For me, I had to know that I could kick start the bike, if necessary. There are two reasons for that. Number 1, has already been talked about. I like the idea of having a back up. Unless you have a new or relatively new battery that has lived it's whole life on a trickle charger, you run the risk of getting stranded with a dead battery. Jump start, bump start, I get all that. A fully functioning kick starter is a whole lot easier.

The second reason is that if it's fitted on the bike, I want it to work. For me, that applies equally as well to the kick starter as any other thing on the bike. I may not need the horn, but if it's there, I need it to work. If you followed my posts, I was getting a bit frustrated because I couldn't kick start the bike when I know they are meant to be started that way. It literally would have driven me to get rid of the bike if I couldn't fix it. I realize that not everyone is like this.

I appreciate the comments. I know my bike a whole lot better now.

Jon

 

Maybe that should apply to your battery, also.

Ron

 

Oh sure, act like you've never left the key on during a break and drained the battery