What am I doing wrong

I've broken bones on my foot with an over advanced ignition before so I can feel your pain. Once bitten you are always wary of it. To set the timing on your bike is very easy as there is a plug (#10 in picture)on the crankcase you can see 28 degree BTDC timing slot in the crankshaft irregardless of what the primary markings indicate. Tri-spark is really easy to set up this way.

Also RGM a longer kickstart lever which will give you more leverage when kicking looks like this one
http://www.commandospecialties.com/Prod_Detail.asp?MSecID=54&ProdID=173
Once your timing is spot on and with longer lever you should be set.

daveparry said:

that both pistons are almost at full compression
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Both pistons will never be on compression at the same time Deckard! (being pedantic here because I do know what you mean)!

Dave.

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Thanks for the reminder, Dave. I should have said either piston! That's another reason why these are easy to start. They fire alternately on every upward stroke. It's easier if the cases aren't full of oil

I had to think about my routine. Turn ignition on (no lights), fuel on, choke on, put on helmet and gloves, then straddle bike, kick through, bike starts with one or two kicks, then turn lights on and let bike warm up a little; take your time. Only other ideas: 20-50 oil and not straight 50, set idle a little high, retard timing. Don't be afraid to retard the timing a couple of degrees at a time until you have easy starting and good running. The standard instructions may not be right for your particular machine, altitude, humidity, fuel, etc. so fiddle a little and let your bike tell you what timing it is happiest with.

debby said:

hobot said:

. Or must consider you are not man enough to own and operate a heavy Commando twin with frustrating quirks <snip>

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One does not need to be a man to own and operate a Commando! In fact, sometimes a woman's touch is exactly what is needed. 8)

Debby
first kick, hot or cold. I do wear boots though...

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Debbie,

WIll be watching in Wyoming to inspect your kick start technique

It's nothing special, David. Basically just like the others have described in this thread. I do find that both bikes like the choke for that first start in the morning. After that, choke not needed, the ticklers do fine.

"Follow through with your full body weight", as the owner's manual tells us to do...

I have NOT tried to hand-start it, as a few others on this forum have claimed to do. I like my wrists non-broken thank you very much.

Can I also suggest another method?, that is gently ease the kickstarter until you feel compression, pop into gear and push bike back until you are on compression, ease back into neutral without moving engine then , from the top of the kickstarter stroke, start engine. Anyone who has tried to start a big 500cc single with a broken valve lifter will be familiar with this method.

I don't think that I've ever kicked a bike over in recent years when I haven't pushed the piston two thirds of the way up t he bore before flicking over TDC. When I was 23, I fell off a home made 200cc two stroke minibike at about 30MPH after it stood up under power. I wasn't wearing a helmet and I was wearing moccasins on my feet. As I slid up the road, I stuck my arm out to stop myself from rolling, and all was going well until my toe caught the road. When I got up, I could hardly walk for the pain, and I thought I'd broken something. At the time I was newly married, so I caught the tram home, and my wife took me to the doctor. He told me that I had sinovitis, so I still continued to walk. Some time later I fitted the two race cams to my mates' Bonneville. When he came to visit me one day, I tried to kick it over, and it kicked back. I ended up laying on the ground in agony, yet I picked myself up and still walked around for the next year. One day my kid was playing on the woodheap in my mother's backyard and dropped his lollies, I climbed up to get them for him, and jumped down from the lowest log. I ended up on the ground, and on my way to hospital. It turned out that when my toe had caught the road in the minbibike accident, ,my lower leg had rotated and broke the raised piece of bone off in the centre of my knee joint. When it was operated on, one cartledge was removed to get it out, however the doctors found it was attached to the other cartledge, so turned me over during the operation to cut it free. Then I had to learn t o walk again. When I kicked that Bonneville over and it kicked back, it must have compressed the injury. Take care fellas, and don't ever go at things too quickly ! Bikes are easy to kick over regardless of capacity or compression ratio, it simply takes developing a bit of technique. Even if the ignition is too advanced, if you compress the charge slowly to almost TDC, when you flick it over the top you will be able to hold it if it kicks back. So do it slowly, a big lungful of mixture and an ignition system with too much advance can get quite nasty if you do it too quickly (sorry Bernhard what you've said is OK if you are bump starting, but dangerous otherwise).
Apologies to Hobot, I know he doesn't like hearing about my crashes ! The minibike one was the slowest of them and gave by far the worst injury by a country mile. In fact it was so bad that until this discussion I had completely forgotten the extreme pain of it.

Bernhard, We don't bump start in races in Australia any more. If you ever have to do it, pull the bike back onto compression, pull the clutch in and pull back to break the plates free. Get it fixed in your mind that the bike will start. Hold the clutch in until the flag drops watching the starter for any signals that he is about to drop it. When it drops (or just slightly before) push and run like hell while trying to lift the handle bars, and hit the seat while dropping the clutch. The bike always fires, and as soon as it does , if your bike is a four stroke rip the throttle wide open and hold it there as you step over and step onto the gear change lever doing immediate race changes up to the first corner, and go around it preferably on full noise at full race speed. These days I have a heart condition, so it is probably a good thing that we don't do this anymore, but a good start really helps towards winning races. A clutch start with a high first gear is a pain in the butt.
You've got to keep your sense of humour !

@acotrel
What's a «cartledge»
Fritz

bad_friday said:

@acotrel
What's a «cartledge»
Fritz

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I think he means "cartilage".

I mean the vestigial organ intended to lubricate the knee joint which is on both sides of the knee -often gets torn in sports injuries.-scar tissue replaces it after it is cut out.

Sorry, didn't find an other way to delete a contribution of mine
Fritz

L.A.B. said:

I think he means "cartilage".

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Thank you. This makes sense. , in the knee also known as meniscus?
Fritz

"cartilage", is a nebulous term like ligament or tendon, which often blend into one cord. Usually used to refer to the padding under named structures like "meniscus" or intervertebral discs and the bone they protect, yet all connective tissue is made of similar cells, fibers and ground substance but in varying ratios per location. Cartilage depends on joint motion to keep repairing so any limit in motion and loading dissolves it and slows or stops its replacement till bone on bone. KInd a like ZADP lays down only if run to hi enough temps.