[Laurence]

My 2008 Bullet ES (AVL) just locked up on me. After a short ride I stopped for lunch, then went out to kick start her up, While easing the kickstarter down to find TDC it stopped about a third of the way down and no amount of pressure could get it to go any further down. If I pull in on the clutch lever the kickstarter will go down. Kick starter problem? transmission problem? I put her in first gear and tried pushing the bike forward and back to see if I could turn the engine over. No - Tried it in other gears. No. - in gear the back wheel will not turn. So in neutral I coasted down the hill back home.

Qusetion: what steps do I take to diagnose this problem?

[t120rbullet]

Not a gearbox problem if the kickstarter goes down with the clutch pulled in.
Sounds like a motor problem.
Were you running it hard before that? Broke-in yet?

[clamp]

Take the head off and have a look inside.  You will not have waisted time as the head will need to come off if the engine need rebuilding anyway.

[Bath Bullet]

Could I suggest before you do anything to check with your dealer, you may invalidate any warranty if you disturb  anything, and you may be wasting your own time and money if its covered.

[Tiny Tim]

Before you remove the head, remove the spark plug and see if it is compression that is holding the engine.

Have you had the courage to prod the electric start?

REgards

TT

[fun2drum]

...see if it is compression that is holding the engine.
...

Your bringing up that possibility made me realize that the decompression button hasn't been mentioned.  It's pretty much natural for mine to stop about 1/3 of the way down and then I have to use the decompression button to get it down the rest of the way.  I'm sorry if I'm just stating the obvious, but if that hasn't been tried, then...

[ace.cafe]

Should still be under warrantee, yes?

Then take it to the dealer before you do anything to it.

It sounds to me like the engine is locked-up, and there could be any number of causes.

[1Blackwolf1]

Possible hydrostatic lock-up.  Was the fuel left on?  Pull your spark plug, if you smell raw gas, bingo.  Not a strong possibility, but does happen.

[Vince]

     I have seen this some times when the Sprag fails. A back fire when you shut of the engine could break a tooth off a Sprag. Blackwolf does have a good suggestion. By all means take out the plug. If you have a hydraulic lock from gas or oil it will spit out when you kick with the plug removed. In either case it should go to the dealer for a warranty repair.

[Kevin Mahoney]

Ditto what Vince said and this is from the horses mouth so to speak

[cyrusb]

Try putting it in last gear and rolling it backwards, it may disloge any foreign objects. Take a peek in your primary,too

[1Blackwolf1]

Try putting it in last gear and rolling it backwards, it may disloge any foreign objects. Take a peek in your primary,too

Excellent point made, if the chain has buckled up on itself it may cause the primary to lock up, could happen.  I'm going to go out on a limb here, if it didn't smell really hot at shut down and your oil level was okay at last check (like before you left) and it didn't backfire enough to scare you at start-up it is probably something correctable at your level.

It's probably going to sharpen your detective skills, let us know what you find.  Will.

[clamp]

IF fuel was to drain into the cylinder it would drain into the crank case. I ve never seen a piston ring without a gap in it.

    Pushing it backwards and forwards to free it off does what.   If it did reverse its rotation and free, would you try to start it? You are making the damage worse.

    As you remove the head it is likely you will see a valve out of place, or dropped.

    It could be a broken primary that has bunched up.   It could be a few things. Take it apart and find out. 

[Bath Bullet]

As has already been said, if its in warranty take it to your dealer.
If you open anything up without their knowledge/advise you leave yourself wide open to losing any claim and bearing all the cost yourself.
If they say go ahead and investigate then thats different, but ask first.
My dealer was very helpfull, sending me parts up for free but even then it was getting close to him volunteering to take it back at his expence, as it was in the end it was something stupidly simple, but if it had been anything major, costly or both I could have lost out if I had not asked first.

[cyrusb]

Clamp, pushing it backwards would determine if a foreign object (sprague rollers,etc) were chocking the chain. If it frees up you then take off primary to inspect. You will notice that the head is still on. Trouble shoot  rule #1 easy stuff first. You don't start that bike until it is fixed, no matter what was wrong with it.