Warming up an engine.

[ronenige]

Start and go but give it at least 5 miles to get the oil up to temp before giving it WOT4

[buster]

Start and go but give it at least 5 miles to get the oil up to temp before giving it WOT4

What this man says

[Gobert23]

RS250 ->

Gets the no throttle until the temperature guage moves from 'cold'. I just set the choke and wait (normally long enough to have a cuppa and get my kit sorted).

Duc' 916 ->

Double-prime the injection (the two turns of the key trick), fast idle button in to get it started, then immediately kick it back (off the fast idler) and let it warm up slowly... Again, no blippin' the throttle until the temperature is up at 80C ('12 o'clock') first.

Honda VFR800 ->

Half-choke (I've got the early model with the manual choke) then kick it back to warm up from 1500 rev's. I'll wait until about 65C before I'll head off.

Thruxton ->

Full-choke, then kick it back once it's fired up. I've got an oil temperature guage fitted so that I can keep an eye on things... I wait until it's warm and idling steady before heading off...

I'm 'OCD' about cooling them down as well...

G

[banoffee]

I have read from many sources though that there is a particular nack to getting honda's 400cc V4 engine going...

mine starts first time everytime on the button, full choke when cold and none when warm. peasy. it's just that it needs a little warmth in it before it responds. probably a good thing considering the revs it gets to pull away

[gregtrx]

start it on the choke, takes a few goes. get it idling. Get on, ride off slow until I've cleared the farmyard then give it some. I tried treating em nice, and they still break so fuck 'em.

[skyline]

I generally start the bike (sv650), set the choke so the revs are between 2000 - 2500 while I check the lights. As soon as the bike can run at idle I get on, check the brakes and go.

I'd read before that the engine wears most when using choke on a cold engine so the sooner it's off the choke the better?

To get OCD about warming the engine up, you could turn the engine over with the killwswitch off to get some oil around the cams before starting it proper. I wish my SV would let me do this...

I just turn the engine off when i get back, just after a quick last blat up to the drive...I'll try idling the engine for a lil bit to help with cooling before turning it off from now on. Or would that just make the engine hotter?

[southwestbiker]

I generally turn the bike on, and use my throttle to get it revving to about 2k for about 10 seconds, then let go and it idles just about right.

Then i go back into my house, get my sandwiches, find my helmet, and im ready to leave. Probably leave it for about 4-5min warming up, but ive got no temp gauge, so ive no idea what it should be, but it seems to do the trick. If i dont leave it warming long enough, it runs a bit weird, almost like its flooding. Being a lazy bastard, ive decided its just easier to warm it up rather than fix the problem. Its fine when i ride in the afternoon, but cold mornings are the worst for it.

[gurninman]

I light a (thin) roll-up on the way to the garage, wheel the ZX9 out and start on full choke.Tab is now half smerked.

Then knock the choke off once the revs start to rise, tab is now finished, lid on and off I go.No more than a minute or so idling, then by the time I get to J5 of the M4 (half a mile away) , the bike is up to temp and can be caned.

[TheFlymo]

The only bikes I let "warm up" are my CBR6 and 200EXC, and that's only because they don't fuel correctly until they've got a bit of heat in 'em. The VFR, TL, and every FI bike I've owned gets at most 20 seconds while I pull my gloves on. I've never understood why letting a bike idle is "better" for it- They're designed with tolerances sufficient enough to allow cold running, and oil pressure increases with revs after all.

Besides, given how a bike engine feels generally dreadful even when there's something minor wrong with it, I figure it'll let me know if it doesn't like running from cold.

I don't thrash them until they've got a few degrees showing, but this is paranoia/mechanical sympathy more than anything.