Starter roller plans?

N0rt0nelectr@

N0rt0nelectr@

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After having my right knee operated on for the second time I have decided to see about building a starter roller. I have seen several on youtube, but was interested in your take and advise. If I were to wander out into the garage and try and start one of my big British singles both my wife and doctor would kick my a**.

Cheers
John in Texas
 
I have also had right knee rebuilt two times ... I start the Commando on center stand with my left leg , while standing beside bike ... hips gone now, bikes for sale ... but maybe you want to give my method a try ... no doubt you could put together a roller starter , just not very portable .... good luck
Craig
 
Craig, I can do that but if it stalls at a light I'm screwed. Put a CNW starter kit on 1 of my Commando's but there isn't much I can do for the AJS or Matchless. True I can't haul a set of starter rollers with me when I go for a ride, but for a warm up it would be a help.
Cheers
John in Texas
 
Yes , the starter rollers would be nice .... I can get out on back roads from my house without going through any lights or busy intersections , still tend to ride the modern bikes more often because of this issue ....
 
I bought a mains electric-powered starter roller for $700. It makes life much easier. Sadly the guy I bought it off died last year from cancer, which he had for many years - I did not know. He owned a 50s' Montesa two-stroke, which one of the guys used to ride in the Period 3 350 historic class against the 350 Manxes. Then he moved it up into the next period which contained the 60s' two-strokes. His rider still won races. I thought it was good that he did that. A lot of guys would simply have run with their undue advantage.

The starter roller is powered by an angle grinder. Would you like a photo ?
 
I am thinking of building a roller starter and would like to see some plans, just planning for when I get older lol.

Ashley
 
Dan Smith built a starter as part of his Velo Roarer replica project. When he sold the Roarer to the Solvang Museum this year, they did not want the starter.
He was wondering what to do with it and I put up my hand for it. He thought it would be capable of starting the 1360 Vincent, which at just under 11 to one cr. is a very tough thing to roll over.
My knee has issues but they really only show up when I try to start this thing, which is roughly like starting two Combat Commandos at the same time.
The roller starter would easily fire up the 850 or the 9 to one 998 Rapide, but would stall out with the 1360.
I switched out the car battery for one from my f350 diesel and that worked.
What a help!
Once the bike has been running it's a little easier to kick thru, but this does that first cold start for me.
I don't know if Dan drew up plans for it or just put it together, will ask.

Glen

 
Thank Glen that would be great if you can, my Norton has always been a one kick to start it but lately not riding it as much its been taking a few to many kicks to start first up for the day, but once started it will kick start on the first kick every time all day, but its more to do with the carbies I am running, Jim's PWKs, thinking of going back to new Premier Amals, just got to save up my $$$ and cents.

Ashley
 
Googling "motorcycle paddock starter rollers", or "electric motorcycle starter rollers", or "how to build a motorcycle paddock starter", and so on, will bring up dozens of pictures and a bunch of how to videos. Lots of good ideas out there.

Ken
 
If you are using a starter which has an angle grinder inside and drives the rear wheel through a knurled roller, it is usual to use a fairly high gear when starting the bike. - More revs, less load.
 
Turns out Dan didn't do drawings for the starter.
I suspected that might be the case.
He builds some pretty complex stuff, I guess a roller starter is a simple item for him to put together.

Glen
 
acotrel said:
If you are using a starter which has an angle grinder inside and drives the rear wheel through a knurled roller, it is usual to use a fairly high gear when starting the bike. - More revs, less load.
Click to expand...

Higher gear = less revs at the engine and easier to turn over for the starter.
At some point you are turning the engine too slowly for starting.
With this bike 3rd gear = 127 mph at 6500 so it's already very high . 4 th and 5th are just too high for good starting.
Fortunately with the big battery in place the starter can fire the bike up in second, which is geared for 102 mph at 6500.
It lights up instantly in 2nd, as seen in the video.

Glen
 
I have a few ideas about making a roller starter but thats going to be way down the road yet as I have no problems with kicking it, just lately its been a bitch to start after sitting for a while but its only the first start that its been hard, if I was riding it everyday then it would start first kick, but after its been started for the day it starts first kick everytime, I am just thinking down the road.
Back in 79 some low life stole my kicker off my Norton, at that time a replacement was hard to come by, no internet in them days and for 4 months I was push starting it, 1st and 2nd just locked up the back wheel, 3rd was okay but found 4th was the best to push start it to life, but once it fired up you had to be quick on the clutch lever, it was easier for me to push start in top gear as I was only a 9 stone weakling at the time, it took me 4 months to find a new kicker and of all places it was a unknown little bike shop that didn't even do work on British bikes that had a new one.
As well push starting it in 4th gear put less strain on the gear box, this was just after replacing the blown lay shaft bearing, one thing was I got good at push starting a Norton.

Ashley
 
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