[jmose26]

I have a 2005 crf250r and for the life of me can not get the bike to start while in gear (yes the clutch lever is pulled). But as soon as I put the bike in neutral its starts right up. Has anyone else had this problem or is there a trick to getting it to start? Thanks for the help in advance

[JimDirt]

Welcome to the site !!


In general , its clutch drag , and you can't really adjust it out of it without it affecting how the clutch works , its fairly common to not be able to start a bike in gear , no matter the brand , especially a 4 stroke , the clutch/tranny being engaged/in gear is not allowing the engine to get enough RPM's during the kick cycle to allow it to fire , it would be equivalent to trying to start the bike with your hand , or spinning your tire by hand while on the stand , then trying to do the same thing with the tire dragging on the ground

Watch MX or SX and watch a rider after a fall or stall , and he is rocking the bike back and forth trying to get it into neutral , you will also note that the ones that do not do this are sitting there kicking the crap out of their bike and just watching the other riders go by , usually then a announcer will say (on T.V.) "he needs to just calm down and take the time to put it in neutral"

Even bikes with E-Starts can sometimes not start when its in gear

Neutral is your friend .....

[jmose26]

Thank you very much! That makes perfect sense no after the explanation. Im pretty new to having a race bike i previously had a ttr230 with electric start

[JimDirt]

Yea , the compression of these modern 4 strokes (MX bikes) are a lot higher than that TTR , it takes more effort to start one than a 2 stroke or a smaller lower compression bike , a good full kick from top to bottom is better than trying to sit on the seat and just push your leg thru the motion like you can on smaller or under powered bikes or 2 strokes , having the bike in gear , makes it all but impossible to start because of that