Thanks all so far,.......My concerns are that these are late model Godet Egli's we are talking about....... I have an interest in this myself on account of a new build engine/bike project for myself in the very near future and this starting issue is something i need to nut out for my own engine. My real question is, does anyone know of any other owners of these bikes that have starting issues........The main problems that I see with them is thus.........You have a large capacity engine cranking over that has no means of decompression......I have no idea as to whether Patrick's engines use a squish band in the head.........this would make a difference straight away........It uses the original triplex primary chain and the original style ESA on the crank.......This assembly concerns me, as under cranking it goes to full deflection one way, then once the engine fires it very abruptly goes to the full opposite deflection, thus creating a massive shock load through the primary and against the starter pinion.......... Of course a major problem with this starter design is the cranking ratio is very very poor by comparison to a car engine........ I worked out the starter pinion to crankshaft ratio is about 5:1 .......So the starter is very much loaded to the maximum.......This ratio does not account for the internal reduction gears within the starter itself, but even so, the starter ring gear has about 72 teeth verses a car engine has about 160 teeth (this for say a small block Chev engine for comparison) then via the primary sprocket ratio of 1.6:1 as per a standard Vincent twin. For those who have seen one, these bikes are a work of art........the quality of everything is amazing.......So for me to have to re-- engineer things is a bit scary........I'm not sure the people at the factory in France are willing to even talk about it, they seem very hard to communicate with........I certainly don't wish to upset them.......The owner has given me permission to literally do whatever is necessary to fix it......... understandably I am not rushing into anything without very careful planning.......... Any ideas most welcome.........Cheers......GB.