Hell Tooseevee, if you're still getting a leg over at 81 (insert sound of twittering Brits here), then you're more man than most. You got twenty years on me, and I'm not as spry as I once was. Add to that the level of difficulty of having to fire up a tweaked AVL with no decomp or electric leg on a cool Rhode Island morn, and my hat's off to you, man. Were I in your situation, before hanging up my spurs, I might be looking for means to maybe ameliorate the impact of those "olds". Just spitballing here, but have you got a nice jacuzzi or hot tub? Before I set out for "yonder" on my own Iron Belly, I sort of warm and limber it up around the block nice and easy. Why not treat your own body's lymphatic "lube system" and joints to the same warm up before a jaunt? Besides, a jacuzzi and a good book are among the sublime joys of life, if a taxi full of drunken Swedish stewardesses isn't handy. Treat yourself!
With your Enfield, that first cold start must be the biggest hurdle. So, if you'd really prefer to stick with your lovely AVL instead of some latter-day bike or even scooter with an electric start, how about getting one of those electric roller start doodads like I've seen in Jay Leno's Garage and other YouTube videos? There's no shortage of DIY versions shown out there, including one using what looks like a Harbor Freight angle grinder as its motive force, but here is a rather nice looking one from England shown actually starting a nice old Bullet. I reckon with a bit of rummaging through the Interwebs, a nice enough turnkey one might present itself for $500 or so, where you could just back the beast on, hit the footpedal, fire up, and off you'd go.
Remember: We're Riders of the Archaic. So go ahead and be archaic. You'll show those whippersnappers!
I only just saw your post an hour ago and chose to answer Richard230's first and then take the dog out for her 1 o'clock dump which was already late.
Anyway. I don't know where you picked up the idea that I am kick only. Not so, Grasshoppah.
It is true that I have only used the electric starter very rarely since day one mostly because I've just always been a kickstarter, but also to save that sprag which, only because of this forum, I knew was a time bomb ready to blow.
But I do have a kicker; always have. Because it has come to hurt so bad if more than three kicks, I started using the electric for the first start of the day. From then on, I always get one or two kick kick starts, no problem.
The cold kick starts immediately got better with the switch to the Champion plug, but I just can't take the chance any more. If I was to have to go past 3 kicks cold and it didn't start, I would be wreaked to the point that I just would not, could not, go. And this is not just leg, it's every single joint, tendon, ligament, bone, you-name-it. It's mind-bending panic-pain.
No. I'm not the Jacuzzi or electric rear tire rotator type.