Nice............but that bears zero relationship to the road bikes and their engines we ride to work, tour, play on. Their engines are built to totally different parameters to MotoGP engines. Just like every road going vehicle produced. Engine designers know that by and large the general public switch on an engine and drive off, so they design the engine to cope with this in a very wide temperature range, in conjunction with modern oils that allow this to happen and give far more protection than the oils of 20/30 years ago. Plus, on the downside I would be hounded out of my village if I was doing that at 6 am 5 days a week.
Well I haven't spoke to any crew chief or tech guy but I did have a chat with Valentino Rossi and he said I errrr rida the bike and a fook off ciao!!! Sorry couldn't resist
Honda UK have sent this reply Hello Rob Thank you for contacting Honda (UK), about your Honda Bikes, and warming the engines. We do not have a recommended warming up time but in the owners manuals for both bikes it does state:" to protect the catalytic converters in your motorcycles exhaust system, avoid extending idling" I would say that from personal experience, it is safe to start bike and ride almost immediately as long as you do not labour the engine or rev it too high. I hope this helps you Rob. If I can help with anything else, please do come back to me. Once again , Thank you for contacting Honda (UK). Kind Regards, Stephen Stevens Customer Relations Customer & Aftersales Honda (UK)
Funny that Honda still say in the handbook "After the engine has been warmed up, the motorcycle is ready for riding".
Its a modern engine. With modern oils, designed to survive as well as make good power. Admittedly the piston ring / oil consumption thing with these engines or the early ones has everyone a bit frightened .. I go out to my bike with my jacket on, but gloves and lid off. I start the engine, helmet, gloves, ride away gently .. wait for 60 degrees and wahooo .. If its after 9:30pm and before 9:30 am on any given day, I'll glove and lid up start it and rid away very gently straight away. (Akro!) .. I can't see anyone going wrong with this ... and I've got super duper mechanical empathy .. #
The reply from honda is in line with what I ve being doing for years with my cars and now motorbikes. Cold start is where a lot of wear takes place so fresh or high quality oil is critical(for me I would not use anything other than full synthetic). I take the bike out, close the garage, put the helmet on, get on it, then start the engine and slowly ride away. If I am in traffic jam then it is different, otherwise I keep it below 55 mph / 3000 rpm until I see 78 deg. By then the gearbox, tyres have warmed up. I stopped warming up the engine with no load many years ago So far it has worked for me & no side effects
just back from the ulster grand prix, they were warming up a britten beside our caravan first thing in the morning, what a wake up call.
Think I must have woken up in a bad mood so apologies in advance. As long as you don't jump on and rag it from cold every day and have some mechanical sympathy it doesn't matter. I love my bike but I think some people are just far too precious about them. It's only a form of a transport where most of the fun of ownership comes from using it as it has been designed and tested to do so. The oooh better not ride it yet it's not woken up properly as it's not warm enough or oh no I'm feeding it the wrong oil whatever shall I do now or argh I've used it had loads of fun but oh no I've made a mark on the tank or swing arm by doing so better put it away again and just clean it to be safe attitude I find a bit much, coming from a bloke who keeps his bike in the dinning room. Stop worrying about it, use a bit of common sense and enjoy the bloody things. I'm off to switch on the electric blanket, change the oil to angels tears and and wrap my swing arm and tank in bubble wrap hey it will look crap but at least it won't get marked or sod it just put a cover over it and never use it again.
Good call MrB I wonder if all this stems back from dad warming up the Cortina and it sticks in the mind forever?
