[farmerj]

Bottom line is that I am frustrated with this thing...It ruins an otherwise perfect relation that I have with this bike

Sorry to hear, I can understand your feeling! It's such a great bike, and then when you have to mess with trying to fix this component it can dampen your enthusiasm. It feels like it would have been better to have had "kick start only" vs. something that doesn't work - because the rest of the bike works so well!

I hope you're able to keep at it. Have success and do let us know what you find out!

Jeff