Mine has adjustable feet, it was either modified by the previous owner or a copy of a Dave Hills stand he made.
ET: Engine (Twin) Starting Procedure Twin…Using Chokes or Not?
- Thread starter CarlHungness
- Start date
I do wonder whether there has been some misunderstanding in the past about the advice for letting go of the valve lifter lever. It is is a matter of simple mechanics. One is trying to get the engine to spin fast enough so that when it fires it continues to rotate and then keeps going. What is needed is enough inertia in the flywheel rotation to enable this. A short jab on the kick starter is not going to do this unless one has a very soft tuned engine. Rather, ensuring that one has all the kick starter movement that is possible, starting off high, and then continuing downwards pressusre is going to increase the flywheel speed, and hence inertia, until one lets go of the valve lifter. preferably somewhere well down the downwards stroke. Fiddling about with 'finding the corect cylinder' or letting go of the valve lifter as soon as the engine has started to rotate is not going to make life, or starting, easier. I have seen people finding the correct cylinder and then starting without using the valve lifter and I wonder how long the kickstarter parts are going to last.
Page 11 in my handbook describes almost word for word the method T T mentions above. It took me a while to get the hang of it, works well for me. A positive attitude is also a help.
I've been watching this thread for a while now and thought I should share my experience. I have a D Rap with 8:1 pistons and 389 Monoblocs. The bike came to me with 389's and the manifolds match their diameters. They were worn, so I replaced them with new Burlen's with anodized slides.
I think I went through all the methods mentioned in the thread and for some time found the bike to be very hard starting cold and fairly easy warm. My latest technique is pretty effective. It's as follows.
Engine cold:
Turn the tap on (I always park the bike with tap off) and find something else to do (don the gear etc) for a couple of minutes, to let the fuel fill the float bowls. That's probably more time than necessary.
Don't tickle the carbs. I was doing that for some time but found that the engine easily flooded as a result.
Close both chokes.
As per one of Greg's earlier posts, pull in the lifter and bring the kick lever to the bottom of the stroke. Note that this is a D with coil ignition and at this stage I leave the key switched off. Then pull the lifter lever, start a kick and quickly release once the kick is past the first compression and under way. Repeat with one more kick.
Turn key on and repeat. The bike usually starts and I immediately open both chokes. All of this is easier on the D stand, but I have done it without the stand.
Engine warm (or hot):
Fuel tap open, no chokes, one kick after Greg's preparatory one.
All of this works pretty reliably unless there's an audience. I usually just sit on the bike without deploying any stands. The bike has the D stand as well as the C stand setup. The latter was on it when I bought it in 1976. I have Michael Breeding's extended stand on the near side but don't like to deploy it for starting.
It's important that all the kicks mentioned are done energetically and without hesitation.
I suppose I should add that I weigh about 160 lbs and age has reduced my height to about 5' 5".
I think I went through all the methods mentioned in the thread and for some time found the bike to be very hard starting cold and fairly easy warm. My latest technique is pretty effective. It's as follows.
Engine cold:
Turn the tap on (I always park the bike with tap off) and find something else to do (don the gear etc) for a couple of minutes, to let the fuel fill the float bowls. That's probably more time than necessary.
Don't tickle the carbs. I was doing that for some time but found that the engine easily flooded as a result.
Close both chokes.
As per one of Greg's earlier posts, pull in the lifter and bring the kick lever to the bottom of the stroke. Note that this is a D with coil ignition and at this stage I leave the key switched off. Then pull the lifter lever, start a kick and quickly release once the kick is past the first compression and under way. Repeat with one more kick.
Turn key on and repeat. The bike usually starts and I immediately open both chokes. All of this is easier on the D stand, but I have done it without the stand.
Engine warm (or hot):
Fuel tap open, no chokes, one kick after Greg's preparatory one.
All of this works pretty reliably unless there's an audience. I usually just sit on the bike without deploying any stands. The bike has the D stand as well as the C stand setup. The latter was on it when I bought it in 1976. I have Michael Breeding's extended stand on the near side but don't like to deploy it for starting.
It's important that all the kicks mentioned are done energetically and without hesitation.
I suppose I should add that I weigh about 160 lbs and age has reduced my height to about 5' 5".
Valve lifters are not specific to Vincents and common practice is to ease the piston just over TDC and a bit. So then release the lifter and get a good swing on the kicker all the way down low. As Greg wrote, have the lifter on in "Vincent style" a bit too long and think what this does to the suction stroke ??? Finding the "correct" cylinder for kicking may help but not much. Anyway, you want decent crank speed, especially with a magneto , so you keep swinging the lever all the way for max. speed! Once you eased the piston past TDC by lifter it does not matter much if lifter still on a bit more or releasing it just past TDC when you want max. speed of crank. I don´t run any of my bikes with chokes, as not standard, except the Hona Clubman with a 36mm Dellorto, so just tickler for cold starts.
Vic
Vic
No When I purchased my stands, Dave Hills was still alive and he asked what sizes wheels I was running and built the stands to suit. My Shadow runs 21" front and 19" rear, whereas the Comet has 20" front and 19" rear.
Steven
Probably not possible because if one has stock length springs front and rear the bike will sit lower than one with (especially) longer rear springs. This means the threads inside of the stand would have to go up quite a ways, and the threaded portion of the feet may have to be longer than desirable. Plus, one would have to use tubes that could be threaded, and or bored to be threaded, which results in a thicker wall, plus the pain of threading the tubes. Thus, I am guessing one has to order the stand and cut the legs to suit the height of the bike, and it seems like no easy trick to guesstimate the length of the legs because you won't know the precise height you want, until you achieve it, so don't cut them too short. I have yet to receive a reply from the fine folks at Conway regarding aluminum side plates, which I want so I can engine turn them to look spiffy.
Carl, I think the stops for the legs are welded to the inside of the steel plates and these take a considerable strain, and do wear over time, this is possibly why alloy ones are not made.
The steel plates could be lightened:
https://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/threads/centre-stands.6097/page-4#post-65328
https://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/threads/centre-stands.6097/page-4#post-65328
