You bet they can! Le Mans starts are fun.
Before I redid the diode board and swapped in a solid state voltage regulator on my '81 R65, I got pretty good at the
run n' bump drill. Third gear worked best for me.
The problem is the alternator -charging system doesn't kick in a charge to the battery until 2-3K rpm. If you putt around town with mucho stop and go, you'll drain the battery in a couple days, max.
A Battery Tender[size=9]®[/size] kept plugged in will eliminate the issue or just keep the revs up and, as one of our members was so aptly advised, "don't ride like a wuss."

Monte