Topic: Can we Push Start a Motorcycle?

[edosm]

I have always wondered this...there are times in my car were the battery is dead..and I just RUN along side it... give it a little momentum...then hop in POP the cluch...vrummmm.

Can you do it with a bike....push it in first gear ..clutch pulled in ..then...let out clutch..crack open throttle.

Sorry if there a obvious answer...but never tried fearing the worst outcome.

Thanks

[Roach Carver]

If the battery is up then yes. if the battery is dead I would say no. Its like trying to kick start one of these when the battery is dead. If there is no power then the alternator does not charge. no power- no spark.

[andy750]

Yes can be done. Ive done it a few times. As long as you have a little juice in the battery you are good to go.

cheers
Andy

[ofreen]

If the battery is mostly flat, or you lost a cell, it can help to pull the headlight fuse, or turn the headlight off if you have a switch.  There's usually enough juice there to fire the ignition, and like Andy says, it'll start if you kick it or bump start it.  It might be easier if you use second gear for the bump.

[CBJoe]

I'd have to agree with yesssss.....  When I was learning to ride my CB650 (no kickstarter ) I killed the battery numerous times.  Push starting it ALWAYS worked.  2nd gear makes it much easier.


Heck, I had to do it so much at first that I thought of ditching the starter all together 

cheers ... Joe

[Bob550four]

Assuming you have SOME power left in your battery, yes, you can push start your bike.  if you have no juice at all left, all you'll get is tired and sweaty.

I honestly HATE push starting my bike, being the short and skinny guy I am.  theres honestly 12 year old boys that are bigger than me.

[736cc]

 Going downhill helps;  use 2nd gear

[754]

I really dont know about the electronoic ignitions.. but with points.. pretty easy..like push it  a few feet and it will go if warm..

[slabbedask]

Done it many times, more than I really wish to remember.....
But as the others say, a slight remainder of juice in the upper left corner of your battery is needed. At least on my BB-ignition equipped F1....

[TwoTired]

The engine needs spark, and the coils need about 8V minimum to produce that.  It all has to come from the battery at start up.  If you have spark, anything that will get the crankshaft to spin will start the motor...like the kick start lever, or the rear wheel through the trans.

Cheers,

[Ingrid]

 with the cb you hsouldn't have much of a problem, however the younger bikes will give you a run for your money!!
Because of the compression in either first or second it is much harder to get it going.....
I never managed with my 1995 vfr 750 while I could push start my 1980 CX500

[okie]

I've bump started dozens of bikes.  Having said that, let me give you a little warning; don't pull it with a car. 

Once, during the middle part of my mis-spent youth I had put my 68 CL350 back together and it didn't want to start.  I pushed that thing until I was about to collapse.  Nothing.  I knew it was put together correctly and if I could get it to fire just once, everything would be OK.  At the time, I had a '64 Dodge with a 383 Magnum and 4-speed; I also had a 15 foot piece of rope with snap hooks on each end.  Rope goes around bumper on the car.  The other end conveniently snaps onto the cross-bar of the handle bars on the 350.  Wife in the car.  Me on the bike.  She takes off with me in tow.  2nd gear, out with the clutch.  The snap hook decides to slide all of the way to the left side of that cross-bar.  Oh S*#t,  you can't imagine how hard it tried to turn right and high-side me off of the left side of that bike.  I yelled 'whoa'.  She thought I said 'go'.  Things got a lot worse, quickly.  I shoulda' had a movie camera.  Do not try this at home or anywhere else.  Oh, yeah, the bike didn't start.  It had a stuck float valve.

[mgmuellner]

Bump starting is good fun, I do it now & then - sometimes because I have to & sometimes because I just happened to park on a hill.  I had a Duc 900 with pods & high mounted after market pipes.  My bud push started me in a parking garage & d@mn near lost his hearing when the bugger back fired - set off a car alarm too!    

[JLeather]

Back when I had my YZ490 (big @$$ 2-stroke dirtbike) I almost always rolled it down a hill to start is cause it would frequently kick the crap outta me on the kickstarter.  The compression was too high, the timing was too advanced, but damn was it fun to ride.

On a CB750, just pick a higher gear (I usually hit 4th actually) and as soon as it starts pull the clutch in, find the correct gear, and go.  Done it plenty of times. 

[333]

I got an extra year out of a battery, many years ago bump starting a 74 550K.  Lived and worked at the top of a hill!

[754]

I think you can start a CB 750 on abot 2 or 3 volts.. we did it on a hill when the neutral light would just barely glow..

 but I bet it would not work with a Dyna or Martek..

 As I understand it, it is excited field 3 phase  alternator.. which requires some juice but not nearly a full charge.. if the field is energized enough it will start making juice if you can spin it fast enough..

[edosm]

Great to hear...you guys crack me up with your stories..LOL ..and here I thought I was going to get a simple "YES" or "NO" answer.

[TwoTired]

I think you can start a CB 750 on abot 2 or 3 volts.. we did it on a hill when the neutral light would just barely glow..

Can't agree with that one.  One wet cell is 2.1 V.  12V batteries have six cells.  When a cell gets to .5V, it's got very little power left to deplete, especially in a small MC battery.   I could maybe believe 6V.  But, an incandescent instrument bulb needs more the 3V to make its filament glow.

Fun to spin yarns, though.

Cheers,

[Terry in Australia]

I had a problem with my Suzuki GS1000S a couple of years ago that turned out to be an inch too much fuel line, which caused it to regularly run out of fuel and stall, and I'd flatten the battery (no kicker) trying to start it. One day on the side of the Hume Freeway, I'd just about flattened the battery when a car full of Iraqi terrorists (well, they looked like terrorists, but they might have just been tourists...........) pulled up, and asked me if I needed some help? (as best they could as English wasn't their first language)

I indicated that I needed a push, so they pushed me for about a mile, but no go. They pushed me this way, they pushed me that, they were breathing so hard their cigarettes were setting fire to their thick Saddam Hussein moustaches, and whenever they stopped they threw punches in the air and cursed the flea bitten dogs who designed this evil contraption that I was sitting on.

We almost gave up, when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that I'd somehow flicked the kill switch to "Off"? Oops! Ok, so I said, "C'mon fellers, one more push for Allah!" which spurred them on to give me a mighty shove, and when we'd reached about 40 miles per hour, I flicked the kill switch back to "on", and dumped the clutch, and BOOM! All the unburned fuel in my pipe ignited!

I looked around, and all my pushers were on the ground! Oh well, they needed a rest, and the bike was going, so I called out a quick "Allah Akbar", and bolted!

[Roach Carver]

i am picturing iranian old men with broken cigarettes and smoldering beards.

[DarkRider]

Oh man i just about died laughing at terrys story. But yea most bikes can be bump started if need be...My 85 VF has a starter that flat out refuses to work sometimes if the bike is hot. and i have done the old running bumpstart many times with that thing. Not fun to push a 540 lb motorcycle at enough of a pace to get it spinning enough lol. It can be done..but it takes a heck of a lot out of you.

[Hope]

Oh YEAH you can.  I park on the 6th floor in the parking garage at work and just coast down..... pop it into gear & VROOOM....

[blackhog02]

I believe that is the standard method of restarting your bike when you are slowing down for the first red light of the day after not properly warming up your bike and it stalls out just as the light turns green, you still have some forward momentum, have not found neutral, and there are lots of cars behind you.  Don't ask me how I know!!!!

[cafe750]

I believe that is the standard method of restarting your bike when you are slowing down for the first red light of the day after not properly warming up your bike and it stalls out just as the light turns green, you still have some forward momentum, have not found neutral, and there are lots of cars behind you.  Don't ask me how I know!!!!

Yep, I second that! "Pop starting" becomes even more fun with a broken clutch cable, especially when the way to the "land of a new cable" has about 20 red lights! I was able to find neutral most times while it was running, so that I could hop off, and wait till the light turned green. Then, when it would finally turn green, I'd have to push the bike, hop on, and pop it into gear before falling over. 'Twas fun, and I sure got a lot of funny looks that day! 

[ofreen]

This thread certainly has legs.