Will a 2014 XC300R kickstart with a dead battery?
 

Put another way, is electricity required to start the bike?

Was racing in my local hare scrambles series and buried my bike in a deep
muddy rut which ultimately stalled it.
Once I got it out, I hit the estart button and got a very weak
turnover and then nothing, so the battery seems dead.
I couldn't get it kickstarted either.

I also punctured my radiator and was leaking coolant for a good while.
I can't see how that would have anything to do with the weak estart, but once I
get that diagnosed, I am worried that I've overheated the motor.

Seems like my first order of business is to charge the battery then see what happens.

The bike will start with no battery.

The motor was probably tight from the over heating issue.
That will pull down the battery cranking amps real quick.

Thanks Girard - makes sense.

I am going to open the coolant drain bolt and see how much coolant drains out.
It might be zero!

Do you think the piston swelled? Is a simple top end job enough to fix it or are there other things I need to look for that could have been damaged?

Does it seem to kick over ok?

You would have to look for cylinder liner damage.
Pull the pipe off and look at the liner through the exhaust port.

I burned mine down a few years ago running with no coolant. And I do mean NO coolant. I pulled the water pump cover and it was dry in there. It got so hot it turned the spark plug blue outside the head. In fact, here is a pick of my wrist pin...

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...3e1922b63d.jpg

All I had to do was a top end and I've put another 75 or so hours on it since then. It's been fast and reliable.

I recently had a severe waterpump failure on a 4 day riding trip. I noticed the bike having issues with idling and the kick start lever feeling lighter each day. On the last day, it melted out the headgasket and what little coolant was still circulating through the bike was sent out the tail pipe in a cloud of steam. I almost got back to camp before it seized. The sparkplug was covered in aluminum glitter and was smashed flat from being hydraulically shocked. The transmission was completely filled with coolant when I got it home and tore it down. Nothing came out of the drain bolt on the waterpump cover when I went to drain it. My wrist pin looked a lot like that.

I can't believe 2 strokes used to be air cooled.

Thanks for the replies you guys.

I have some business travel that is going to keep me from cracking things open immediately, but this gives me a start. I'll go ahead and order the top end kit
for the bike.

GGRider - what did you end up having to replace? All top end items? Or was there damage to the bottom end as well?

Just top end and rebuilt the waterpump. Connecting rod had no discoloration nor excessive play. Replaced waterpump shaft - rust had built by one of the seals and had worn the inside of the seal down causing the leak. It would drain the radiators overnight into the transmission, until there was nowhere left for the coolant to go.

There's a good chance some metal and made it into the crank bearings so I am definitely playing the lottery there. If it starts to make any unusual sounds the cases are getting split asap.