Starting bike every few days

[p.dath]

So should the bike turn over immediately? Tried it this morning and had to give the starter a few tries and have the choke open for less than 15 seconds. This was after approximately 4 days.

It may not turn over immediately. That is not an issue.

As others have said, don't start the bike unless you intend to take it for a ride.

I tend to use a little choke to begin with to keep the engine revs up and promote a little bit of oil pressure, in the hope that the oil will get nicely around the engine. Others will have different opinions in this area, and there is no one correct answer.

The engine does not need more than 1 minute of idle time before you commence riding it. It definitely does not need 5 minutes of warm up time.

[BuzzardNZ]

Only ride my bike every other weekend, less in winter. Does not have a battery tender/charger. Got 3 years out of my last battery riding like this.

[Edbear]

After sitting for 8mths my C50T started in about 3sec. The battery was still fully charged. Of course mine is fuel injected but I was still very impressed! My guilt was that I had left it that long, but having a car accident and breaking my back kinda meant I wasn't in a position to start and run it regularly. Now I fire it up every few weeks. I'll put the auto trickle charger on it now though as the battery can't charge up properly even if I let it run until properly warmed up.

[Gremlin]

So assuming I do forget to turn off the choke, what can happen? Am curious to know.

The bike will run extremely rich, and once warm, simply die. You'll try to start, and it won't.

The reason running it at idle is bad is because the charging for the battery usually doesn't start until around 3k, ie, you need to go for a ride, and not 5min around the block either.

[scumdog]

You shouldn't need to do anything. You shouldn't need a battery conditioner either. If the battery can not hold a charge for 1 week then I'd get it replaced.

It's not until the bike will be sitting for 3 months or so before you really need to do anything special.

Wot 'e sed.

Even up to six months can be OK.

[bsasuper]

Its actually a good thing if it does not fire up first time after a couple of cranks, it gets the oil pressure up.

[F5 Dave]

Most wear occurs on startup. So starting your bike every day is madness.

Some bikes get a little temperamental if left a while but if they still start then yer ok.

If the battery is old then get a new one or buy a tender.

If it just is very hard to start then likely there is a tuning issue like valve clearance. Otherwise don't sweat it.

[BMWST?]

Thanks Gremlin. Will give it a go without starting the bike for a week and will see if I can start the bike. So assuming I do forget to turn off the choke, what can happen? Am curious to know.

nothing will happen if you have left it on from the last short little run.If you leave the choke on and ride off the bike will start to run badly,or it may not respond properly to larger throttle openings.