You don't need to look at the white panel. Just move the kickstart to where you can't move it anymore, pull in the decomp lever and move it past TDC. Let go of the comp lever and kick it. It will star almost every time. Best bike ever!
Yup, I never used the window. I just cranked it till it stopped at the comp stroke, pulled the lever and moved the crank lever just a bit, and got the lever back up and then cranked the lever all the way down. You must leave the crank lever down until the engine is running. Dont jab at or let your leg up. If you do and the engine does not start it can do some damage to you. Once you get it it becomes a non issue and you can do it without thinking much about. Good luck and have fun.
Yes, specially the procedure can be a problem, when you have to kickstart at night in the dark. You do,nt see the silver indicator. It happend to me and I was lucky to have a keyholder with a smaal flashlite. When you,re more experienced, you can alsoget the " feeling" about the position of the cranck, but still it,s difficult to start in the dark. Also when the engine stops, when you,re in front of a traffic light. It,s strange Yamaha did not put an electric starter on it ( it,s not THAT expensive) The did with the Yamaha xs 650, were the first model, the xs1 did not have an electric starter, al later models from xs2 had one mounted under the same engine. Don,t think Yamaha will ever do this on the sr 400, since just now they reveiled that this model will no longer be made
