Made the mistake of kicking the kx with a sneaker on

[reknelb]

OUch!!! Ripped the dang sneaker right off my foot and left a huge gash in it (the sneaker).  Went in and put a hiking boot on, the tip of the kick lever stuck in the sole.  Had to use a cooler to stand on to get a good kick. At 6" 230lbs it was a little embarassing. Luckily my kids were the only ones around. Guess I should buy a pair of mx boots, hehehhehe.

Not sure how good its running, I only have a 1st gear yard. It seems like it takes an extra second to come back to idle when I rev it in nuetral. It does that "2stroke pop" a couple times on the way back down too. Is that normal? In case you're wondering its the first time I've ran it since buying it.  

I had an old cr450r that used to do the exact same thing but, i had the idle turned way up on it to help with stalling. first gear on that old honda did about 35mph, and fourth went 60mph. Worst gear box ratio ever made

[BigKX]

Give some background on the bike.  For best throttle response, set it so you barely have any idle or none at all.

[reknelb]

Give some background on the bike.  For best throttle response, set it so you barely have any idle or none at all.

The only thing I know about the engine is it has a fairly new top end. Previous owner rode it a total of a half hour over 4 years and when he bought it, it had just had the top end done. When I had the engine out to get my frame painted, I looked in the exhaust and intake and it looked brand new.

[KXcam22]

reknelb,
  That pop seems to be fairly typical if the jetting is close. I run an idle, some don't. Doordie has a KIPS "pop" theory that I'm going to test this weekend when I reasemble mine.  You're lucky on the sneaker. I did that one with loafers on and my foot slipped off just as the engine kicked back. Caught me under the angle bone and gave me a greenstick fracture up the tibia. Had to race the next day with one borrowed size 12 boot and lots of tensors/painkillers. Did lousy. Cam.

[Arigato]

That's one of the first rule when owning a 500.  NEVER  try in anything other than your riding boots.  I did win $5 starting a friends YZ250F with my bare hand though.  

What year is your KX?
Did you clean the powervalve when you had it apart?
How about the carb?

[reknelb]

Mines a '90. The top end is like brand new. There's barely any carbon in the exhaust port. I popped the float bowl off when I had it apart and it was spotless. I forgot to make a note of the jetting though  The bike started easy and idled nice when I went and looked at it so I wasn't worried about it running when I had it apart. I think the idle is turned up a little too much. Like I said, the same thing used to happen on my old 450 when I had the idle turned up too much. What I should have done was messed with the pilot so it would idle instead of turning the idle up. Probly the same thing going on with the kx.

[NastyNick]

I got a scar for kicking the mighty beast with a shoe on, but thats jsut because my shoe slipped off the kickstarter and it came up and caught me in the calf.  My 500 doesn't have that hard of a kick.  A nice and smooth jab will get it going without any problems.

[Pinchy]

OUch!!! Ripped the dang sneaker right off my foot and left a huge gash in it (the sneaker).

You too?!

I thought I was the only person that had that happen to.

Used to have an old 86 xr600 that ripped my sneaker in half when it backfired some years ago. Put a nice bruise on the bottom of my foot. Kx500 did it again couple of years ago and what sucked was the shoes were kinda new and I tried to wear em for while to get my moneys worth out of em, but got tired of explaining to people how the shoe got ripped.

That Kx500 seems to be more of a beast to start if your always used to 4strokes and that ripped shoe happened in the first few weeks I had it. I noticed ,as mentioned elsewhere, you have to slowly kick it over to get the piston at TDC and ratchet the kick back up to the absolute highest position to get the full kick out of it. Any other position and itll likely backfire and never start. Ive noticed too , that If it sat up for a long time and you cant get it to start in just a few kicks then ill swap the plug out for a dry one and itll crank, ride for some seconds to get it warm then swap that old plug back in.

I still almost always crank and ride it with sneakers though.

Had an old friend that used to ride xl125 back in the creeks behind his house and said he used to ride barefoot and crank the thing that way too. I dont see how in the world how. I tried just seeing if I could kick my 250 thru and it was painful just putting pressure on the kick. He said that when his feet would get wet ,  his foot would slip and the kick would bust his calf.

[Brett]

On the beers the other night i told me mates they could have my 500 if they could start it barefooted.  End result 4 guys with very bruised bottom of feet and not even one of them got it to go passed the next tdc.

[Arigato]

That's mean.  But funny!

[hughes]

Riding bikes with sneakers and bare footed ya'll are more man than me. :drunk:

[John]

Good idea! I'll make that offer to my mates this summer, I know I will keep the bike...

My brother tought me that lesson when he broke multiple bones in his foot trying to start a 600 with sneakers. It's NOT a good idea.

//John