[ShenandoahThumper]

I recently got the adjustable side stand and find it very stable and easy to use. I use it all the time now.

[bobg]

In regards to your dropping issue, I to had trouble flat footing while on the bike until I purchased this solo seat on ebay. Now I can get both feet flat on the ground and feel a lot more in control.

[Edward]

Hi
As regards picking the bike up, you may like to try the method British police officers use to pick up their bikes. Turn you back to the bike grasp the handlebars with one hand and somewhere to the rear with the other. Have your kness bent and use the power of your legs to lift the bike not your back.
Starting the bike from cold.
Fuel on - cold start on. Pull in clutch and kickover a couple of times to free the plates. Hold the decompressor and kickover 5 times to prime the oil pump. Switch ignition on and depress kickstarter until resistance is felt at which point the engine is approaching top dead centre on the compression stroke. Pull in the decompressor, hold it and depress the kickstarter about a quarter of its stroke. Allow the kickstarter to return to the top of the stroke. The piston is now in the ideal position for starting. Get as much of your weight over the kickstart as posibble and use your weight to deliver a long swinging downward thrust.
When the engine is warm use the electric starter.
Try using one leg when you come to a halt with the bike slightly tilted to the side where you have your foot down, it will be more stable than tip toeing both feet
All your other problems will be resolved with perserverence. It will be worth the trouble.
Regards
Edward

[Howie]

All else fails get a sidecar. H

[single]

Put center stand down with rt foot on lever provided.position foot slightly to rear on lever.Turn steering to left with lt hand keep hold of the steering with left hand,grasp the handle with the right hand,holding bike in position with right foot,pull bike to rear and up with both hands.Key is to hold bike centerstand firmly to keep bike steady and to keep it from moving rearward.Do not turn steering to the left until holding cenerstand.firmly down,stabilizing bike. A wall on the far side of the bike to catch it,or a helper.When pulling with hands,push down with right leg and foot.This method works for me.The thing seems to almost jump onto the stand.When kickstarting,be sure to keep knee bent to prevent a backfire from hurting you.If you keep your knee bent the back fire will be harmless and so you willno longer fear it.You will find that your bike has it own starting ritual but will be similar to others.Mine wants 2 priming kicks cold in good weather,3 otherwise and will start first kick if I dont screw up.Stand next to bike while kicking.When timing and breathing are right it will rarely kick back or backfire.You will,one day,look back fondly on this learning period.These are to be mastered,not just used.Welcome to the REal world

[ERC]

Ernie neat but they didn't show picking the bike up when it falls on the left side with your kickstand on the down side.   ERC

[bullethead63]

Welcome to the forum,Bug Catcher...Don't give up!You might want to think about a set of crash bars,at least temporarily...it'll keep your tank and engine from getting banged up if you should drop it again,and also make it a bit easier to lift back up,as well...I have a friend that's about your size,male,and 55,and he has a couple of 2X6 boards in the driveway,just to help him get started and stopped at home...he rides a big V-twin HD,and can only just touch the ground with his tip-toes normally...if he can do it,YOU can do it!

[1Blackwolf1]

  Guess I can't offer much advice on technique to roll your sled onto the stand.  I'm wondering if you could find a set of shorter rear shocks so you could drop the rear end height.  An inch drop in ride height would be a big improvement for riders' below 5'5".

  Had a buddy in the service who was 5'4" who could roll a Honda CX500 onto the stand, and it was a very top heavy machine.  But he also said he lowered the rear end height by two inches.  Might be beneficial to check with Kevin/Vince on the idea.  Will.

[UncleErnie]

Ernie neat but they didn't show picking the bike up when it falls on the left side with your kickstand on the down side.   ERC

That's why holding on to the front brake lever helps in that situation.  It keeps the bike from rolling (if it's not in gear) and you have to get it on your hip and turn after it's mostly up.

[Bug_Catcher]

 
Ok, I got a solo seat and got it customized to lower it even further.  My mechanic also found a way to stick a center mounted sidekick stand on my bike even though it's a 4-spd too.  Feet still aren't flat but it's low enough now to be much more comfortable riding it.  Still can't get it on its center stand without help but unless I want to start taking steroids I guess I'll just have to deal.

Got completely confortable pushing the bike around and am fairly comfortable with the weight now.

Thanks everyone for the great advice!  So now on to my mechanical issue.... 

Now keep in mind I'm a total beginner with engines, and as much as I'd like to tinker with my bike I have no clue what the issue is to even begin messing with it.  When I first got this bike the ES wasn't working at all, and the bike would never idol at a stop no matter how warmed up it was.  I replaced fluids, the battery, and the spark plug.  Found the idol screw and messed with that.  It was still really cold blooded and I never could get her to idol well but the ES was working so easily that I could start it when it died at stops, so no worries.  Well now that week of pleasure has passed and the ES is only making a depressing rrrreeeh rrehh sound when I try to use it.  It kick starts fine, but as I said before I can't get her on the center stand and am already tip toe-ing the bike, trying to kick start it at every stop isn't an option. 

So... any ideas what I can do?  I either need to get her idol stronger or at the least get the ES working so that I can restart her easily.  Should I try replacing the starter?

She kicks and runs fine with the choke on, taking the choke off instantly kills her.  I played with the little throttle adjustment thingy above the carb but it made no difference.  I then kicked her, this did not work either.

Help!   I'm having a love/hate relationship with my bike right now.

p.s Black smoke and a small bit of gasoline was pouring out of the piping that runs from the carb to the engine block.  I placed some well chewed bubble gum and some electrical tape around it.  The black smoke is now pouring out of the air filter box.  Should I be alarmed?

p.s.s I often refer to engine parts as black thingys, metal thingys, and pipe thingys. Attaching names to these parts would be nice.

[ace.cafe]

For your electric starter, it's probably needing the battery to be charged.
Cold weather saps the power out of a battery, and if you don't ride often, or ride long enough to re-charge the battery, it will get weak and the e-starter will quit working.
So, put it on a battery tender, or a charger and get it charged up. That might fix it.

For the starting and idling problem, I think it's that black rubber pipe between the carb and the engine that's leaking fuel and sucking air. If I'm understanding your colorful descriptions correctly, that's the intake manifold hose, and that is a VERY critical part that will affect all those running and idling problems you're having.
It can't have ANY holes, rips, tears, or cracks in it, or the bike won't run right, and may not run at all. So, you need a new one of those.
It's kind of dicey to try to ride the bike like that, because it's going to be lean, and it could kick back and break the electric start system, or it might be lean enough to do engine damage. So I think maybe you should replace that before doing any more riding on it.

[Ice]

Hi Bug_Catcher,

 If you cold post some pics with the cool little circles arrows and numbers on them ( don't ask me how to do that I haven't learned how yet ) I might could help you identify some of those thingys bits and bobs.

About the E.S.rrrreeeh rrehh sound,
 Did you experience and KlANK, BAng CrACK or pow sounds before the rrrreeeh rrehh sound appeared ?
 Does it feel like the E.S is trying to turn the motor over and it just does not have enough oomph to it s job or does the E.S just spin ?

[Bug_Catcher]

Thanks Ace!  I won't attempt to replace it in this stage of my new mechanical career so I'll get my kind and patient mechanic over tomorrow.  He's the only one in town that will even go near my bike...

Thank you for naming the black thingy between the carb and the engine. Intake manifold hose sounds super important.   I have taken pictures to be sure we're both talking about the same hose thingy.  The electrical tape is where the smoke and bit of gas is coming from.



Ice, pictures with arrows and such I can do!  Fixing engines I cannot....
The ES sounds like it is weak but trying to turn over, no strange cracks or bangs going on. Yet.  I had a newly charged battery put in less than a week ago, and took it for a couple spins since then but only for 10-15 minutes or so.  Is that enough to kill the battery already?

So I am curious about a couple of bits and bobs and what they do...

What is that little black cylinder?? on the other side of the bike there is an almost equal sized silver cylinder that I found when I removed the air filter box attempting to find the source of the black smoke.

my friend wants to know what the heck that pipe coming out of the top of the engine is.  He has a new bike that he tinkers with but doesn't have anything similar that looks similar on his

and lastly there is a little wire hanging down from my frame, what's that??  Looks so unimportant... dangling there... but I lose sleep over it.

[The Garbone]

Picture #1

It looks like your choke(enricher) lever is down, the handle should be up for normal operation..  As for the manifold hose..  I wrapped mine in black tape and it held for a few weeks till I could replace it, much like yours. You might want to remove the clamps, pull the tape and gum and then rewrap the hose with tape and put the clamps on top.  That way it wont unwrap and will hold up a bit better..

Pic2

Oil catch can from the engine breather.. it will fill with motor oil over time and puke it out into your air filter when you least want it to.. Not a deal ender but most people change the way its set up....  You can search the forum and for breather mod if your interested..

Pic3

Those tubes feed oil from the oil pump into your rockers at the top of the engine... Very important... They help cool the oil a little also..

pic 4
your horn fell off, those leads went to it, it was located in that general area.

Love the pictures.... Great fun..

[bullethead63]

Bug_Catcher,you'll REALLY be needing that horn...a little old blue-haired lady pulled out in front of me the other evening on the way home from work (I was doing about 40mph),and if I hadn't slammed on both brakes and laid on the horn (God bless my neutral finder),the Bullet and I would've been FUBAR...she could barely see over the steering wheel,and must have been hard of hearing,as she didn't hear the putt-putt-putt and clack-clack-clack of the Enfield...but she DID hear my horn...and The Garbone is right,unlike the choke on my old H-D Sprint,this choke (enricher) is OFF when UP,and ON when DOWN...confusing?Yes...it is...but you'll learn...and PLEASE replace the black rubber hoses between the air-cleaner box and the carb,and between the carb and manifold...my Bullet had been sitting for 6 years before I bought it,and most of that cheap-ass Indian rubber was dry-rotted and cracked...there's also a vent hose between your engine and oil catch-can (that round black metal thingy in picture #2) that should be replaced if it's cracked or leaky...mine started going suck-suck-suck about the third time that I rode it...I replaced it with clear vinyl tubing,and stainless steel hose clamps...your trusted mechanic should have no trouble doing this if you're not comfortable doing it...it's a bit fiddly if you have big,clunky paws like mine...keep up the good work,you're getting there...and I love the look of your Silver Bullet...