PIP HIGHAM
Get a kick out of your biking, sayeth Pip!
t all started over a small beaker of fine red wine: “Go on then, what’s your favourite book then?” (Not Much of an Engineer by Sir Stanley Hooker, or maybe Stupid White Men by Michael Moore) Bob had sparked the interrogative debate off after a notably large swig, I deftly countered with a swift jab: “So music, Bob, what’s your fave? Grunge? Country? (without the ‘Western’) or Geetar Rock?” Quick as a fish: “Hip hop!” quoth Bubba with a cheek full of tongue. “Hip-op,” says I, and the next thing you know I’m in the recovery room at Wrightington with an armful of pipes and a significant dressing adorning my upper leg area.
My hip has been a source of some pain to me, and much amusement to several others, for a while now. The cumulative effect of kicking up many bikes over the last 50 years or so had left me with bones rubbing against other bones in a fairly random fashion without the luxury of a layer of cushioning membrane to stop them quarrelling with each other. I now have a new joint just beside my wallet with a mix of stainless steel, ceramic coating and a weapons grade plastic cup nestling in the starboard end of my pelvis. It currently appears to be behaving itself, now it’s up to me to be, as Stuart so succinctly put it, a patient patient. Mind, I’m sure I’m not the only one to have suffered the slings, arrows and unpleasant consequences of an unruly kick-start. The occasional rapped shin from an over advanced Tiger Cub is one thing but the penalty can, at times, be a little more severe. Take Alan Whitehead par example. You’ll know Alan if you’ve been to either of the Stafford Shows. He’s generally to be seen donning immaculate white kecks, a matching jacket and a clipboard; it was he who set up the earliest such bike shows at Belle Vue and subsequently Stafford. Alan owned a rather tasty little 250cc Ducati which had the three ‘Cs’ in great profusion, much ‘Cam’, a big ‘Carb’ and lots of ‘Compression’. When it’s time came to find a new owner Alan was only too happy to fire the little rascal up – the noise would seal the deal and all would be well... except it wasn’t. With a full complement of volts and a few drops of fresh fuel dripping from a well tickled Dell Orto, Alan gave it a hearty swing on the somewhat awkwardly placed left hand kick-start. I’m going to spare you all the description that Alan gave me of the aftermath of the kickback that ensued, because it involves an open wound, blood and a good scar that would give my hip-op wound a good run for its money. Whether the bloke bought it I’m not sure, and Alan couldn’t see much from inside the ambulance in any event. Whenever I’m asked to offer advice to mates who are thinking of buying a bike, number one on the list is ‘does it have an electric leg?’ The bike that crops up time and again is the SR500 and its TT and XT brethren. I love the SR, brother Bill has a clutch of ’em, and guess what? They are a bit of a handful to start, especially with double digit compression ratios. It’s not simply the amount of compressing, or the other mechanical goings on that ultimately define a ‘good’ or ‘pig-of-a’ starter, it’s things like the kick-start position, flywheel effect, the lack (or provision of) a valve lifter (de-compressor) all these variables play their part in the start-ability of the creature.
Velocettes have a very low-geared kick-start, they also have magnetos, valve lifters and occasionally humungous GP Amals. An experienced owner can wake up a good Venom or Thruxton from its slumber in seconds; mere mortals could spend a bank holiday weekend with nothing more to show for it than a few black plugs and a pair of written off Doc Martens, and… silence. The Honda CB72 has the rarest of the bunch, a forward rotating, right-side kicker, and very effective it is too, hold on though, it’s also got a hugely engineered electric start with a planetary reduction gear in the nose of the starter motor! Still one of my favourite Japanese bikes of all time the CB72/77 has more tricks up its sleeve than David Blaine at a poker tournament. A couple of the sharp-eyed among you might have noticed that I still own a few Ducatis with left-side kick-starts. That’s correct, but I live on a hill...