Yah, I know. This has been covered before but I'm seeing new faces joining the ranks of Royal Enfield so I thought I'd mention my experiences with kickstarting my G5.
The first time I went to kickstart my G5 I figured that with the automatic decompression device in there all I had to do was just stomp down on the lever. Right?
Of course there were other people watching and that always puts the Whammy on doing anything fun but anyway, with the bike on the center stand and me straddling it I flipped the lever out with my right foot, turned on the key and let the computer boot and I was ready.
I put my foot on the lever until it moved and then made a slight jump up coming down with all my weight on the lever.
The results? The lever might have moved an inch before it stopped dead still.
Darn near damaged some of my valuable tissue.
No one laughed but I know there were a bunch of muffled chuckles.
With time (and the secrecy of my back yard) I figured out what the trouble was.
The automatic compression release doesn't release the pressure very fast. Not fast at all!
Knowing this, I found that when pushing down on the kickstarter using a moderate amount of pressure it moves pretty easily until the piston starts to come up on compression. Then it slows down to almost a stop.
At this stage, if I continue to push down with a moderate force, the lever will slowly descend as the compression leaks out thru the exhaust valve while the piston rises to the top of the cylinder.
As it does this, suddenly the lever will start to move very easily. THAT IS THE TIME TO STOP PUSHING.
Inside the engine the piston has just passed top dead center (TDC) and you want it to stay there while you reset the kick lever for a full stroke.
The guys on the older Royal Enfields (or Triumphs, BSA's, Matchless etc.) have an ammeter to tell them when this point is reached but we on the UCE's have to feel for this piston position.
Resetting the kick lever with the piston at, or near TDC will give the crankshaft flywheels a full down stroke, upstroke and another down stroke worth of rotation to get up some speed (momentum) when you finally do kick the lever down with force.
That 540 degrees of rotation will give the flywheels a lot of energy.
In fact, with the piston starting at this location you really don't have to use a whole lot of force to get the flywheels going fast enough so that their energy will do most of the work of compressing the fuel/air mixture on the compression stroke to get the engine to fire.
Anyway, with the piston at TDC, give a firm downward kick and DO NOT ROTATE THE THROTTLE.
Usually the engine will start idling on the first kick.
Summarizing this:
1. Turn on the key and let the computer boot and the fuel pump come up to pressure.
2. Push the kick starter down slowly feeling for the compression and keep pushing down slowly until it suddenly gets much easier, then stop.
3. Reset the kick starter lever for a full stroke.
4. Give the kick starter lever a good solid downward thrust clear to the bottom of its travel. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP....
5. Smile big at the crowd and enjoy the ride.