Cold Engine RPMs

[rhaus]

As I was headed for the freeway to go home I wondered what is considered a "safe" self imposed RPM limit. I chose 5K.

[Ken H.]

I suppose it depends upon how you define "cold." Once one bar is showing on the gauge (which measures oil temp) personally I'd say all bets are off, let 'er rip!

 

Below one bar I'd say 4- 5K seems about right, but that's just my subjective opinion.

[Jim VonBaden]

I suppose it depends upon how you define "cold." Once one bar is showing on the gauge (which measures oil temp) personally I'd say all bets are off, let 'er rip!

 

Below one bar I'd say 4- 5K seems about right, but that's just my subjective opinion.

 

I follow those rules as well. Just makes sense to be sure the oil is circulating and up to pressure before going at it!

 

Jim

[GelStra]

Thank you for reminding me of something I have been meaning to post. Why does my bike need much of a warm-up? It doesn't take long but what a difference in the idle after a few minutes! I thought that fuel-injected engines didn't need to warm-up.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

In point of fact you can ride off as soon as the engine will start. There will be a performance/smoothness penalty as the intake port walls and combustion chamber roof, piston tops and cylinder walls come up to temperature. These cold surfaces will cause droplets of fuel to come out of suspension in the air stream and aglomorate making for some poor fuel distribution and low mixture strength. You should expect torque and throttle response to be poor until the condition corrects.

 

The reasons for leaving off full load and higher rpm's while the motor is cold have more to do with builiding oil films and distributing oil throughout the engine as well as the various clearances not being up to their normal operatiing temperature specification. The engine is thus not ready to accept maximum or near maximum loads yet.

[lithoman]

Ed you rock!!!

I thought I knew alot about engines

[Buster]

I agree, as do most/all engine designers, that "warm up" as we used to understand it, is not necessary and, in fact, unhealthy for modern engines.

 

On the other hand, we need to assure that oil is flowing and doing it's job before we ask for any serious power or rpm's. I've always waited for some indcation of rising oil temp before exceeding 3k rpm's and I wait for "normal" oil temp before I ask for maximun performance, with some common sense in between.

 

Just my $0,02 worh.

[GelStra]

Holy smokes! Where did we find you people!? I'm lucky to know that the bike came standard with factory air in the tires!!

[wilsons]

I generally wait 30seconds to a minute, enough to let oil circulate, and by the time I make it to the interstate, she's ready to rock.

[TowJam]

Holy smokes! Where did we find you people!? I'm lucky to know that the bike came standard with factory air in the tires!!

Of course you're aware that you need to perform an air change as part of the 600 mile service correct? And more thing - don't even think about using synth air prior to the 6k service.

 

You've been warned.

[GelStra]

Oh shoot! Another $300 service. Of course, per factory specs, the factory doesn't recommend you do this yourself! Something about voiding the warranty!

[JayW]

I ride my cold bike as I did during the entire 600 break-in miles: keep rpms below 4000, and avoid stressing the engine. However, I do not let it idle to warm up, since this ultimately slows down the warm up process. Just ride gently until the first few bars are visible, which only takes a couple of miles in my experience.

 

Jay