Topic: FIRST TIME on the bike VIRGIN-very STIFF-very HARD kickstart

[mrbreeze]

OK.....first off....I need to agree with Cal. You need to slow down......back away from the bike. Sit down and relax. Turn on some good tunes and drink the 1 or 3 beers we talked about earlier. If you already did......then you really need to back away from the bike!
 So far everyone that has offered anything in this conversation on our end is spectulating. All of our crystal balls are pulling up different scenarios. One or more could be right or it could even be something altogether different. The problem I see is that you are the only one that is there with the bike and the one that has the least experience with these matters.
Anyways I have another story for you to read while you're unwinding and staying away from the bike.
Back in the mid 90's when I worked at a shop out in Wyoming we got a call from a guy about 5 miles out of town that had a no start Ford Crown Vic. We didn't have a tow truck but a good service truck with a push bar and also a tow rope. So I drive out to him and discover the engine won't crank over. Got a click and it had a fairly new looking battery so figured it may have a jammed starter. I didn't feel like screwing with it on the side of the road so we pulled it back to the shop. I was gonna go down for a look see at the starter but decided to put a breaker bar on the crank bolt first.....no dice....locked solid. Decided to pull spark plugs. I got about 2 or 3 plugs in and found a spark plug that looked like a bear had been knawing on it......electrode MIA. Shined my light down the hole and saw a very mangled top of the piston. Called the customer and gave him the bad news. He said to hold tight and he would get back with us. Hour or 2 goes by and he calls telling us that he traded it in to a dealership 40 miles out and they were sending a tow truck for it. This was a dealership that we had already had a few run ins with and the guy had already made a deal with them for the trade in. I made a real quick decision...asked my boss if it was OK and swapped out the new battery for a core we laying around the shop. I needed a new battery for my truck and everyone was happy.......The End!!

[seanbarney41]

damn breeze...way to cheer a kid up

[mrbreeze]

I don't think he is in the cheering up mood right now. It will pass though. Just hoping that it all works out.

[Restoration Fan]

I'm going to give you some different advice from everyone else.  Something you said in your first post bothered me more than anything else you posted about the bike's health/status:

I've never been on a motorcycle and just used what I knew from drive my manual car to ride the bike

Do yourself a favor and avoid the urge to ride the bike again.  Google Motorcycle Safety Foundation and find a class being taught near you.  Sign up for it.  You'll ride their bikes and do a bit of classroom work but when you finish, you take the certificate you get to the DMV and get your motorcycle license.

But MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, you'll be a safer motorcycle rider.  I agree with the next statement that you said in your opening post, "it felt great"....it does.  Motorcycling is addictive...and fun...and exciting...and dangerous as hell.  And wayyyy more dangerous when you're just feeling your way along with no real clue about what you're doing, other than using the experience you have from driving a car with a clutch.

I'm a new cyclist myself.  Even though I grew up on dirt bikes, I had never ridden a bike on the street until this past year.  But the guys on this forum beat it into my brain over & over that I had a responsibility to my kids to make sure I did everything I could to become a safe motorcyclist.  MAN, am I glad they did.  The class was a blast but it also gave me a much heightened sense of where the dangers usually lie and strategies to try and prevent those as much as possible.  But it definitely made me a better rider. 

This board is awesome in that the guys on here really do care...about your bike and about you.  We don't want to lose a single member if we can help it.  So please, please, PLEASE...go take the class.

</off soapbox>

Edited to add:
(Nice play on words in thread title, by the way....very catchy!  )

[DustyRags]

Agreed- get thee to the MSF course! It's a life saver.

Other than that- sounds to me like it never really seized, or you would have experienced a jerk and a skid. If it was HARD to turn over, it wasn't seized.

Fueling issues for sure- specifically, I'm guess not enough air. But who knows, could be timing too- I've seen the same thing happen (sooty plugs, stalling, hard starting) from timing.

Get a timing light and multi meter (you'll need both of those again) and beg, borrow, or buy a compression tester. Make sure you have compression, make sure your battery is good and charging, make sure the timing is set.

Also- I don't know much about the 350's, but most Hondas from that period make less charge than they use under about 3k rpm. Could be that if oh already had a weak battery the time idling to warm up ran it down even further. If you kept the revs low, you might have just plane old run down the battery. That would lead to a weak spark (sooty plugs) then no spark (stalling).

But- THAT IS ALL CONJECTURE. You'll know nothing until you get systematic. Listen to the folks here- they walked me through a top-end rebuild ten days after buying my first bike, and I'd never been in an engine before. You can do this. It'll take patience, but you'll learn a lot and you'll never be scared of an engine again.

[mrbreeze]

This is all true and the first time it was mentioned about the alternator output. They must see some rpm's before the charging systems starts to do it's thing. You have to have a decent battery to start with. Still standing by what I said though.....it's hard to diagnose over the phone.

[Mantree]

If you Step on the kick starter and it moves through it's full motion then it's not stuck. WHen the engine get's siezed it will be locked up. So if it's moving, then I think you're safe there. Maybe something electrical..... Yeah pushing a dead bike is no fun... try a cb750!! haha. Best of luck. let me know what happens or if you have any more questions. I'll do my best to help.

Try a vt1100 with no gas lol long 4 miles to the closest gas station

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