A question for you biker boys

[dirk]

I was told too that it's not necessary to let it idle. I have a 125cc 2stroke Cagiva Mito. Just start with the manual choke open (revs at 3000 rpm), after 10-20 sec put it half way and don't rev it over 4000 rpm, and when it hits 60°C (normally after a mile), put the choke off, and I can drop 3 gears and go all the way redlining it at 11500 ...

[BrianSmith_S2]

Cold Start

My last bike advised me not to ride until engine temp on digi display went from reading 'COLD' to 30 deg C. It was at this point i could let off the choke and ride off. If i tried to go before the 30 deg had displayed it would run very rough and stall. Fine in the summer when it only took a min or so to warm up, but on a cold winters day it would take 5 mins or so. Advantages of it being a two stroke were it produced 70hp and 29ftlbs torque out of only 250cc ( S2 = 2226cc = 230ish hp / RS250 with 2226cc = 623hp 258ftlbs). good for 140mph and 0-60 of 3 secs, 0-100 of about 8secs. It looked lovely, rode like a dream and would surprise the hell out of bikes with engines 4 times its size, especially on a twisty road...

[BrianSmith_S2]

mini bike

My current bike fits in my bed so keeps nice n warm at night &doesnt need warming up in the mornings

[S2Roo]

ROTFL

[iain1067]

I do with mine manily because mt drive is on too steep a slope and it's the only way i can get it out, plus by the time i have put lid and gloves on it's oof choke anyway and ready to go, for the first few miles i don't rev it hard at all and short shift.

Iain

[Keeper of The Kitten]

the latest ZX10 is putting out nearly 200 horses from a 1 Litre engine, which is F1 territory

That would equate to about 600bhp from 3 litres - put another way, about two thirds of the 900bhp+ the best F1 engines can produce. Not quite F1 then, but very impressive compared to the best road car technology.

It's a fact that there has been talk of bike manufacturers turning to F1 car technology to get more power from a smaller capacity, not the other way round!

To clear up the whole torque and power thing, bear in mind that power is a function of torque and engine speed - hence more power being achieved by getting the engines to rev their nuts off.

It works up to a point where there are diminishing returns, due to friction, and outrageous localised air speeds on a normally aspirated powerplant.

As for the warming up procedures, I've seen the same thing written in most manuals for production cars - get in, start up and drive away. The best practice we can have on four wheels is to get the things up to temperature on the move before really lighting them up.

Race cars all go through static warm up procedure, but this is helped somewhat nowadays by pre-heating of water and oil before pushing the button.

The two wheeled lark is alien to me, I can fall off something with four wheels anyway!

One last thing - my two stroke garden weed eater has to go through a warm up procedure before I can mash the nettles (very satisfying, and quite possibly more annoying for the neighbours than any motorcycle).

__MDC__