Almost new 2002 or 2003 400 FSE
 

I bought this recently for cheap. Beautiful bike with ohlins forks. Replaced fork seals and shock fluid and bumper and generally cleaned it up and greased all the joints. It seems to be about new with no wear on the chain and original tires with little wear. It starts on the electric pretty well but refuses to start on the kick. I did install a MCCT and that did seem to reduce drag some. I also installed a longer kick starter from a YZ 250. It seems to run kind of rich based on the sooty exhaust but it could be that it's just been ridden slowly.

I have read all I can find about starting.....I want to be able to kick start it. I think it may need the ignition timing retarded slightly to aid in kicking. It tends to kick back on both electric and kick starting. I have also read about the monkeying with the decompression. I don't have a problem kicking it over.....it just doesn't start

I once had a slightly out of time (due to a slightly sheared key) Husky TXC that behaved exactly the same.

Husaberg Starting Thread
 

https://husaberg.org/resources/husab...-poor-starting
I found this thread. I had a friend who sold his CR 500 and bought a 98 Berg with electric start. He expected it to be Honda and he never could get it to start in a reliable way. He rode one hare scramble, then fell over on a downhill, busted the radiator and sold it the next week.

That being said, I rode it a bit and when it was running it was just a blast to ride,I loved that thing.When KTM bought out berg, they fixed a lot of the quirks and problems.

The Drill
 

Just my two cents. My friend's CR500 wasn't a problem to start at all, if you knew the drill, ease the piston past TDC then bring the kickstart lever back to the top and kick, it would light up every time.The berg was kinda similar but much more complicated see the thread for details.

I went with a friend to pick up a brand new 2002 400 as soon as the dealer received their first one. He kept it a year or two, sold it to another friend who rode it for about a year before trading it in at the dealership that I worked at. In the 3 years I was around this thing, no one was ever able to kick start it - not once. Many tried, everyone failed. Fortunately, the electric start worked well enough because the backup kickstart was completely useless.
Sorry I have no advice on fixing the problem, just thought you might find it interesting that another 2002 model had the same issue from the time it left the showroom floor.

I have already figured out it is just not going to start on the kicker. I cant help but try to figure it out. I bet its timing because I had exact symptoms and behavior with another bike I have no way to experiment tho so I just may take all the kick start crap off to shed a couple lbs

Its a gas gas 400. Ironically, I had a 96 and a 02 husaberg and they both started easily and dependably. The 96 was kick only

I finally took a bit of a ride on it. It makes a lot of power on top and it's doesn't make much down low. Interesting....actually very different than all the other 4 strokes I've had. It may be good in very slow technical stuff because it's so smooth. I can't wait to get it in the dirt