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To warm up or not to warm up

5K views 33 replies 16 participants last post by  AntonioMartha 
#1 ·
Here's a point that's debated often and that's, do you warm an engine up before riding/driving off or do you just take off from cold start. Some say modern engines don't require warming up however I find it very difficult to do this. I always relate a cold engine to myself when I first wake up you got to warm your body up before you get it to work otherwise things snap and tear. I've always done this with my cars/bikes and never had issues with vehicles showing signs of engine wear eg. blowing smoke or nasty internal rattles.

Any opinions on this?.......
 
#2 ·
Wonderful things happen when people cold starting their modern bike and cranking the throttle from the get go.

Serious though: I myself see it the exact same way as you do.
When getting out of bed, you're all stiff(pun intended) and need to warm up before you can have a run in the morning.

If you jump out of your bed and start to run immediatly chances are you'll get cramps in your legs.

Same goes for an engine IMO.
Its all cold/embiant temperatures and when the motor gets running all the metals need to warm up and expand before it can operate the way its intended.

Ofcourse you can cold start and redline it..but how many times can you do such things before something internally...cramps up.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I'll let run for only a couple of minutes, but then ride off keeping low revs until temp is up.
This!
Turn bike on, start engine.
Put on jacket, helmet, gloves. By then the coolant gauge stopped blinking.
Hop on and ride below 5k rpm first few minutes.
Slowly overtime building up the revs up to 8k rpm

Usually 20-30 minutes of riding is when the fun begins and 10k+ rpm gets used.

EDIT; just noticed this topic was in 4 cylinder maintenance section...oops.
 
#4 ·
Wonderful things happen when people cold starting their modern bike and cranking the throttle from the get go.
I cant help but cringe and wince when I witness this. Though, I see it often.
 
#6 ·
Manual says not to leave bike ticking over but to start and ride it with the toggle choke lever on.

I start the bike. Put my helmet and gloves on and go.

Leaving it ticking over means there is poor airflow over radiator so cylinderhead, barrels and pistons gets hot, while oil is not up to temperature..

Personal choice but I follow the manual. Once it has started and I can hear all plugs and injectors are firing ...get on and get the air flowing through the cooling system.
 
#7 ·
Using the relating to body example.. todays fitness experts.. trainers.. coaches.. teach and perform 'dynamic' stretching. Its not a sit and stretch cold muscles.. its basically- warm up by doing 'easy' exercises and gradually getting to full tilt.

My vehicles get the same treatment. ill start and get going easy, shifting early and applying minimal gas until it gets to normal operating temps.
 
#8 ·
Good points,
I have done this on occasion when in a hurry. Moved off pretty much straight away, but gently. Not allowing the revs to get to high and gently up and down the gears until full operating temperature.
On a track day situation which is the only place I ride these days, this would be difficult to do as the rest of the field is going ‘hell for leather’ straightaway. First session for the day would be 3 laps building to moderate pace, then open it up. The rest of the day would be fine as eng temp would be held between track sessions.
Interesting stuff to diagnose and discuss as longevity and performance is effected buy this.
 
#14 ·
Lets expand on that context though. The specific output of my car is CONSIDERABLY lower than of the bike. Our bikes are well over 100hp/l while most cars are below 100 and tolerances are different.

I prefer to give it a minute before I let it go over 4k if its COMPLETELY COLD. I dont wait until it stops flashing (which takes some time). Usually what I do is in the morning I fire up the bike, then go back in to put on jacket, helmet, gloves, etc. before setting off. That allows some heat int the cylinders for metal parts to expand a bit. Im not worried about the cooling system because the bike is cold, no worry of hot spots or anything because coolant is always flowing even if the stat isnt open.

But if ive ridden the bike in the past few hours, just fire up and go, everything is already hot. And then I just dont flog it until it hits 52c.
 
#10 ·
Start and go. Keep the rpms low until you get to operating temperature. I heard this answer from Click and Clack, The Car Guys out of Boston. It does not hurt a car to crank and go. Do not crank at freezing temperatures and pin it. Common Sense
 
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#11 ·
That's it! We go through an epidemic event! >:)


It is simple. Let the engine warm up for a minute or so. Don't let it fry idling!

The same holds when it is cold outside. Don't let it idle more(engine running rich/lubrication problems) because your ass is freezing! Unless you have a carburetor...


Then just ride gently for lets say 10-15 minutes. That is the best way(softly riding) to manage the initial thermodynamic dialogue.


Now, who is going to make a thread about how to run-in a new engine? I'm losing sleep over it.

I don't trust the factory engineers and the flock of sheep out there. I am special you see. Very special.

Nobody will tell me what to do! :ahhh::ahhh::ahhh:
 
#24 ·
And what about track days? The first session starts at 09:00 but there is a lot of admin stuff to do (unload the bike, put it on paddock stands, tyre warmers, registration, put your kit on etc.)
There is not much time to start the engine while all that is going on, so what is one to do then?
C.
 
#27 ·
Surely if you needed to warm up the engine before use it would say so in the user manual ? :)

I just start it up and ride off. I do have some mechanical sympathy and dont redline it from cold. It warms up much more quickly under load (riding) than when at idle and most engine wear takes place when its cold. So the quicker you get it up to temp the better ....apparently

On a track day where you need to use all the revs immediately then it makes sense to have the engine warm ..and the tyres
 
#28 ·
Up to this point all participants seem to agree that the bike needs to be warmed up for a period before giving it full throttle. The debate possibly could be whether you sit for a period or begin to move immediately.

I’m tending towards moving as soon as you’re ready and gently bring the bike to temp before putting under full load.
This will be an ingrained behavioural change but there have been some good points put forward.

The agreed ‘no no’ is to rev the shit out of it from a cold start.
 
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#31 ·
Um, that's why oil is multi viscosity.....
 
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