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.