I usually let her warm up for about 5 minutes while I am getting geared up. The only time I don't is first thing in the mornings when I am riding to work. I let her idle for about 1 or 2 min max and head out. Its too loud to let her idle out there (I live in an apartment complex) any longer than that at 6:15 in the morning. I do take it easy on her the first couple miles and then push the choke in and wake up the neighborhood I happen to be passing through. I feel bad when its 35 deg out but what do ya do.

To each his own

 

Chris what you were told is true.

Your motor is engineered to operate within critical parameters.

If you put the machine under a load before the clearance tolerances
are into spec as designed, the pistons will be slapping against
the cylinder walls, scarring them and the piston skirts.

It really takes more than 4-5 minutes to allow for expansion
and normalizing to avoid subtle damage.

Hard to remember a topic where I have read more bullshit on a single page.
Key in, hit button, roll on it.
240 degress in one minute.
Get on it and ride, you won't notice any problems.
I don't want to wake up my neighbors.
On the other hand, several well informed replies to your query.

Below, is some real data, collected from the ECM of my 06TwinCam
on an 85F day last October.

mud........

Start Up



One Minute



Two Minute



Seven Minute



Eight Minute



Twenty Minute

 

sounds a little old school (uninformed) to me. i give it a minute or two while i finish getting dressed. then start off kinda easy for a couple minutes.

everything i've read, written by so called experts, indicate that alloys used in engine manufacturing and modern day oil have almost eliminated the need for warm ups. i still think it should have time to 'warm up' i just think it doesn't take as long as 5 minutes which is about how long it took for the old truck to warm up when i was growing up.

 

Mud,
Looks like your data shows a few minutes needed to let the bike warm up a bit before putting any load on the engine.
Looks like more time and highway miles needed before hammering the throttle, than just a couple minutes.
Somebody on here gonna ask you why you're doing 88 mph in 4th, though....... musta just shifted, huh??

Got my SERT today. Have to wait for the cables to come in, then I'll be lookin at my own graphs

Hey riding season starts around here in a couple more months........ means my bike will never really cool down very much. I'm getting rides in 2-3 days a week right now, mostly to the dealer and gas station.

Thanks fer sharing.

DougJ

 

Doug, I assume you picked up the new generation SERT.

Here is a snapshot of that entire Data Collection run.
Trial run # 19.

I have an eight mile course that I run each time,
so I can compare apples to apples.

City streets, highway, uphill and down.

mud.......

edited to add - RPM is wrong, cause I had pulled in the clutch.
RPM should read 5298 (back up the Blue Line a couple frames)
picture 2

 

I start it up, put on my helmet and gloves, then take off. I have quite a bit of neighborhood to go through so it's easy going for about ten minutes. If I lived a minute from the freeway I would wait a couple of minutes before rolling out of the gate. The important thing is not to really "get on it" until the engine is warmed up.

 

No offense meant, Mud -- I respect your opinion on a lot of things, but you data only seem to show that the engine heats up when you run it. We can all agree on that. It shows that you didn't hit peak temp for8 minutes, but it doesn't show that there's any good reason to let it idle until it hits max temp. That appears to be an article of faith for some and not for others.

 

I like to give it a 2 minute time. The previous owner had the ultimate enricher on it so I have to hold it in place ( no friction lock) before leaving the curb.

For whatever reason, if I don't let it go the two minutes or longer, the gas mileage drops below 59 MPG.

Still haven't figured that one out.

JC

 

carbed bike here I have never used the choke
I twist the throttle once and hit the starter
kick stand up put it in gear and leave..
now I live in a gated area so have to ride slow then on city streets for a mile or so
before I can get into it
but warm up never but then it only has 40 thou on the engine
04 softail std.
glad to hear I'm not the only one tho.. mileage is mid 40s

[IMG]local://upfiles/5757/BFEEF0F1ED994E3A948AC8FCC38C175A.jpg[/IMG]

 

I have no choice but to baby-sit it for 5-10 minutes, she will not Idle otherwise. Big carb+ big cam+ small engine = no run cold. I should probably fix that, but at the rate I'm going- It'll break soon enough.