Kick-starting LC4 with dead battery?

[magli]

Greetings..

This winter, I had to put my LC4 ('99 E) in the garage for three months due to my insurance policy. Since I almost always use the kick-starter, I figured that I did not care if the battery went dead, so I did not even bother taking it out when I left the bike.

Sure enough, it was completely dead when I brought the bike out the other day... So I got prepared: put on my left-boot, and started kicking away. I was getting nothing- nada. After about a half hour of trying (and by this time, questioning which position of the emergeny starter was "on".. and having to continusouly switch between the two positions to make sure), I finally rolled it over to a mechanic, who suggested that it was possible that you could not start the bike if the battery was dead.

So, I got the battery out, and gave it to him to charge for me - I also noted that without the battery, my spark plug was definitely *not* sparking when I was kicking.

Once the battery was charged, I put it back in, and was able to kick-start the bike without a problem. Now me's happy.

But was this just a coincidence, or is it not possible to start the bike without a battery?

Say my battery just mysteriously dies on me when I am deep in the forrest - does that leave me stranded?

cheers.