looking for a roller starter

dirkchecken said:

anybody have one , our know of one for sale or who sells em, other than the guy in aus... battery or gas or 120v electric, thanks, tom

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Firstly what are you trying to start?

Does it need to be mobile i.e. taken to a circuit?

Finally is it to be used regularly?

The above questions are very relevant as starters vary hugely. Most are designed to spin up the rear wheel, dump the clutch and use the inertia of the rear wheel to bump the motor into life. But if you are trying to start fresh engines with high compression you will need something very different.

Battery starters are good but design is everything, they can be single driven roller or twin driven rollers, rollers can be parallel, concave/conical, similar height or have a higher rear roller. They can be 12v, 24V or mains supply.

Petrol Starters that drive a wheel that you put to your rear wheel are good but again vary in quality and require maintenance, fresh fuel, oil changes, the drive tyre will get hot and hard and needs to be changed occasionally.

Then there's the good old fashioned type, twin rollers driven by a car drive wheel.

I have used all three types, use my starters regularly so they must be reliable and durable.

if you can tell me the intended use I can hopefully advise what will work.

Lots of manufactures claim their starter will get anything started. From experience that's pure BS.

dirkchecken said:

starting 2 stroke engines , so not alot of CR. have to be portable to circuit.used semi- reg. battery prefered ( no outlets at circuit ?). and if im by myself. i cant be at 2 places at 1 time , so a battery roller w/ foot control ? seems like im looking at 1000. so you have any ideas, thanks, tom

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Go for something like the "Startingblock" design with a deep cycle battery in 12v, there are a few similar starters out there Alf Mossel Racing makes similar. These starters have a raised rear roller, both rollers are driven and conical to keep the bike central. Go for the most powerful one you can find within your budget. Have a real close look at the starter for quality as most are pure rubbish and tear themselves apart very quickly. Most use car starter motors so are high torque short period usage so be careful not to kill the motor in frustration if you bike develops a problem, if you do put the starter drive motors under severe load the heavy cables will heat and burn their insulation I kid you not. Don't get a belt drive type unless you want to take a box of spare belts with you to every circuit. The chain drive type are better but avoid those that have the drive sprocket welded to the motor shaft which means you'll have to go back to the maker if the motor goes rather than the local motor spares shop.

Another possibly is a crank starter but these only work if your bike had a starting circuit that will result in fast idle, most race bikes especially strokes don't idle at all.

And never loan it to anyone; I have had 3 starters killed on circuit by people who don't understand how they are meant to work rather than spinning the wheel up and dumping the clutch they drive their rear wheel and therefore the engine like the starter is a rolling road, they ether melt the power cables, kill the drive motors or shred the drive mech.

My race circuit starter is 24V (similar to the picture below which is 12v), twin motor, twin rollers and both rollers drive. It in steel and weights a tonne but can start anything from 13:1 500cc British singles to big modern Ducatis to Jap multis both 4 and 2 stroke. I also have a petrol starter for lighter work and engines that are healthy and run in.

Solo Starter

It also depends where you live as the starters mentioned are made in the UK.