Battery terminal cover

When I was young, long ago, electric starters on motorcycles were looked upon as being for wimps.

My '84 XLCH does not have one, electric start only. I believe the last Sportster to have one was in '79 or '80. I think some Hogs had both Electric and Kick-start until '83 or '84. You can buy an aftermarket kick-starter for your Hog and they even sell Faux Kick starters, I do not know any Harley Rider who would install a fake…

Even the 750cc Flat Trackers ditched them, electric start got too dependable and the mechanical parts are simpler. Besides not everyone could kick one over. The secret was to slowly push down on the kick starter until you started a compression stroke, then you reset the kick starter. Then a little guy like me, kicked off with the left leg, lifting your body (weight) up and as you settled back down, you used your leg strength and your weight to kick that baby over.

This is how I kick started my '58 Triumph Trophy 6, but it was not stock, it came as a 650cc, but I put a 750 hop up kit on it with a new head with 4-valves per cylinder, the cam or cams, (can’t honestly say, it was over 50-years ago) came from Crane and it had a magneto for ignition. BTW, it was a British bike so the brake was on the left side and the shifter on the right.

I also had two Honda 305s in the mid '60s. The Scrambler was a semi dirt bike with a kick start, the Super Hawk, a sportier version of the Dream, had both an electric start and a kick start, but this kick start kicker, kicked forward. Now that was Wimpy…

Even my lawn mower only has electric start. Had to tow it into the garage from the back yard when the bendix went out.