starting in neutral without the clutch

are there bikes that DON'T start in neutral without the clutch handle being pulled in? stockwise.

 

Yes, Snomiester, I rebuilt a Kwacka GT550 & that was a built in safety feature.

 

My KZ1000 Police, does not start at all without the clutch in. It has its pro and cons.

Like when you forget that you parked it in gear.

Or when you only have one free hand to start it.

 

my 550 seca does, why I dont know, but you can have the kickstand down, and it will start to.

 

my 89 fzr 600 wouldnt start without the clutch in period

 

Murray 10 speed

 

i could see a safety switch to keep from starting in gear.

but in neutral!

 

over kill

 

i believe just about all bikes from about 1980 or so and later have all the safeties on them my guess someone got hurt and sued the manufacturer at 1 point. I believe Kawasaki started the clutch pulled in to start and others followed. Can be a good thing if you don't pay attention and try to drive off with the kickstand down. The clutch lever can really help that way you know if it has a false neutral when you hit the button to start it it wont roll off the kickstand. Personally in the 40+ years ive been riding i never had a problem with bikes without the safeties but i am old school i also do not like vac operated petcocks even tho they don't fail to often there is always a chance to messy and to much at stake if they do fail the i put manual ones on all my bikes i learned to ride in the late 60s you had to shut off the gas. Back when they started all this they had mandatory 85 mph speedometers on then for a few years like the bikes would go slower yea right lol. But people look at the speedometer and it says 85mph they think it only goes only 85 mph. I am not sure on the early XJ but on the later Yamahas mid to late 80s if you cut the black with white stripe wire from the TCI. none of the safety switches work but you didn't hear that from me

 

Well, mine currently won't start without clutch pulled in, but that's because I burned out the diode Just been too lazy to fix it, tried bypassing it temporarily, but that made the bike think it was in neutral all the time. Now I just have to remember to pull up stand, or it cranks without starting.

 

Somebody has bypassed part or all of the safety circuit; possibly just the sidestand switch. It should start in neutral with the clutch out, as long as the stand ISN'T down.

 

My XJ starts in neutral, side stand down, without the clutch. If I pull the clutch in, and put it in gear with the side stand down, the engine is killed. This satisfies the side stand test.