South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

I do a lot of short journies, to college is 3 miles, to work is 6, so the engine never gets up to operating temperature, around 80 degrees.
Every time I go out to I always let my R6 tick itself warm up to usually about 60 degrees, before riding off. Is this the right thing to do, or would I be better off riding it gently and not letting it warm up fully. Would ticking itself warm do more damage than good on rings or similar?

Just paranoid because I want to look after it.
Cheers Steve.

i say just rag it an it's warm up

I just normally dont go over 5000rpm for the first 2 miles then all hell lets loose.

let it warm up itself on tickover then give it beanz !

I don't know whats best but...

I always just start her up and let her tick over until the temp kicks in on the clocks @ 40, now when I got my 636 I was told let it warm up till 40 then your good to go - so I've just carried it over to my new Ninja.

I think i read somewhere recently, (motorcycle news problem page i think) that the most wear is on start up and letting it sit there ticking over, it was recommended to start up the bike and ride off straight away but obviously don't go daft until its warmed up so you might just be better going a few extra miles to work to get it warmed up. There was also a test a few years ago with two new GSXR 750's one was warmed up and ridden as per the book for running in etc the other was ragged from the start and the ragged one was a quicker bike after a couple of thousand miles but when they took them apart had more wear, so the moral of the story was, if you are going to keep your bike then be gentle if its new but if you trade in every year or two then hammer it and get more power for your pound :):)

Tom1528 wrote:i say just rag it an it's warm up

Used to do that, now that bikes buggered.

I did hear that Johnny, sort of why I posted up, theres not many other ways that I can go to work most I can add to it is another 1/2 a mile without going to torquay and back.


I need another hack.

What about a quick run down to kingswear and back up again that would add a couple of miles some nice bends going down that hill as well

In those distant days of mono-grade oils, they had very specific operating temperatures and warming an engine was essential to prevent severe wear .... and also make gear changing easier etc., ...... I used to run straight SAE30 oil in the itie twins

Modern multi-grades are more stable across a wider range of operating temperatures, so need less warm-up time to work properly.

Our old car, with a Volkswagen Tdi engine in it, actually had it written in the manual that you should not start it and let it sit idling - it was better to start and go

As an indication of how oil and engine technology has improved, when I started riding 25yrs ago, 1500 mile oil changs were not uncommon, now many modern diesels will go up to 20k miles between chnages

It's simple steve

SHORT JOURNEYS - TAKE THE DIVVY

LONG (FUN) JOURNEYS - TAKE THE R6

I normally start it with choke (if necessary) let it idle for about 5-20 secs then choke off when it can idle properly.
Usually a few throttle blips to check it picks up okay.
Then for the first minute or two ill ride it normally without putting it under a lot of load i.e. i wont lug the engine around in low revs or redline it either,but ill usually vary the revs a bit.Just common sense i suppose.

Heres an idea why not save the planet and cycle those 3 miles to college? It will keep you fit and 3 miles should only take about 20 minutes. For work i'd get on it and go but just ride gently all the way.

Unless its really bloody cold I just run it till its off the choke, then crack on

Start her up, put on helmet and gloves. Ride off,matching revs to temperature, 30 degrees = 3000 revs, 40 degrees = 4000 revs etc. works for me.

Thanks everyone,

Si, divvy is dead, no mot tax needs fork seals and is running on 2 cylinders, don't have a clue whats wrong with it and haven't got the money to get it fixed by a garage.

I have a bit of a grudge against the run to kingswear, since I binned the divvy for the first time up there on my way to work at about 40/50. Tend to avoid that way now.

Will try some of the ideas, maybe not the cycle one though