 2 cr250s I thought I was king Kong.up until that point. I got up bleeding and the wind knocked out of me and said to my self I got to have me one
That's a bit of a myth on a modern bike such as this though... They ratchet when they start (i.e. you leave the kicker down you're good)... Right about winding it up to TDC though. I've seen an ankle get busted on an old rt2 360. That was hilarity.
Andrew Shipp no, it's not, since what happens is the engine kicks backwards, sprag clutches don't work in reverse. same principle when a lawn mower decides to rip the pull cord out of your hand.
pdgeman I messed with a mower like that. It hit something steel and bent the crank and through the timing off. If you tried to start it, it’d rip the cord right out your hand and hurt like hell haha.
Great way to crush a teenager's self esteem. Even the little one doesn't have the will to try even though it may be impossible for him. Great Job 👍 Keep up the good work 👍
I used to have a Honda CR-500 and I could not crank it to save my life. I used to get my Grandpa to bump start it with his truck. Then it was hell on wheels after that. Nothing is more frustrating than kicking a bike that won't crank....completely maddening.
Nothing worse then a fouled plug when your 10 miles in the woods. Learned my lesson the hard way when i was kid to always carry at least a wrench. The trick with a CR 500 is to lean it on something so you can jump on the kick unless you got horse legs.
You almost have to commit to hurting your foot and shin to get a 500 to start. It's all about foot speed. Jumping up on it and coming down hard isn't the way to start a cr500. Trust me I know, I've had 3 of them and the 94 I have now has been the only one that has whooped my ass trying to start. I tried all the little tricks to get it to start. Finally one day I kicked it as fast as I could, knowing I was going to probably break my foot or my shin if my foot slipped and my leg hit the foot peg. Well it started and I really haven't had too much trouble lately but before I'd puke my guts out from kicking that dang thing so much 😅
im from New Zealand , this was our rule if u can start it u can ride it , not many of us knew what we were doing as most times... it was a fluke , but all it took was the old man to explain try get it to the compression stroke it will click , then hit it ! bRAAP and i was gone , haha the 80s and 90s was awesome
I had one of these for years! I fitted a single sided swinging arm to it out of a RVF400. You need to get it just past the compression stroke and then jump! otherwise if it kicks back you will know about it!
I've been looking for one of these to ride for years!!! These things are like hidden gems. Functioning ones atleast. I can't wait to meet a buddy with one so I can test ride it.
I used to have a Yamaha XT 500 with broken decompression valve, and I'm a pretty big guy but even I couldn't kick it over cold, so always took a few people to push and jump start it.
I've had several of those bikes .. Absolutely love them .. Getting hard to come by now ... Every one I had, When cold started on the 3rd kick every time (As long as you've got a good full kick out of it All 3 times of course, lol) .. If they did not start on the 3rd kick then something was wrong, lol ... But yeah hes right it's no joke if you don't have the kick starter clear at the absolute top And stay on that kick starter until which the whole way to the bottom, You can kick it all day and it will not start .. That motor needs 2 full revolution Every time you kick it or it will not start, lol
I remember trying to start my brothers friends CR500 back when I was 13.. I had to lean it against a tree and give it everything I had. I was also 6'0 190 pounds.
your lucky that wasn't me starting that bike. 12 yrs old guy said if you can start it you can ride it. brand new cr500 I was ripping and so happy lol. brand new 88 cr500 I got to burn a tank of gas in the pit. great memory.
Im guessing you know the bike well enough to get it started 1st kick most times. My buddy has a cr 500 that starts first kick almost every time, for some reason if it dosent start first kick its gonna take awhile to get going.
Because the spark plug oils up. 2 strokes do that. If it doesnt start; 1 take the plug out. 2 kick the bike over with the petrol off say 12- 15 times. 3. dry the end of the plug on a flame, get it hot. 4 put the plug back in, petrol on and she should fire up. Have fun. My 1981 KX420 was awesome until self destroyed the gearbox.
I remember starting my dad's 1953 650 twin BSA about ten or eleven years old he seemed quite impressed I could do it, so was I untill he came out and started it in his slippers and said now you try it with slippers
Husqvarna and KTM with left side kick start, actually works great once you figure it out. You basically kick backwards like Bruce Lee , gives you alot more force , for strong kick.
Just bought a 1999 kx500 tonight. 4 kicks in 30 degree weather with sneakers. No throttle, choke on. All full kicks from the very top where it gives resistance at the top of the stroke and using more toe than heel
lean her to the left till gas trickles out the carb overflow, bring her to tdc and boot her! If warm no need to lean it over but sure does help when they are cold! Worked perfect on both my 95 cr500 and my 93kx500
I had to do that with my Yamaha WR450 when cold or you would be if for a very long and tiresome round of kicking... It did have electric start but that was most meant for re starting a hot engine anyway.
I stuffed a KX500 motor in a Z400 quad frame and I used to tell people the same thing. If you can start, you can ride it. Needless to say nobody rode it except for my buddy who owned a 500. I named it the LTX500. Blew it up and never fixed her. It now sits on the side of my house with good intentions....
Panheads are hazardous to your health..... Now baby boomers have a blister on their thumb cuz they demand the instantaneous world of computerization as we all push buttons now bub... That ain't working that's the way you do it money for nothing in your chicks for free maybe get a blister on your little finger maybe get a blister on your thumb
That was the deal with my first bike my old grand dad said “if you can start it then it’s yours” and I dident know any better and that think kicked back like a mule after two more kicks I started it, if anyone’s wondering it’s a 1984 Honda XL600r bored out with a rfcv two carb plus a wider cam and wide valves, I was 14
FUKKdaSYSTEM XD hell ya I had a family friend tell me if I could pick up his XR600 I could ride it I picked it up after he laid it on the ground. I rode that thing.
When I was 14 my uncle had a 87 husqvarna 500 mx with the left side kick starter and I was the only one who could start it while sitting on it. I am left handed which I think helped also I ran cross country at school
Reddust 76 LOL what are you crying about? I hope you didn't think I was crying or worrying about this young man. I was just making a comment. no need for the nonsense... although that seems impossible with the amount of dumbasses commenting on youtube.
😂😂 this reminds me of my brothers 500 Suzuki, it’s was a pain to try starting it when I was 13 but I got smart and pushed it to the hill behind our house and started it like a champ ✊🏾 then I was riding that sucker every day when he wasn’t home 😂😂
I remember when I first moved to Alaska in '88 I had a Kitty Kat when I was 8 and I was hanging out with a friend and his older brother had a real snowmachine and did the same thing to me and guess what,I couldn't start it! Of course I was 8!
Reminds me of this time my 10 YO cousin (same age as i) jumped on a big KTM says "watch this" and proceeds to hop on the starter with both feet, fires it up, bounces up over the seat, lands properly on the seat, feet don't reach the pegs but he already had it in gear. Popped the clutch and tore ass all over the yard
I'll be 15 this year and recently got a 84 cr500 and they are amazing I could not get it to runn but I had someone show me how to properly kick it cause I was use to riding a rm250 but nice bike and credit for him trying
Back in the 80s😳were I lived in the UK we were able to ride many of the fields and lanes of one of our local farms so there was a lot of motorbikes from c50s to yz 490s...but one lad had this beast of a husky 470/500🤔I remember the tank it was chrome and sky blue looked amazing but the kickback was evil... anyone who tried starting her would go home with bruised feet...but the KX 500 is a Japanese icon...as I'm British some of the names that I remember riding 500s back then we're, Dave Thorpe, Kurt nickol and Rob herring...and Geraint Jones enduro rider👍🏴🏴🏴....
I've had one of these and you have to kick it down fast with momentum. Starts first time every time.A light weight will struggle big time.If you want to know what is hard to start. Husqvarna 500 1989 Left hand kick start.I can kickstart with either leg after that bike the same as the right.
Reminds me of my friend.he had a 650 1cyl. And the starter went in, ofcourse no kickstart so had to run and let the.clutch take it man that took forever to make it start.
Only ever had the chance once 20 years ago to get a blast on a kx500. Just put it like dis. It left stains on my pants. Have a 450 now and its no were near the buzz of the 500. Fact
Lean the bike way over to the left. Fuel will come out of the carburetor. Quickly up right. Kick slow until you get resistance with kick up high. And it will start. Maybe 3 or so. Have fun. Had a kawasaki 500 and a Yamaha.
Or you could just reset the carburetor needle and jets and put in the proper heat range spark plug according to the barometric pressure and temperature outside just like pop Yoshimura the world's greatest tuner ever showed us trainees in Honda R&D in Milwaukee one time of how to tune two strokes to start on the first kick hot or cold as Yoshimura showed me how to do.... Pop Yoshimura was a hell of a guy and the first time I met him at Honda school cuz it was pop who invented the Honda Elsinore that was Honda first two stroke and why we were attending his class... Pop Yoshimura said it didn't matter what color the plastic is on the bike you do this the same on all of them and they'll work every time and guess what ? pop Yoshimura the same Yoshimura that sells the Yoshimura>88s exhaust pipes from the Yoshimura manufacturing company damn he's passed away I hate that but his knowledge of how to do it never dies.... Two strokes make boost as Yoshimura described it with animations as the expansion Chambers don't produce back pressure in pounds per square inch of air they reflect the sound wave from the exhaust back to the exhaust port and traps the compressed air from the crankcase that's above atmosphere pressure that we call supercharging as all two strokes are basically superchargers with a spark plug while all you four-stroke suckers can only suck as there's no boost for any naturally aspirated four stroke at all cuz I only get 14.7 lb at sea level locked in... That's where two strokes begin their boost and keep compressing it higher and higher the faster they spin and getting there multiple times quicker as they become multiple times faster ⁹⁹⁹ hehehe braaaaaaap on the pipe good night
Legend has it he still owns this KX500 as the young man waited patiently for the market to correct itself to produce nothing but electric start motorcycles.
This was the rule I was brought up with. If you can't start it, you cant ride it, you can ride anything you can start by hand or foot. I got strong enough to start my dads old 800xc pretty quick. Now a days everything is electric start and unreliable.
My sad was the same with he's massive Honda 650 haha but I got it started but back then didn't know manual haha and stalled it first do and he never let me try again haha
You gotta have a all one motion jump into the air has you kick down, it’s definitely a technique learn after hours of kicking a bike on a trail knowing that only way home is to get this thing started!
yep tdc. it helps allot. my first bike surprisingly thanks to a good craigslist deal... was an xr500r 1982. and i was only 14! i had to learn tdc to start that beast. and now i dont ride it but it rides me!
I have had nothing but 500's and thats a rule. Anyone that has ever asked to ride it. The answer was, if you can start it, you can ride it because when you stall it far from base, you NEED to be able to start it!
