I was weighing up tonight the very cold weather ,now about 9 days and the relationship of very cold oil and the starting of the bike. So Is the pump good enough to get the oil around the engine superfast in these conditions ?or is it better to start it for a second or two and knock off the kill switch a couple of times to get a bit of oil around the engine. Over to the tech guys.
If its an rr8plus mate on 10-30 oil I rekon it would have to be around -40 before you would have to worry at that temp the batt would die before the oil and pump would not function... Fire it up...lol
That’s interesting Arthur that you applied your advise to an RR8 + why is that? Does your advise extend to an RR5 running on 10-30 also?
Yes mate, with such thin oil I see no reason to run anything thinner in the UK winter, for a start Honda do not give a temp chart with the RR4-12 so "proper" info re oil types for different times of year don't seem to be covered so I just thought I would give my opinion. The RR4 guilds show 10-40 and RR6 10-30 my guess would be that the big H changed to a thinner (HOT Spec) oil for the higher reving motors, if I remember the RR6 they raised the red line so maybe this is why they changed to 10-30.... anyway I am open to advice if anyone has more info re cold weather oil viscosity (the W10 rating **) for 04-12 CBR's? Lets say for use in the UK and not -40 Alaskan weather as I don't see too many Eskimos riding round on blades....but again I could be wrong... lol ** for those that don't know the W is the Winter rating of your oil W0, 5, 10 are the cold viscosity factors, its cold starts that most engine ware occurs and the correct viscosity oil is important at given temperatures. edit: Maybe I put the RR8 in Carl as they "like" oil.... not something you and I have to worry about.. lol
I have not started my bike for about 4 weeks - when I do after long periods, I tend to turn it over for 7 or 8 seconds with the kill switch on to get the oil circulating at very low rpm - I then flick the switch to fire it up - surely it's better to do that than fire it up straight away?
Why not, the pumps are so good and oil routes are so efficient you would be surprised how quick the oil gets to the top end, even when turning over by hand oil pumps to the top end when shimming etc, not like an old 916 Ducati that dont get oil round the top end for 60-90seconds on a bad day!