Motorcycle Repair: hard to kick over yamaha xt 600, yamaha xt 600, compression release

Question
I bought a 1986 xt 600 about a month ago. It kicked over fine. Now all of a sudden it gets very hard to kick over. I can stand full body weight on kicker and won`t budge ( I weigh 225 pounds ) So I know there has to be something wrong. this happens about 50% of the time. t/y for your time

Answer
Hi Jim,
Without doing other diagnostics, it sounds to me like the motor is locking up, OR possibly Hydrolock. If its a single cyl, 4 stroke, there should be a compression release used manually, or if there is an automatic comression release, it sounds like its not working..

Hope this helps!

~Mark Panka