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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Electric to kick
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Message started by Boogieman on 09/15/13 at 12:55:52

Title: Electric to kick
Post by Boogieman on 09/15/13 at 12:55:52

I want to take out my starter and electrical switches and all that nonsense and put in a kick start.
I know I have seen pictures of this. I can remember seeing some sort of rod assembly that someone rigged as a manual decomp (and I guess I'm just assuming that the decomp rigging is something you have to do when you change to kick start), and I know I've seen pictures of a savage with the kick,, but I have no idea where thats at.
Can one of you big thumpers point me to it?

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by Oldfeller on 09/15/13 at 13:01:11

Nope, nobody has ever figured how to put a kickstarter on the bike, because it was only ever built to be an electric start bike.

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by Boogieman on 09/15/13 at 13:04:42

Huh... where are the ends of the crankshaft in my savage? I mean, the teeth that come off the starter connects to a gear in the bike ya?

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/15/13 at 19:21:22

Dude, you asked. The answer has always been,, Nope,, aint gonna work.
Now, if you can do it, there will be several who will go that way too.
Sofar, it has been considered Far more costly & time consuming to even attempt.,IF its even possible,,

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by WD on 09/15/13 at 22:19:52

Pull your stator cover, give everything a good look over, and then curse the so called engineers for the cobble job they did on our starting system. I spent weeks trying to rig something up, I'd even settle for a pull starter. Ain't happening, and I've won awards for hillbilly work arounds... Even if you manage to get a sprocket and sprag to fit, there isn't enough case webbing to support it.

There's a good reason I have an ancient kick only, dual points Honda... and why it is in a zillion pieces right now. F'n kicker mechanism is jammed in the transmission some place. Ran, but went to kick it one day and it locked up tighter than a nun's knees. I literally can not move the kicker shaft with a 4' breaker bar and my 235# standing on it. Shifter pawl is the same way, frozen solid.

I'd suggest you track down an XS650 or similar and deep six the electric leg. A lot less aggravating, and a whole lot cheaper in the long run. Not to mention the fact that a poorly running XS is still going to mop the floor with a flawless LS...

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by Gyrobob on 09/16/13 at 05:21:58

Find a 1990 DR650. It's a similar motor and was the last year for a kick starter. 1991 got rid of the kick starter and switched to electric start.

Yank out the motor and put it in your LS.

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by Boogieman on 09/18/13 at 00:59:22

Lol wow..alright. so i did a bit of research on the xs650 and the dr650.
The thing that got me was WD's comment that a poorly running xs will mop the floor with a flawless ls. I was just really starting to like my ls650 and now your saying that with all the roundside carb/overbore/piston/cam awesomeness my LS is a lego bike in comparison to one of these yamaha xs650's? Why? Why is it so much better? The head has some cool lookin ports thats for sure.

Title: Re: Electric to kick
Post by WD on 09/18/13 at 02:05:32

Flow and gearing.

I've had my Savage since February 1998. In the same time, we've had: 87 Honda CMX450C (killed it), 1999 VN800A (loved it, but had to sell it or lose the house during a work slow down), 2005 VN800B (despised it) and a 1957 HD Panhead rigid framed springer equipped barhopper (not worth fixing).

The VN800A was THE best bike I've ever owned, out of over 100 street 4 strokes I've had since I started riding in July 1987. The Savage is a fun little toy.

Had access to a fairly rough running cast wheel, disc rear XS650 Special that would outpull the Savage w/o breaking a sweat. Once the XS got straightened out (sat for a long time, had carb issues) it would flat out leave the Savage in the dust. Light to light, they are fairly evenly matched, unless you are really heavy on the throttle. The XS is still in second when the Savage is needing to go into 4th gear. Out on the suberslab, it is no contest, the XS is still in 4th when the Savage is maxed out.

I'm turning my Savage back into a low bar fuel sipping gutless commuter. And saving up for another clean used VN800A. Which will spank an XS650 the same way an XS650 will walk all over an LS650... My 99 800A wrung the speedometer cable in half once when I pegged the speedometer, the next part failure was the rear wheel hub mounted speedometer drive. Speedometer pegged on a VN800A is an indicated 140 plus... Mine was severely hot rodded though, and regeared for top end speed, put out more rear wheel horsepower than the stock engine did at the crankshaft.

If you don't ride it wide open all the time, the Savage is a decent bike. If you want more top end power and speed consistently, even with all the hot parts, a Savage is a slow poke. Slow is relative though, Lancer's hopped up 96 is good for the ton plus.

Keep in mind too, that most of my riding friends won't let me near their machines... I blew up 4 engines and 6 transmissions in 6 months on a brand new, in warranty HD Big Twin... and shattered the crankshaft in a Katana 750...

And have not grenaded the engine in my Savage, ruined the transmission, flipped it getting on the throttle too hard (did that to a couple street 2 stroke triples)... and it has been ridden hard since day one as a primary or back up bike. Had it 5 minutes on day one and popped the fork seals airing out the front tire... ::)

I should realistically have a sport bike, but I prefer cruisers.