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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[Piros1]

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?

[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

[sun311usa]

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?

Unfortunately for me my bike is left side kickstart which makes it tough to start. I've tried with right foot as well but wasn't able to do it successfully