Ok I'm new here and I'm sure I'm gonna get crap for this but here goes! My 2010 rkc is kept at my father inlaws house because I have no garage at my apartment and my father every few days starts our bikes. Mine is an 2010 road king and his is an 01 duece. Well he went out to start them and then went to grab food down the street. Knowing him he ended up stopping at a bar instead of coming back to the house and then ended up going to stay at his girlfirends for the night. my dumbass sister in-law came home at 2am and bikes we still running and she did nor said anything. Finally I got a call at 5am asking why my bike was running all night. Dumbass! All I know is she shut mine off after I went off on her and she said my father inlwaws was off with lights on. SOOO I'm curious what damage could have been done to my bike. It fires right up now and nothing seems wrong but I did notice a very funny smell coming from engine area like fumes I guess. But it doesn't smell Like gas. And noticed white risidue ontop of throtle body but could have been there I'm not sure. Any advice on what to do would really be appreciated and sorry such a long post

I want to add that its the middle of winter and its a detached garage that had door open. So it was cold out and cold in garage

 

Just curious, why do you start them every couple of days? Seems like an awful lot of wear for nothin. I'd put a tender on it & cover her up for the winter but that's just me. Hope it all works out for ya

 

Cop bikes idle for long periods of time. But follow the above posters advice . Stop starting the bikes in Winter. Just throw on a battery tender, and leave it alone.
I only put the tender on for one day a month. I'm a cynic.

 

throw it on a tender and put a dose of stabil in the gas tank, cover her up and ride her in the spring.

 

There's so much wrong with this thread I want to believe it's a joke. But then I remember the time I left my suburban running outside my house to charge up a battery and completely forgot about it!

As others have said, park your bike properly for the winter, put a tender on the battery, and don't start it until spring. In your case, for sure change your oil first thing in the spring...it's probably full of water from condensation from all the cold starts. Then again, it did idle for ten hours and probably boiled off all the water from the oil....

An air cooled engine doesn't effectively cool unless there is air flow over the cylinder fins. A stationary engine isn't going to cool properly. Even a three hp lawnmower with a Briggs and Stratton engine has a cooling fan. Have you ever noticed the huge fans that are blowing air on bikes as they are being dynoed?

All that said, I've read that Harley tests their engines by letting them idle for hours in hot desert heat.

 

In the fall I put stabil in the gas, run the bike for 5 mins, hook up the tender and it sits in the garage until spring time and I'm ready for my first ride of the year. I don't see the point of starting the bike every couple days.

 

Insulting post removed by moderator.

 

Change the oil, fill up the gas tank with fuel and Stabil, put it on a battery tender and leave it alone till Spring. It will be just fine.

No reason to quote a bad post.

 

I thank God every day that there are folks like you all in the world! This is where I draw self esteem from. I will feel better about myself probably all morning until I really screw something up. Thanks and welcome to the forum! We need a lot more of you!

 

Insulting quote removed by moderator.

It's a shame that some folks feel the need to be a *****.