Hard kickstart this morning.

[DaLoCo]

I have a bike with a 200cc 169FML engine.

This morning my battery was dead, so I had to kickstart the little beast. I found that it was extremely hard to get it to turn over, almost as if there is way too much compression. After charging the battery it started easily, but now I understand why it sometimes kicks the started clutch out.

So, could it be valve lash? Intake is .005 and exhaust is .008. Is the exhaust too much? I have noticed a lack of real performance. A while ago we had a seriously hot day, and the bike came alive with plenty of power, so I am thinking that it could be that the hotter engine had something to do with it, hence my leaning towards bad valve clearances.

I am also considering the fact that the timing chain could be stretched, or has even jumped a tooth as the idling isn't the smoothest.

The bike has done more than 50 000 kilometres on this engine, so it is a real stalwart.(not going to mention the peripheral parts that are not quite as durable.)