Warming up your bike.

[SS90]

Dang, now you've got me worried about my camchain again! I tend to warm the VTR up until the temp gauge starts to read (35 degrees) and then ride off slowly. With the Connie I just do up the jacket, helmet etc and pootle off - it's injected so no nasty coughing and spluttering.

Oddly enough, the VTR 1000s suffered from poor cam chain tensioners as well (I know of one that needed them at 30,000)

YOu are doing the right thing by warming up before riding!

[johan]

How about these arguments against idling, to add fuel into the fire:

Idling - low oil pressure
cold engine, rich mixture, unburnt fuel washing cylinder walls from oil, fuel sipping past piston rings down the engine
rich mixture, unburnt fuel, carbon deposits, fouling plugs
idling engine takes long to warm up, 1 hp is needed to idle an engine, 20hp to slowly ride away in low revs, up to temperature more quickly

These are all tales I grew up with as a kid.

This is almost like an oil thread!

[ducatilover]

Your quite right Doug.

The. VT250s all needed warming up thoroughly before riding, as the cam chain tensioners where an odd hydraulic/mechanical set up (one thing that made them last much better was to drill the oil feed for the tensioners a little bigger), and suffered from soft cams as well.

If you warmed them up nicely before riding, they where damned near perfect for over 40,000 kms (only open road riding is a real benefit for them as well.

As far as the debate goes?

warm up till it does not need the choke to run,and then ride gently until it's at normal operating temperature.

Simple.

My tensioners were quiet untill about 45,000km. With the holes drilled out they were perfect. When it started making all the shoking tappy-tappy noises I set the valve clearances....that didn't work. So a word to a local super-guru and we had it sorted.
One of my sets of cams had a few grooves in the lobes, yet the second set I had from a raped 120,000km motor were fine...I should have had them re-ground

[bsasuper]

Most fuel injected bikes have a fast idle circuit for cold starts. 2000rpm is a common cold start up fast idle speed.The camshaft lobes suffer the most in a cold start, by having a 2000rpm cold fast idle, it gets the oil pressure up quick, and the cam lobes are under less stress at the fast idle speed on a cold engine.I warm an engine for 30 sec to 1min, then take it easy till the temp is over 70c.

[ducatilover]

Most fuel injected bikes have a fast idle circuit for cold starts. 2000rpm is a common cold start up fast idle speed.The camshaft lobes suffer the most in a cold start, by having a 2000rpm cold fast idle, it gets the oil pressure up quick, and the cam lobes are under less stress at the fast idle speed on a cold engine.I warm an engine for 30 sec to 1min, then take it easy till the temp is over 70c.

Also the 2000rpm is for two more reasons, to warm the engine up faster and/or you do not have a heated 02 sensor, which will not generate a signal until it reaches a specific temp, ergo, the engine is running a pre-determined map. Usually it's just because many bikes/cars run a single wire, non heated oxy sensor. Cutting costs

[vifferman]

Dang, now you've got me worried about my camchain again!

My VTR had new camchains, tensioners and two new valves when I bought it. I was worried too, as the engine was still rattly, so I fitted APE manual camchain tensioners.

Chokes - they went out with the death of carbs. Injected beasts have a fast idle knob.

Fast idle knobs are like, SOOO last century. Proper injected beasts sort out their own fast idle.

I have thought about this before....But, Honda generally don't make screw ups like that.

LOLee, and all that.
Honda have a "head in the sand" attitude when it comes to deisgn/manufacturing faults. Every Honda I've owned since 1973 has had/developed a rattly camchain, with the exception of three: a two-smoke, and the two VFRs with gear-driven cams.
Maybe they've got their camchain issues sorted out now, but having read about Vtec VFRs developing rattly engines, I doubt it.
Unless faults are safety issues or prompt multiple lawsuits in the US (Home of the Brave Lawyer, Land of the Free Lawsuit), Honda ignores them, as most faults (CCTs, R/Rs, etc.) tend to show up only after the bike's out of warranty. That's why despite Shindengen having better R/Rs available for over 15 years forHonda to fit, they didn't start fitting them until around 2001/2002.

Oddly enough, the VTR 1000s suffered from poor cam chain tensioners as well (I know of one that needed them at 30,000)

Not odd at all - see above.

Also the 2000rpm is for two more reasons, to warm the engine up faster and/or you do not have a heated 02 sensor, which will not generate a signal until it reaches a specific temp, ergo, the engine is running a pre-determined map. Usually it's just because many bikes/cars run a single wire, non heated oxy sensor. Cutting costs

O2 sensor? Pffffft!
Those things are only there so you can bypass them with a 330ohm resistor and fit a Power Commander.

[ducatilover]

O2 sensor? Pffffft!
Those things are only there so you can bypass them with a 330ohm resistor and fit a Power Commander.

That is very true. Though, I don't see why you can't run an 02 or preferably a wide band 02 sensor with a power commander. Such an advanced bit of electrickery.
On the other hand, I suppose once the bike is in a reasonable state of tune you will be happy, it just seems harder as you would need a proper 3d mar set up with out the help of an 02.....
What do I know though, am just a Honda rider

[gale_wolf]

This thread made me think to check my bike's owner manual for the manufacturer's opinion on warming up the engine.

Suzuki says this:

Allow the engine oil to circulate before riding. Allow enough idling time after warm or cold engine start up before revving the engine or placing the transmission in gear. This allows time for the lubricating oil to reach all critical engine components.

And that seems to be all that the manufacturer has to say on the matter of warming up the engine.

[SPman]

The only bike I tend to let warm up until the temp gague needle starts to move is the RG250 - the others get a 1-2 min idle so they will run OK on small throttle openings on the metal driveway down to the gate.....