Kickstarting an R100GS-PD

[Paul Rochdale]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWFEy6YY2M

I've never seen anyone kickstarting a BeeEm like this from the seated position. The man clearly has far longer legs than me too, hence I use a sidestand.

I also noticed last week after filling up the tank with 27 litres of petrol that there was no way I could hoist the bike onto it's centrestand. Absolutely impossible (for me).

 

[Roger Chatterton]

Paul - I know what you mean with the PD and full tank. I had same problem when I had had the Ohlin shock adapted to the correct slightly shorter BMW shock length. There was no way I could hoist it up, and I'm nearly 6' tall, and fairly strong ( I like to think anyhow).
My solution, although illogical, was to have the centre stand shortened by a pal who can do that sort of thing. He cut out a small section of, from memory approx 12 mm, and then put a short length of rod inside the split point and re-welded. Now I have no problem with centre stand, and bike sits about correct height from the ground when on the stand.

Regarding kick-starting- if you do not have the special ICU unit fitted ( cue Rob Farmer for more info), you will never start bike off the kickstart. There is an inbuilt safety measure in the standard ICU, to cut off power to the coils after a couple of seconds or less, so that coils do not overheat and create a possible fire risk. The ICU will only remain "open" when it receives triggers from the beancan sensor every 200 milliseconds or something similar- so, unless you can repeat kick the kick-start that rapidly, then it just plain wont start. Makes sense really.
The modified ICU ( I think it is has different coloured writing on, and is longer top to bottom) gets round the problem of the very short time between pulses, and thus permits kick-starting. So don't waste energy trying - you'll have a heart attack or something !

 

[Roger Chatterton]

Just had another thought re the stand - have you checked the bushes that the centre stand swivels on - these can get corroded and worn, and as a result, they stop swiveling, and so wear a groove in the bushes, making it harder to get bike up on stand. EAsy and cheap to fix too !

 

[Paul Rochdale]

Thanks Roger but my R100GS-Paris Dakar is newly restored and is as mint as a mint could be. The bushes are...............mint and well lubricated. My personal feeling is that with a full tank the balance of the bike is far far too forward.

 

[Rob Farmer]

Maybe you're just weak and feeble (a southern softie after all). You need some meat on your bones to give it some umph.

 

[Paul Rochdale]

How dare you Sir, I take the utmost umbrage. I am a powerfully bit yet understandably weakening 67yr old. Fucketty fucketty fuck,,,,,,

 

[Beemerboff]

There isnt much in it - with a new set of tires I can just heave it up on the stand, but with a worn - 4/5mm lower - set I have to run the front wheel up on to a 40mm thick paving slab.

It is all in the geometry - my 250kg VFR just rolled back about 100 mm then popped up on to the stand without any effort other than a prod with my foot on the lever on the stand.



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[(RIP) Arkwright]

I thought the reason BMW put kick starts on GS's was so that you could use them and the bar brace to pull them back on the centre stand, particularly when the tank is full!