Why does my bike idle lower in the wet?

[maggot]

Title says it all. I'm not worried about it, just curious..
I've noticed in the wet, I'll idle about a grand, half a grand lower than in the dry. Why?
Shed some light mechanical gods of KB!

[Latte]

It's scared.

[Mom]

The rain distorts the glass giving a different reading?

[unstuck]

Cos the airs thicker when its raining,atmospheric pressure and all that.:msn-wink:

[bogan]

It's scared.

Must be a suzuki then :bleh:

I think it's to do with more moisture in the air :sherlock: which requires more energy to heat up. At idle you have a more or less constant amount of fuel, or energy going in, and more energy spent on heating wet air, doesn't raise the combustion temperature/pressure as much.

[haydes55]

carburated bikes have idle set by leaving the slide open a small amount with no throttle on. It still allows air through which sucks fuel with it as it passes the jets to keep the engine running, this idle is always constant rain or shine. however in the rain the air is more humid so the oxygen content is a lower percentage and water vapour in the cylinder isn't creating as strong of an explosion. So the pistons move slower thus the lower revs in the rain.

You can change the revs at idle by spraying the air filter with a mist of water will lower your revs and turning on a nos canister or oxygen bottle near the air filter will increase your revs (don't actually do that because that could easily backfire haha but the concept works). BTW that's from my understanding of carburated engines, I haven't worked on injected engines so not sure if the same concept applies.

[slofox]

That's all bullshit - it's really 'cause the bikes get depressed and sad when it's wet 'cause they know they can't go as fast without slipping over and scratching their fairings...