Hot Kicking

[Panshovl66]

Everyone talks about starting the bike when it's cold but what about when it's warmed up? What's your kicking ritual when the engine is warm? I have an S&S E and when the engine is cold it starts up fine but I'm having problems getting her to fire up when she is warmed up. Do I retard the distributor or leave it alone, enrichener on or off, no gas or sum gas? This is on a 55 pan and any help you can give me will save my knee.

[Breeze]

From what I have seen through the years, is every kick only bike has it's own starting preference, hot or cold. Some like a squirt of fuel, some don't. The only fairly consistent that I have found is most like one or two slow prime kicks with no ignition, then ign. & a good kick.  The most common problem I've seen is twisting the throttle while booting it. Many don't even realize they are twisting it.  I always try to err on "not getting enough" fuel before chancing  soaking the plugs.

[moose]

when hot I don't retard as much as when cold give it one prime kick then ign on and pray

disclosure   none of this will work if you are in any place that has a crowd     you will have to get them to push you so you could jump start it

[58Tin]

when hot I open the choke and open the throttle-retard timing-bring up to compression- turn on ignition and kick. Running a linkert now but when I ran a bendix i easily opened the throttle so the accelerator pump would not squirt fuel.

[Harpo]

Hot starts on my '49 - retard spark as usual.  No choke.  Open throttle full.  Be ready to immediately close throttle (and advance spark) when starts.  Starts 1 kick every time.

[guppymech]

On my Shovel with a Super E I turn the fuel off about 30 seconds to a minute before I know I'm going to turn the engine off to lessen fuel percolating in the float bowl from engine heat.  On restart just barely crack throttle and kick.

[david lee]

when hot I don't retard as much as when cold give it one prime kick then ign on and pray

disclosure   none of this will work if you are in any place that has a crowd     you will have to get them to push you so you could jump start it

seen that happen before .a crowd counting every kick.i think it was 9 before push time

[bobrk1]

Hey  never  had  a  pan but  first  bike  was  a  xlcr learn  how  to  kick  the  hard  way , had a S U carb  with  no .squirter I  changed  from  dist. To magneto locked  in  at advanced , hot was  kick until  it started  most  times  1 to 3 bike  treated  me  good . Had it over  20 years  wasn't  like  that  when  I  bought  it  lol

[Excalibur]

Sometimes the engine will start right up but other times it won't? Can't figure out if engine is flooded or dry? Does it pop, sneeze or maybe just give the silent treatment?. Sound like a familiar story?

"Clear it out and start over"  5 ~ 6 kicks with wide throttle, then it only needs a sniff of fuel into the throat to fire up.. But at least you're starting from a known point of having no fuel rather than trying to guess how much is already inside the cylinders/intake.

Good luck, hope it helps.

[Brrrap]

My 59 Panhead.
   Cold start; ignition off, open petcock, two full twists of throttle, Full choke S&S E. Set up on compression and kick twice. Set up on compression, move to half choke, retard distributor just slightly, ignition on and then kick like you mean it. Usually first or second kick, fires right up.
    Hot start; ignition off, set up on compression stroke, retard distributor slightly, ignition on and 1 hard kick.
I've got a good Pan.
    If, when you turn on the ignition and place your foot on the kicker and it pops before you kicked it down,,,,,,well,
Most of the time it's a good Pan 

[Excalibur]

My cold start is much like Brrrap except my Linkert doesn't have a pumper.

Hot/warm starts are a bit more challenging and there's a few things to take into account.
Ambient temperature, engine heat soak and any wind chill affect my approach and what I'll do.
The engine is much more likely to fire right up if temperatures are moderate in which case I retard timing out of kickback range, crack throttle slightly, ignition on and kick.
Where summer temperatures are soaring it's more likely to need extra air so I'll achieve that by either:
Retard timing out of kickback range, wide throttle, ignition on and kick.
or
One or two air kicks before retard timing out of kickback range, crack throttle slightly, ignition on and kick.

If everything fails, I clear it out as detailed upthread.

More recently I've been doing the kicking differently. Instead of heaving aggressively on the kicker, I build up the lever and simply stand on it. If I've done my prestart prep correctly it will start with a big enough bang and run. It's surprises how easily it can start when everything is right.

Hope this helps..

[Reddog74usa]

Yep, just take your time and set it up as perfect as you can get and it will be a one kick scoot. Had a friend of mine back in the day that bought me many a beer as he would always be waiting for the bike to be a no start on the first kick when I left. He never did see it happen.