Do you warm your bike up before heading off?

[motorbyclist]

Engine oil is distributed more effectively throughout the engine when it is under a little pressure. This is not acheived with stationary idling but with gentle riding for the first couple of km.

what?

how does riding affect oil pressure? oil pump is mechanically driven by the crank, not the wheels!

idling will put oil under pressure, revving will add pressure but do alot of damage until the oil has had time to get to where it's going

[xwhatsit]

It happens, talk to Xerxes about traffic lights and stalling

Motherfucker! Where did you see me do that? That's happened a couple of times lately. Accelerator pump sticking, starves the engine of fuel when you crack the throttle open as soon as the lights turn green.

My engine is most unhappy from cold. Big bog/flat spot just above idle, idles very low, occasional misfire, and heaps of crackling and farting on the over-run (much more than usual). Partly because the engine's a bit sad anyway, but mostly because it's air-cooled and carburetted. Hence, ever since owning it, I give it a good 5 minutes or so while I get my gear on. Even when warmed up I still give it a few seconds to circulate the oil when starting.

I dunno about these modern close-tolerance water-boilers with injection systems, but it would seem to me common sense with an air-cooled carbed bike to give it a thorough warm up. If you want proof, just listen to the tappets; noisy as hell from cold, but quiet when hot. Tolerances closed up, the big gap you could hear banging away is closed. Carbs and intake tracts also need to be nice and warm before they'll atomise fuel properly (at least that's what teh intarweb tells me), so the carburettion will be all up the tree. And of course there's all the oil stuff people have been waffling on about.

[Patch]

. . . warming up while running up the road.

This is considered riding/driving with a cold engine, definately not warming up.




Its a bit sad to read quite a few think their bikes have chokes when they do not.


Consider what might happen if a:

Aeroplane
Jet Fighter
Truck
Train
Bus

were not warmed up properly. So what makes your bike so fucking special that it does not deserve the first 4-5mins most important time in its short life??

[MotoKuzzi]

i hear those are so finely toleranced that they have to keep warm water pumping through them or they'll seize up



why not start bike first, then put gear on etc?

Mainly because at 5am it wakes the neighbours and my dog starts to howl, so I roll it down the road and wake the neighbours further away. But its a habit I have stuck with elsewhere, I ease into the ride gently over a few K until I'm ready to open up.

[tzrmike]

I have a two-stroke, and apart from the fact it coughs and splutters when cool, it also smokes like a steamtrain! Its much happier (and cleaner) when warmed up for a while.

Four strokes, I warm them up a bit, then ride/drive carefully until full temperature is reached. As mentioned this allow time for the other components to warm up, including the rider! I think this is the best way, especially with cars, as you need to get the gearbox and diff up to working temps as well.

Also, I work with refridgeration compressors, and in the past, did a bit of work with stand-by diesel generators. Now, both of those use crankcase heaters, especially in the case of the generators, where the heaters keep the coolant, oil and block, etc at full operating temperature. This is so if and when the generator has to start, it can be generating at full power/full load literally within a matter of seconds. The refridge compressors are normally started with (depending on the size of the compressor and the control system) 50-66% load, switching to 100% load after about 30-60 seconds. I don't think they'd be too happy or have a long life if they were under that load from cold.

[gunnyrob]

My Beemer has an air cooled engine. If it idles too long at rest it can overheat.

[Shadows]

what?

how does riding affect oil pressure? oil pump is mechanically driven by the crank, not the wheels!

idling will put oil under pressure, revving will add pressure but do alot of damage until the oil has had time to get to where it's going

No shit the wheels don't drive the oil pump. How stupid do you think I am?

Yes, I agree revving a cold engine will fuck it. No argument there. But I never mentioned "revving" the engine. I was talking about putting it under a tiny bit of load with gentle riding. By gentle I mean basically riding just above idle for a little bit. The oil gets to the top end faster that way, the engine warms up faster and more evenly while running more slowly than if left screaming with full choke on, and plugs don't get fouled up with rich running.

Plus, with the price of fuel at the moment at least it's getting used to propel the bike down the road instead of going to waste.

[gijoe1313]

Daisy always takes a little while to fire up when shes been sitting around for a while. Sometimes I have to roll her out and let her sit in the sun for a wee whiles and then kickstart her into life.

Then she likes to warble and burble away for a few minutes warming up and tickling her throttle a little before she feels set to streak off! Now that Betsy is in the stable, I also give her the same ol'treatment.

I also do the same for Pippi but she just wants to putter out ASAP and get some road beneath her! (shes having a wee rest at the moment!)

As for my Hornets, I always like to fire them up and let them run a wee bit just to get them warmed up a little before gently riding along with them.

[dipshit]

The issue is not if you warm your bike up or not but rather how you warm your bike up. Weather it is warming up sitting on the sidestand or warming up while running up the road.

Then why didn't you have one of those options in your poll?

[dipshit]

how does riding affect oil pressure? oil pump is mechanically driven by the crank, not the wheels!

Well on my bike idle is 1200 rpm. Riding quietly down the street with very little throttle in the first few gears is around 3500 to 4000 rpm. The latter option will have more oil circulating the engine with still very little load on it.

idling will put oil under pressure, revving will add pressure but do alot of damage until the oil has had time to get to where it's going

Even where you live will make a difference. One place I lived at had a very steep driveway to get up first thing, which demanded a bit of load to get up, so I did tend to allow the bike longer to warm up on idle first before heading up the steep driveway.

But when living at a different place at the top of a hill, my vehicles had a very easy time healing downhill on pretty much a neutral throttle to warm up. And now i am living on a flat street there is no problem for my SV quietly riding off down the road after 20 seconds or so of fast idle.

[mbazza]

As per most other posts. I warm the strom up by idling it while I gear up. Usually has one bar up when I set off and at least two bars before I need to reach speed limit. Yours with warm oil. Cheers.

[alanzs]

Turn on the machine with choke engaged. Let it idle till it hits the 3,000 rpm roar, turn choke off, rpms drop to about 1250. Put on gear; suit, earplugs, lid, gloves, in that exact order. Swing leg over bike, roll out of garage and away I go.
As the bike has carbuerators, it doesn't go so smooth when cold, hence the warm up.

Also, the old lady next door (who has never said hello to me in years???) has a whiny little fucking dog that she releases every morning a little before 6:00 am and it whines and howls incessantly. It's part of the payback to keep the neighbours happy. If the dog has been whining especially loud, waking me from my beauty sleep which I so desperately need, I may even leave the radar detector siren on for that LOUD, 150 db blasting, chirping blaring sound. WARM BIKE=RUN BETTA

[jade]

My Bike gets 5-10mins of idling before work before I make the 2 minute journey to work, when I take off I keep it below 4000revs for a few minutes, wouldnt get above 5000 revs before work..
If you try and take it up through the revs even after a 5-10min warmup, you will quickly see by 7000revs that it wont do it/doesnt like it
when its warm - redline every gear every time

[dipshit]

My Bike gets 5-10mins of idling before work before I make the 2 minute journey to work,

Why not walk or cycle to work and save your bike all that grief every morning?

The less cold starts a bike has over its life the better off it will be.

[cowboyz]

This is considered riding/driving with a cold engine, definately not warming up.
Its a bit sad to read quite a few think their bikes have chokes when they do not.
Consider what might happen if a:

Aeroplane
Jet Fighter
Truck
Train
Bus

were not warmed up properly. So what makes your bike so fucking special that it does not deserve the first 4-5mins most important time in its short life??

Interesting to note you are comparing your bike against heavy machinery. I drive heavy machinery for a income. Certainly wouldnt compare the kwaka to anything in the shed.
What makes my bike so special? Well to start with, it is still running like the day it was built without the need to sit in the shed for 5-10 minutes idling before I pootle off to work in the morning. I dont see benefits in any engine reving while in neutral. Especially if the bike is air cooled. Not moving = no cooling so overheating is a real possiblilty.

Then why didn't you have one of those options in your poll?

did you read the first post in conjunction with the poll or just jump in premature?