SO heres a good question......why is it impossible nowadays to 'pop the clutch' to start a motorcycle?

I remember growing up, you'd push your buddies honda as fast as you could run, hed dump the clutch and if they knew what they were doing, it sputters to life. In the last few years, several of my buddies have had batteries die and I quickly remind them to just 'pop the clutch'....
10 minutes later we are all sweaty and swearing because as soon as they let the clutch out, the bike just locks up. (This is even trying it in 2,3rd gear). Do bikes just have higher compression now or is there some electronic reason that you cant clutch start a newer bike?

 

because with electronic ignition and FI you need a minimum voltage to get the computer to work

If your starter was garbage, but you had a charged battery, you could bump start it

old bikes had generators that didn't need electricity to work, and as long as you had a little voltage the points would make the coil make spark, and a carb only needs gravity to work.

 

Ok, I just ordered a NOCO GB40 after reading about them and seeing this video posted in another thread: