Motorcycle roller starter

[tonyfoale]

Curious what the reasoning behind this? Every motorcycle I’ve had or been around had either electric or kick starter. Is there a specific type of motorcycle that does not have a manual or electric starter? I’m guessing a racing application?

You guess correctly. We used to start with a dead engine and had to run and start our engines when the race started (except in the US), but then the race authorities in their infinite wisdom decided that the idle, aged and obese generation needed a bit of help and decided on starts with a running engine, a decision that I shall ever be grateful for. Thus a starter other than a fit young helper was called for and there are several types in use. In motoGP now the trend is towards handheld starters that drive the engine directly but MotoP teams have a bunch of people ready to hold the starter.

Here are a couple of different types of starter