Sup /diy/, so I recently acquired my first kickstart motorcycle.

grind down any sharp edges, wrap with tire tube rubber?

>>1229070
tried that already, the tube rubber is too soft and while it works for a little bit, the friction tears it pretty quickly and after maybe a week it was shredded beyond use.

Need heavier, denser rubber, ideally a sleeve that can rotate around the peg rather than staying in one position and receiving friction. just dont know what I'd do to make/retrofit one of those.

>>1229071
what about putting some heat shrink tube over it, and then sliding on a piece of pvc with rubber tire or tube glued on

>>1229072
i was thinking in that direction, but Id need some way to stop the pvc from sliding off the end. Was thinking about smoothing the ridges off the peg, drilling a hole in the end of the peg and tapping it, sliding on a durable rubber or plastic sleeve, and then installing a bolt/washer on the end that stops the sleeve from coming off.

>>1229073
yeah, that sounds like a plan

>>1229065
a dirtbike's footpegs, kickstarter and brake pedal are deliberately made from sharp pointy metal to cut through the mud on your boots and keep you from slipping.

you can replace the pegs and kickstart with rubber ones from a road bike, but you're not going to like the results.

>>1229169
I don't have any issue with anything other than the kickstarter. When I ride trails I'm wearing motocross boots, which have significantly tougher soles and with which I have zero problem working the foot controls and starter. But when I ride on the street for transport pretty much every day I wear leather work boots which I'd prefer not to shred up just from everyday riding.

I don't see the kickstarter being rubberized making a significant difference in performance on trails since it's typically pretty rarely used unless the bike gets dropped.

>>1229213
So why not just make some kind of rubber sock, slap that thing on the kick pedal and then take it off once you kicked the bike running?

My CRF's a bitch to start. Kicking a 4-stroke is really a skill in and of itself but I also have gotten better at kicking it.

What I like to do is lean it against the wall as vertically as I can and stand on both footpegs. This is where proper technique is handy. First find top dead center and then slowly shift your weight on your right foot. Kick as hard as you can while at the same time dropping your entire body weight on the pedal. Try this with giving it a bit of gas as you're pushing down on the pedal. And without. I still haven't figured it out.

>>1229250
On a related note, I want to start building a knowledge base and start working on my own bikes because these mechanics are such fucking jew bots. Does anyone have any online resources they can share? I'd love to take a course but I'm living in bumfuck Europeea. No courses here.

I already know about Dan's MC.

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This stuff, multiple dips with 30 min wait in between, leave it to dry. Very tough, good grip, will stay on. Buy it at Home Depot/Lowe's.

>>1229250
I have a '90 dr350, it has a decomp lever so finding TDC is really easy. Just softly cycle the kicker till I feel resistance, then give it a good hard one. I was having carb issues necessitating 5-10 min of kicking to start, but now it's as tuned as a shitty 27 year old dirt bike can be and it typically starts 1st/2nd kick if warmish, 3rd-5th if cold.

A removable sleeve had crossed my mind, but the force the boot exerts on the kicker seems like it'd tear off anything not permanently installed. Also don't see the reason to remove it, notnlike im touching the kickstarter unless I'm starting it.

>>1229262
I was thinking plastidip, I've got a ton on hand. Just in my experience it's really not that tough when it comes to torsion or twisting force and tends to tear when it receives that. Guess there's no harm on trying tho

>>1229264
Fair enough about the permanence thing. Did you tune your own carb?

And holy shit, '90 was 27 years ago? Fuck my arse.

>>1229252
dansmc is a solid foundation for your learning.

here's some workshop manuals hosted online
https://www.carlsalter.com/motorcycle-manuals.asp
http://mybikemanuals.com/

and also a bittorrent magnet link to ~16gb of scanned/pdf workshop manuals, magnet:?xt=urn:btih:559280987a600171802b022ece38a64872dbf08b

>>1229271
Yeah, well to be fair my friend who's owned DRs for years helped me through the initial process, although it honestly wasn't difficult at all

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>>1229065
It isn't the starting peg which is causing wear on your boots, it's the teeth of the foot holder which dig in your sole as you kick the peg into it. I know this because I also had a similar bike.

The best solution is to use stronger boots or pic related.

>>1229065
I have on the past on a 650 smoker. (talk about needing a mule leg..)used contact cement and wrapped it with a heavy leather hide of some sort. I think it was pig.

>>1229265
You could probably strengthen it by twisting some wire around the peg before you dip it. Kind of like re-bar in concrete.

>>1229325
Literally no dog. That might be the cause on yours but the way my pegs are positioned it's pretty much impossible to try to kick and then land your foot on the peg. Too far forward. It has 100% never happened to me, if anything I've bashed my shin on the foot peg a few hundred times when my foot slips at the bottom of the stroke. Thanks for the suggestion tho.

>>1229329
>>1229352

Both good suggestions, maybe I'll look into them. Was thinking of cementing a sacrificial leather patch onto the arch of my boot so when it gets tore up I can replace just the patch and not the shoe, but seems like it doesn't address the actual issue