It's about 41 degrees F right now, I was just warming up my bike on high idle. I left it for a few minutes, then when I came back saw that the front part of the header was glowing red! Did I leave it on high idle for too long? Is this bad? (I mean it did look pretty cool, in the dark and all)
Stop doing that... [laugh]
you'll be fine. ;)
http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=60867.0 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=60867.0)
See what I mean? Didn't that picture in that post look pretty awesome?
FWIW, nothing good comes from warming an air cooled bike for minutes.
Warmup is the time the most oil contamination occurs from blow by and it takes longer to occur at idle than under load.
Generally 100% agreed, I don't believe it's a great thing to let an air cooled engine sit around running without the wind to help it maintain proper temps, and sitting idle not only slows warmup but makes it less even - the cylinder heads tend to heat up more rapidly, which I'm not sure is all that good for the precision valve train in that chunk of aluminum...
Only thing I have to add is that, for at least the older 2v engines, I hear it takes about 90sec for good oil flow to reach the valve train from a dead cold (been sitting for a bit) start. I don't know if this is true too for the newer engines (796, etc.) - leave one of the valve covers off to see, but I definitely make sure on cold starting mine I take about that long to put on my gear and go... Call me paranoid ;D
I'm about the same.
but mine sit in a garage.
I'll have jacket, etc on. start the bike, idle under 2000 with the throttle advance and slowly bring it back down to normal idle (no throttle advance) while putting on helmet and gloves. then go.
So you don't have to wait until the low temp indicator goes away to ride?
You do not.
Just hold off on the wheelies until the oil os warm and you are good.
Quote from: ikillterrorists on December 01, 2012, 05:34:36 AM
So you don't have to wait until the low temp indicator goes away to ride?
Some days my low temp indicator doesn't go away... when ambient is below 35... 15-20 minutes at highway speeds do not make for a warm engine. I usually cover the oil cooler, but that doesn't always work either.