Warming up your bike.

[Katman]

I keep a blanket on mine and in winter use a hair dryer to warm it up.

What century are you living in? There's things called electric blankets these days.

[vifferman]

One thing not mentioned thus far in this debate is that in bikes you have a large mass of gears'n'cogs sitting there, whewreas many/most four-wheeled vehicles have separate gearboxes. If you ride away relatively soonly, all the oil gets to circulate around all the bits that need it.
One more thing to consider is that some bikes are apparently adversely affected by warming up while leaned over on their sidestand, as the oil is tneding to pool on the left side of things like the rocker covers, etc. I was told (but can't point to any conclusive evidence) that VTR1000's premature camchain failure woes may be exacerbated by poor oil circulation caused by excessive idling on the sidestand. The fornt CCT is almost always the first/only one to fail as the tensioner mechanism slopes up and gets little oil lubing it, whereas the rear one slopes down and gets plenty.

As for me, I always warm the bike only long enough to put my gloves and helmet on, then ride away, keeping the revs under about 5k until the thermostat opens. Pointless giving it more throttle before that, as the EFI isn't set up to cope with big throttle openings when the temperature is low.

[GSF_Lou]

I can see how running on a lean can be bad. Like going round a corner too fast in a car can shit the bearings.
Warming up for as long it as takes me to get my helmet and gloves on seems to be the go. As far as now giving it too much shit is there any max rev range I should adhere to? In my car that redlined at 7k I kept it below 3k but seeing as though my bike will go through to 15k I'm a little uncertain.

[Str8 Jacket]

What century are you living in? There's things called electric blankets these days.

Yes, but I am likely to blow that up.

[banditrider]

I was told (but can't point to any conclusive evidence) that VTR1000's premature camchain failure woes may be exacerbated by poor oil circulation caused by excessive idling on the sidestand. The fornt CCT is almost always the first/only one to fail as the tensioner mechanism slopes up and gets little oil lubing it, whereas the rear one slopes down and gets plenty.

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.

[Spazman727]

I think I need to warm mine up fairly well. If I don't it will stall pretty easy unless i give it a decent amount of revs. What's the deal with riding with the choke open? I've heard it's pretty bad?

[AllanB]

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

Warm-up - how long does it take to put a jacket, helmet and gloves on? Then cruise until the needle says warm which is a good idea anyways as you'll want the tyres up to temp.

[trailblazer]

just warm my bike up for as long as it takes to do up my jacket and put my helmet and gloves on then ride. I have about 8ks of 50k riding before i get to open it up on the ohope hill so bike should be warm by then.

[Spazman727]

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

Warm-up - how long does it take to put a jacket, helmet and gloves on? Then cruise until the needle says warm which is a good idea anyways as you'll want the tyres up to temp.

Mine does have a carb, and no temp needle.

[ducatilover]

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.

I have thought about this before....But, Honda generally don't make screw ups like that. Plas, the oil system is force and splash in them. Either way, without seeing the inner workings of the motor I have no idea.
The VT250 had a problem with the sizes of the lube holes in the cam chain tensioners, the small holes caused a relative lack of flow and you ended up with lovely cam chain rattle. If one is keen enough, they can remove the tensioners and bore the hole out with a set of jetting drills or similar.
Bit of a mission though.

[davebullet]

Take a leak on the engine if really cold first.

[bogan]

be one with the engine young padawan, she'll let you know what the best technique is

but yeh, i go for the start up, gate+garage door then off slowly each morn, and start and ride off on the trip home, again slowly to start with. So pretty minimal warm up period, never stutters or anything, doesn't ever need choke either, but had other bikes/van that did need a good warm up otherwise they would miss a bit...

[The Everlasting]

i start mine and let it warm up while im putting my helmet and gloves on

Yeah I do the same.

[The Everlasting]

I can see how running on a lean can be bad. Like going round a corner too fast in a car can shit the bearings.
Warming up for as long it as takes me to get my helmet and gloves on seems to be the go. As far as now giving it too much shit is there any max rev range I should adhere to? In my car that redlined at 7k I kept it below 3k but seeing as though my bike will go through to 15k I'm a little uncertain.

When I ride my 250 bandit,I'll keep it under 6k rpm until it's warmed up.

[SS90]

There is a heap of debate on this subject, it is the same for cars and bikes, or any piston engine with reasonably tight tolerances. I myself have not found any sound argument to support either on a general basis. I warmed my Honda VT250 SPADA up every morning and afternoon for three and a half years, I warmed it up before all rides and had no mechanical failures. But, all the rides did tend to be a decent hot run.
You'll get both opinions, as expected. I believe it is safe to ride it cold, just take it easy. My BMW cages all had recommendations in the owners manuals to get in and drive, don't warm them up, due to excess carbon build up on the exhaust valves.

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.