- Joined
- Jun 30, 2012
- Messages
- 13,964
Any four-stroke motorcycle should start first kick. Some guys go at it like a bull at a gate when they should do things slowly. If you push the piston well up the bore, you only have to flick it past compression and the motor will usually fire-up. If you take a long swinging kick, you will probably get bitten. My mate has a 450 Ducati - the other day it bit him in the ankle and really hurt him. A large capacity single cylinder four-stroke is a serious motorcycle - not to be underestimated.Back to the 2S cam... At the end of this riding season my ageing right knee began to complain about starting my Atlas. It has a Commando top end and bearings. That's 9:! compression IIRC. It also has the stock Atlas cam again if I remember correctly. Making it an E-start is not an option but perhaps a longer duration cam is along with a T-160 KS lever.
The primary drive has held up well over the years ( I had it apart to fix the side-stand lug last summer and a new alt. rotor) so I'm not afraid of a few more ponies that I might never use. I'm wondering if y'all think it would be worth the effort to change cams for easier starting. I have a spare 2S cam. Maybe just the T160 lever would do the trick. I also have factory Atlas mufflers with the ends cut out of the baffles. They look a bit shabby and I look at those Goldie repops and wonder how they perform... How 'bout Commando pea-shooters? What's involved in putting those on an Atlas frame to match a 2S cam?
I have the rest of the winter to work on it so time isn't an issue except for the Honey-do lists that seem to grow.
In my situation, I have a piece of bone missing from inside my knee joint. I cannot afford to get it wrong. I did once with a Bonneville and ended up on the ground.