JOHN NICK'S ADVENTURES NZ
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Extreme trail riding in remote places can pose some interesting problems. When a battery or a kick start fails you can in most cases find a hill to run the bike down and bump-start the engine. On a recent ride in rugged North Island bush the kick start on Duncan's Gas Gas trails bike failed. Those who ride trials bikes will know that with high compression and low gearing, getting a trails bike to bump-start requires ideal conditions, preferably a steep hill with a firm dry surface. Our situation was not promising, we were on flat muddy ground in thick bush with no track to push the bike along and with trees spaced at sub handlebar width Pushing bike up to any speed was impossible. Towing out of this situation was going to prove very tough on bikes and bodies.
Somewhere in the back of my trail memory bank was a story about enduro hard man legend Barry Reiher who it is said could start his Suzuki PE175 by spinning the rear wheel with the bike in gear. We discussed the prospect of starting Duncan's bike by spinning the wheel and came up with the idea of rolling a lightweight towing strop around the wheel and spinning the engine into life. With the Gas Gas set up on a log in fifth gear (maybe third gear on an enduro bike) we gave it a shot. Here's the result.
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