Paul: I hate to tell you, you're doing it all wrong, starting your BSA Victor here, and that's why you had such a hard time. If you want to tickle the carb a bit with the key off and then hold in the compression release and kick it through a couple times, that will "prime" it. Then the way you start a big single like this is as follows: you bring the kickstart lever to the top of its stroke and lower it down until you feel the piston come up to compression. Do NOT kick it all the way. Now, you allow the K/S lever to return to the top of its stroke. Next, you pull in the compression release and just eeease the kickstart lever about halfway. Now again, allow the K/S lever to return to the top and let go of the compression release. Now, switch the key on. With your foot on the K/S lever at the top of its stroke, kick through hard. What you have done here is eased past the compression stroke, giving you two free spins of the engine before it comes up on compression again and fires! You're NOT kicking against compression (and working up a sweat!). Also, never, NEVER kickstart a British bike on the side stand! EVER! It's not made to support that weight and will bend or the lug will snap right off where welded to the frame! I've had hundreds of British bikes, mostly singles and lots of Victors, so I sort of know what i'm talking about here. BTW, your bike has the wrong front wheel (the Victor came with a 19" front wheel and a half-width front brake, not the TLS brake here) and front fender. Those items appear to be from the road-going Shooting Star 441. Good luck with the sale!
Sounds good. I owned both the 441 Shooting Star, the B50, and a couple of the Yamaha 500 thumpers. It wasn't hard to start any of them. What worked well was to prime the carb (for the Brit bikes), simply ease the kickstarter past compression using the compression release, and then kick.
Try a bit harder and you might succeed in snapping the stand off the frame. Try using the decompression lever properly, and you might need as many as 2 kicks to start it if you're unlucky.
Paul: I hate to tell you, you're doing it all wrong, starting your BSA Victor here, and that's why you had such a hard time. If you want to tickle the carb a bit with the key off and then hold in the compression release and kick it through a couple times, that will "prime" it. Then the way you start a big single like this is as follows: you bring the kickstart lever to the top of its stroke and lower it down until you feel the piston come up to compression. Do NOT kick it all the way. Now, you allow the K/S lever to return to the top of its stroke. Next, you pull in the compression release and just eeease the kickstart lever about halfway. Now again, allow the K/S lever to return to the top and let go of the compression release. Now, switch the key on. With your foot on the K/S lever at the top of its stroke, kick through hard. What you have done here is eased past the compression stroke, giving you two free spins of the engine before it comes up on compression again and fires! You're NOT kicking against compression (and working up a sweat!).
Also, never, NEVER kickstart a British bike on the side stand! EVER! It's not made to support that weight and will bend or the lug will snap right off where welded to the frame! I've had hundreds of British bikes, mostly singles and lots of Victors, so I sort of know what i'm talking about here.
BTW, your bike has the wrong front wheel (the Victor came with a 19" front wheel and a half-width front brake, not the TLS brake here) and front fender. Those items appear to be from the road-going Shooting Star 441.
Good luck with the sale!
Sounds good. I owned both the 441 Shooting Star, the B50, and a couple of the Yamaha 500 thumpers. It wasn't hard to start any of them. What worked well was to prime the carb (for the Brit bikes), simply ease the kickstarter past compression using the compression release, and then kick.
Very cool looking bike.
Try a bit harder and you might succeed in snapping the stand off the frame. Try using the decompression lever properly, and you might need as many as 2 kicks to start it if you're unlucky.
You were always late for work if you owned a British motorbike.
Yeah, easy starting good old British Iron. 😂😂 'nuff said!
He hasn't got the first idea of how to start it.
Try Ethel she's working 😅
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