bike dour on turnover

[kirky1298]

well , i went out to the garage tonight to pay homage to the germanic beast slumbering there ... it's been 3 weeks , started fritz up for a wee run and he was as dour as feck ,, problem is that i filled his tank before lying him up and taxed him through the winter , with a view to getting a couple of winter runs in .. however this weather is puting paid to that . basically , i dont have a trickle charger or quick release fuel lines , so what i'm asking is , if i start the beast and give him a wee run for 10 mins off of idle now and again , will that be enough for the battery , or am i pissing into the wind ?? he had a new battery in may this year wot do u think ??

 

[Lord Snooty]

Starting the bike every other day or so will help to keep the battery charged as the alternator will charge it more efficiently than any battery charger but Sir must make sure that you get the bike fully up to working temperature. The initial combustion creates condensation in the engine and oil and you need to ensure that the water is evaporated otherwise it will contaminate your oil and increase wear in your engine.

Don't start it and bugger off for half and hour though, remember it is an air cooled engine and without an airflow the engine may overheat. There have been instances of this happening with owners who frequent this forum.

 

[skyenet]

Get a trickle charger. I have used an Optimate for years with different bikes (F650, R100RS, R1100RS and now my R1200GS) and so far had no problem. Starting and idling your bike does the engine no good whatsoever.

 

[rockchunk]

There have been instances of this happening with owners who frequent this forum. [/QUOTE]

 

[kirky1298]

There have been instances of this happening with owners who frequent this forum.

[/QUOTE]

i know , you'd need to be a total fandango to let that happen
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[DrFarkoff]

Kirky Don't start it and run it for a bit just get a trickle charger!

Seriously whatever shite it is they give us as petrol now is not yer 4 star of years ago

The thing is these bikes monitor how cold it is thru sensors and they adjust the fuelling accordingley

problem is an air cooled bike in a freezin garage won;t get up to working temp and it will still be enriched when ye turn it off

The next thing ya know is ya need 4 plugs cos they are all sooted up and they don't clean well at all nowadays

trust me get a trickle charger and if ya must disconnect the neg terminal if you want to be sure to be sure

As for fuel --- Fill it up to the FULL that creates a saturated mixture and cos there's no air it ususally stays fresher!

 

[skinnersscotch]

I have to agree with Jaythro.

Starting the engine and letting the bike tickover doesn't charge the battery. You would ahve to keep the revs up so that the alternator is producing sufficient power to run the lights and things, and then a bit extra for the battery top-up.

Trickle charger...way to go.

 

[roddy]

Kirky if you can't get power into where you store the bike there's a couple of things you can do to help.

- clean the battery this will help stop surface conduction so slow draining a battery
- get quick release fuel lines so you can easily remove the battery and store it somewhere warm
- or remove the battery to take it some where you can put a charge on it from time to time

I'm personnaly not a fan of constant trickle charging a battery I prefer to only trickle charge overnight 1 every 6 weeks roughly, I'm done this with all my bike and never had a premature failure of a battery, the Buell battery is 8 yrs old and still going strong.

Also it's worth bearing in mind the bike may have sound sluggish to turn over becaused it's very cold this makes a huge difference to how easily a engine will spin.

HTH