Waking Up Bike From Winter Sleep
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:34 pm
The motorcycle has been sleeping all winter and you need to be gentle to wake it up.
When first starting place in nuetral, hold both the clutch and the front brake levers very tight cause sometimes the wet clutch disc will stick together and the bike may tend to move as you start it, after starting allow extra time for warm up and take it for a long ride without stutting it down so the bikes charging system gives the battery a good charge, if you stop somewhere you might find the battery wont have enough juice to start it again, also many bikes don't charge good at idle speed, get it at high rpms for a good charge.
But before you do anything check the engine oil level and the tire air pressure, its very dangerous riding on bad roads with low tire presssure. You don't need to change the motor oil right-away cause the moisture thats in the crankcase will burn off just so you get the engine up to normal operation temperature.
Also if the bike is almost new take the spark plugs out, inspect and adjust the air gap and reinstall coating the threads with copper anti-seeze and don't over-tighten, just a 1/8th turn after snug (seen too many bikes in the past where the plus were never out for 10K miles and the threads strip coming out) plugs wear out fast in motorcycles cause you have less cyls that the plugs fire more times.... you understand that Vern? Vern! think of that V8 engine in your truck, thats 8 spark plugs, now on a 4 cyl engine those plugs are firing twice as many times and on a 2 cyl motorcycle they are firing 6 times more! (plugs come out better on a cold engine)
When first starting place in nuetral, hold both the clutch and the front brake levers very tight cause sometimes the wet clutch disc will stick together and the bike may tend to move as you start it, after starting allow extra time for warm up and take it for a long ride without stutting it down so the bikes charging system gives the battery a good charge, if you stop somewhere you might find the battery wont have enough juice to start it again, also many bikes don't charge good at idle speed, get it at high rpms for a good charge.
But before you do anything check the engine oil level and the tire air pressure, its very dangerous riding on bad roads with low tire presssure. You don't need to change the motor oil right-away cause the moisture thats in the crankcase will burn off just so you get the engine up to normal operation temperature.
Also if the bike is almost new take the spark plugs out, inspect and adjust the air gap and reinstall coating the threads with copper anti-seeze and don't over-tighten, just a 1/8th turn after snug (seen too many bikes in the past where the plus were never out for 10K miles and the threads strip coming out) plugs wear out fast in motorcycles cause you have less cyls that the plugs fire more times.... you understand that Vern? Vern! think of that V8 engine in your truck, thats 8 spark plugs, now on a 4 cyl engine those plugs are firing twice as many times and on a 2 cyl motorcycle they are firing 6 times more! (plugs come out better on a cold engine)