I'd pull the clutch cover and remove the belt, check to see if there is anything behind it, if so remove it, if not, turn it with the belt off and see if it turns hard still. If it does turn hard, I would agree with Kerbbirds that something in the motor went south.

you say it has 200 miles and the starter is not working already, strange. When you were in the recoil housing, did you look for anything under/next to the flywheel that could be binding the motor?

Oil levels are all good i assume?

 

Even if the starter is locked I don't think it would cause the recoil to not pull. That gear next to the starter only makes contact with the flywheel when you use the electric starter. So it really doesn't even engae when you use the recoil. The starters on the sportsman are known to go bad. The brushes always gunk up and get rusty

 

I am having this same problem now, it was always a bear to pull. Now the bike will only start if I hit the electric start and pull the recoil starter at the same time. And the bike has a new battery I just bought from walmart. I charged it overnight on a battery tender and the next day it read 12.65 on the Mulimeter. ??? But as I am operating the electric start, the recoil starter is easy to pull

 

Well I fixed the starting issue it, my starter was barely spinning due to all the corrosion and my pulse coil was completely junked up. Anyway I still havent solved the issue of being hard to pull. I took the sp, plug out and it pulls fine. But plug in and you can't pull it just an inch or two until the rope is all the way out and I installed a new recoil rope wheel and rope because the old one was broke im guessing due to pulling. But when the recoil is off the engine it also pulls fine and if you operate the starter and pull the recoil assembly it pulls fine. I'm puzzled, im guessing decompression failure.

 

I am having the same problem I removed my rocker assembly and found that the decompression switch had wore a groove in the exhaust rocker side and the dealer said that it only travels about 10 thousands any way and that is likely where my problem is I ordered a new one and will let you know how it works when it comes in.