03-09-2015, 01:40 PM
(03-08-2015, 05:27 AM)ClassicVW_imp Wrote: Good choice, lots of luck with it! Another instance where the not available in the U.S. CB400 would probably be perfect.
That Yamaha has a very fiddly starting procedure that gets annoying really fast according to all reviews. In addition to the kick starter, there's a sight glass on the cylinder head to assist you in finding the best position for compression, and a decompression lever on the left handlebar! Who the heck wants to deal with all that in 2015 when you're just running a few errands around town and stopping and starting a half dozen times? And it was worst in stopping distance in the tests.
I wonder how much of that was to re-create the original SR 500? Because that was EXACTLY how those 1979-81 bikes started. Use the compression release, a grip handle on the top of the handlebars, to take the compression off as you slow-rolled the engine just PAST compression. That was why the window on the camshaft.
You had to then SLAM down the kick starter and inertia would roll it through the next compression cycle. And fire. You HOPED.
Try doing that after you stall it starting at a light.
And there was NO getting around it. If you just slammed the kick-starter down against engine compression, you would bounce back up and maybe fall over, if you were straddling it. It was, IIRC, 10:1 compression and the kickstarter was geared for speed, not leverage.
When I looked at the SR 400, I didn't start it but the salesman did. He said it was a simple thing BECAUSE OF the FI. But you're right...car engine or anything, you have to spin a FI engine a bit longer to get it to start. I never thought about the feedback loop getting set up...