Kawasaki Triples Club

Has anyone tried bump starting their triple backwards? Interesting to know if it would go backwards , forwards , or >crunch<

It will run backward if timing is too advanced.

If you want a bike the runs in reverse go and get a Scott, mine will do it at the traffic lights sometimes.

My drag bike somehow reversed itself one time between the burnout in the water box and the start line. My brain didn't immediately compute what was happening when I dumped the clutch and shot backwards To top it off, the wrench caused the left side of the welded handlebars to snap off at the weld ---- so a double

I also experienced this at the Goodwood Festival of Speed riding the H2r that Hurley Wilvert came third at Daytona with.
I let the clutch out to ride from the paddock down to the start line, the bike shot backwards and I just managed to grab the front brake and stop as I was almost touching the front nose of an F1 car that was queuing behind me to go next.
I knew what had happened straight away but the owner was so worried that he would not let me stop the engine and restart it in case it happened again and I had an accident. He has not run the bike since.

I also witnessed it with Simon when he built his H2R lightweight replica at its very first fire up, bump starting it in his garden due to not having a kick start. Simon noticed the dry clutch was running the wrong way before gently letting the clutch out to confirm.
Both this bike and my drag bike were running simple Dyna race ignitions

My Suzuki GT750 started backwards and engaged the kickstart lever which nearly took my headoff as I was bleeding the oil pump at the time. That was three years ago and the bike is still on the naughty step

Kawaclive wrote:I also experienced this at the Goodwood Festival of Speed riding the H2r that Hurley Wilvert came third at Daytona with.

Blimey - you're a man with connections Clive That must have been an experience

being as the 750's seem to engage the kick starter mechanism when in gear and rolling backwards wouldnt the same thing happen if the engine ran backwards? Could do a lot of damage

When we were apprentices a mate had a BSA Bantam, we were waiting for a gap in the traffic coming out of work, (me on my RD250) his bike half stalled, I remember him looking down, he later said it sounded 'funny', a gap appeared in the traffic and he shot off backwards

The giant ship engines are 2 strokes. They don't have a gearbox. When they want to reverse they stop the engine and restart it running backwards.

Until I corrected the timing, my 250 Harley frequently used to fart at traffic lights then set off backwards.

Yes, kickstart gears can engage with some violence.

Still not heard of another reciprocating 2-stroke engine like my PE250 with a lashed up hybrid ignition system. You could let the clutch out in gear with the engine running and it just stayed on the spot juddering

When I had a Dyna on my S2 it would occasionally start backwards. The clue was the rev counter not working (which I spotted as I tried to pull away.... backwards of course).