Electric Start

[sam90lx]

Greetings and Merry Christmas. My name is Sam and I reside in Phoenix AZ. This site is a great find.
I am thinking about picking up a KX 500 2 stoke but my concern is kick starting it.
I am older now than when I grew up on dirt bikes and kicking was never an issue, but the problem
is compounded due to having a left artificial leg.

Is there anything out there that would work?

Thanks in advance a have a great Holiday.

[Albertan]

The kickstart is on the right hand side, so in theory as long as you can kick hard with your right leg you'll be alright.  The KX500 does take a pretty hard determined kick to start it up, so you'd at least have to be able to balance with your left leg while you kick it.  I'm not aware of any electric start conversions for the KX500, but maybe other users on the site have some ideas.

[ID KX500]

I'd add e-start to mine if possible too,, but never heard of it. Therefore a newer KLX 450R could be the ticket. If you want a heck of a deal I saw an '08 with only 62 miles,,in Montana's Craigslist for $4500. That might be worth the drive,, with 1.50 gas.... Also I think in AZ I saw Destry Abott had a KLX for sale. Good luck.

[Bigtim]

Merry Chistmas Sam!   I've got a 500 and haven't had the trouble starting it that some others have.  I think if you are tuff enough to ride with an artificial limb, you can handle kicking the 500 over.  No BS, my bike starts first kick every time, it didn't always but it does now, after breaking a  kickstart lever, and realizing my pilot jet wasn't large enough.  I used to just kick frantically at any point in the stroke,... big mistake, get it just past tdc, choke on, lean against something if you need to or stand on something like a rock or bike stand w/ your left leg and kick all the way thru to the rt foot peg.  Best of luck.  

[kaw rider]

install a compression release on it.

[BDI]

I would like to start by saying that the fact that you still ride is totaly awesome and I have the upmost respect for you for doing so. If you want a bike with e-start you can't go wrong with either an klx450r or a crf450x I own the x-model and my buddy mike owns the r-model. Both bikes are awsome bikes and if you want hop-up help I could help on that for either bike. Now as far as the kx500 goes that is a good starting bike as long as the bike is in good running condition the bike should never take you more then three kicks to start it and the first two would be easy priming kicks. As far as E-start on a kx500, that is an interesting proposition. I myself have never seen one but if it can be done there are a few people here that could pull it off, I'm sure. I'm not saying I can do it but I can assure you I will be brain storming the idea.

[sam90lx]

Thanks for all the suggestions and help thus far.....this is a great forum.
BDI, i may look into a 450 as you mentioned, thanks.

[Friar-Tuck]

 Sam,
  I'm wondering if by shortening the length of the kips bolt and "oveclosing" the the exhaust port you could in essence lose some compression on start up with a little less top end.

For that matter, if you could figure out how to create a Two position kips bolt you could have best of both worlds 
  (without the expense of the aftermarket machinework of the conventional compression release)

  Tuck\o/

[bigbellybob]

i would also look into a KTM 300 with e start. then you would still have the easy to maintain 2t + e start. there is a guy on ktmtalk that has found the 380 jug fits on the new 300 case and the crank assemble fits in the case too, even the PV hooks up. he said it will need little port work to line the ports up perfectly. i dont know if the e-start will start the 380 but if it dose. you would have open class big bore power, new good handling suspenders and geometry, and e-start.

[Good]

That's cool!  I wonder what having this done would cost?  Could it be done to a 15:1 motor?

[gwcrim]

I'd LOVE to have an e-start but it's got to be very cost prohibitive.  I have my jug off and will be sending it here soon:

http://www.accu-products.com/accu-products/accu-start-compression-release-kit/prod_3015.html

At least with this, it will start with sneakers like a 250 instead of steel shank boots.

[bigbellybob]

That's cool!  I wonder what having this done would cost?  Could it be done to a 15:1 motor?

if you did the work your self your looking at about $2,000 in new parts. you could then offset the cost by selling the 300 parts. you could easily get $1,000 out of all the parts removed. the guy that's attempting this still needs to slide the jug on with the crank installed to see how the deck height comes out. it could end up needing a spacer or some meat taken off the bottom of the jug. i have know idea how the e-start would handle high compression. i will try and find out how much compression the guys are making with the 300's.