Do you have to let it warm up?

Bubba,
Your are so learned. What did he say about riding wheelies and oiling issues?
David

 

Depends how cold it is.
I also work it into my pre ride habits.
Start bike, Inspect bike, put on helmet, put on gloves.
takes a few moments, enough to splash the oil around.

From the ride slow and gentle until it's warm.
The reason "I" do this is that an idle engine is actually hard on the engine as it does not effectivly move oil, getting some rev's helps and warming the rest of the bike with gentle manovers is also good. Warm tires also help.
Jumping on and peeling out like a mad man is not the way to go.

Living in canada though there are some days where i question my sanity, and those around me do as well.
below freezing I typically wait a little longer to ensure the oil is viscus enough to properly coat the engine before riding off...this takes about a minute after my pre ride habits.

This mainly come from experiance with cars....Modern fuel injected cars need no more than 30 seconds to warm up even when extremly cold. The best way to heat them up is gentle driving, excive idle means a cars oil does not fully circulate and is actually very hard on a car...letting it sit there improperly lubricated is just wrong....but oh so nice to get into.

 

i believe in foreplay .....and wait 1 or 2 minutes running at 1500-2000 rpm before riding off, then keep revs down until temp gauge starts coming up.....
no matter how willing, my girl likes gentle treatment at first.

 

I usually warm it up until the temp gauge starts reading at about 96 degrees F. Once those numbers start rolling I get rolling!

 

I fire up my gen. 1 and let er warm up while going down the road. Everything sounds and feels smooth right around 3100 RPMs. Once warm it'll run smooth in a tall gear @ RPMs as low as 2800.
However, my gen. 6 v-tech won't tolerate a cold start up and go; stalls if I try to take off before the temp gauge registers. (registers @ 90 degrees) As all of you know that's less than half of normal operating temp. Nor will my
6th gen tolerate (even when warm 184 degrees) running tall gears @ low RPM. Except for 1st and 2nd gear, revs gotta be 3400 or better or the thing runs like drunk hampster about to fall off his wheel. IE: sputters, shakes, hesitates, no power band, etc.....
-Josh

 

really? i find that odd, i rode my bike every day to work when it was 7deg bellow freezing with just a slight warm up and never had any of the issues you describe.

 

JTC, I think there might be something wrong with your bike dude! On days that I'm running late I can start and go witout any of the issues you're talking about. Even on mornings when its in the 20's (freakin' cold for California :biggrin: ) I don't have those issues. Might be time for a tune up!

 

Now I'm scared

Can't be time for a tune-up. Bike's brand new, 137 miles on it. ?Honda defect?
Back to the dealer I went. Come to find out, my bike had a faulty/damaged side stand kill switch. So far everything's great now.:doh: Thanks for your posts.
-Josh

 

Whew thank goodness it was nothing major.

 

Glad to know it was nothing major. Those little switches can be a pain especially if you come from older bike that doesn't have this switch and you try to run the bike in gear with the clutch in and the kick stand down! :biggrin: (Don't ask how I know this... or how long it took me to figure out what was wrong...