Motorcycle roller starter

[tonyfoale]

Here's mine, made from an old scooter. Starters from scooters used to be common but like many starter designs they needed two man operation. I designed mine so that it can be used single handedly by the rider. Many DIY starters use car or truck starter motors and battery and they have foot switches to allow singlehanded operation. The starter motor type only run when the switch is operated. The scooter version needed a throttle control and also needed to be turned off. I added a second foot control which deactivated a latching relay for the ignition and battery. There was a hidden button to allow powering on, this was primarily to prevent kids from doing harm. The scooter has a centrifugal clutch so its motor could be started and left idling while the bike was put in place, then revved up with the foot throttle control to engage the drive.

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