Engine Warm-up

OK, maybe dumb/maybe discussed before, but here goes:
What do others do to warm up their R2 (X or R), before setting off, & during the first couple of miles of running? I know there are some owners from hot places (Hawaii/CA), & others from cold places (winter in Canada), & some of us in between in Northern Europe (good old grey, damp, England), so warm up will probably vary according to climate/season (??).
Personally, my commuting sequence is to fire up motor, put on gloves (approx 30 seconds), then ride off at half throttle or less for at least the first mile & half. I only twist full throttle after approx 2 miles, & even then, only when the airbox is making full growling noises (is that a decent description???), which seems to be weather/temperature dependent. I reckon the tyres will warm up enough during this time also. Or: does it matter, as the FI/ECU will take care of things anyway, & adjust things accordingly????

So: any comments from our more learned technically minded members???

Sounds like a good procedure to me. Like you, I don't romp on the throttle until I am satisfied that that engine is sufficiently warmed up.

Start--ride--ignore. I just use it the way I want to regardless of operating temp--it will bog a little when pushed cold--JMHO.

Akasy wrote:

Start--ride--ignore. I just use it the way I want to regardless of operating temp--it will bog a little when pushed cold--JMHO.

Im happy to hear its not just my bike that bogs when its cold. (cold bike and cold winter weather)

Ive found it will not get up and go as quick as i ask it to sometimes.

Warm up time is limited to how long it takes me to put on helmet, goggles, and gloves plus close the garage door.

If it's colder out, warm up is a little longer as I wear a balaclava too.

If I'm leaving my neighborhood the bike gets a little longer at lower rpm's so I don't annoy the neighbors too much.
If I'm leaving work....all bets are off once I clear the parking lot.

I let all my bikes warm up for the amount of time it takes me to put on my ear plugs, helmet, gloves. Since I use the foam ear plugs that takes a bit of time. I then then ride easy for the two blocks to get out of the neighbourhood, then open it up.

I believe that excessive idling is bad for the engine and for the environment, but putting load on an engine that still has cold oil is very bad.
In large industrial engine applications we put permissive on the control systems to prevent an operator from loading a machine until the oil temperature has reached a certain value.

Tire warmup is another whole thing. It is very temperature dependant. On cold days the tires may not ever warm up. Just remember that it's not 'cold tires' that will crash you. It's the 'cold brain' that overrides the tires and conditions.

I'm no engineer but another thing to consider with excessive idling is the primary drive. Without a load on the drivetrain there is a degree of what I call monkey motion going on in the primary drive at idle. How much monkey motion varies from design to design. It may be minimal in the WRR/X but there still has to be some and on most bikes it gets worse when the oil is up to operating temperature.

The relation is distant but an admittedly extreme example of the destructive power of monkey motion is what my buddy did to his BMW K100 years ago. K bikes don't have a primary drivetrain but they do have a conterbalancer (so does my BMW oil head). My buddy, affectionately known as Blockhead, use to excessively warm up his K for his daily commute (this was in Southern California, USA so when I say daily I mean DAILY!) Anyway, on a number of occasions I told him "I wouldn't do that" followed with various explanations. Blockhead didn't listen, he never does...

The damage accumulated and eventually doomsday arrived. The counter balancer interface to the crank re-machined itself into an entirely bogus and totaly useless part number. He did the repairs himself and it still cost him hundreds of dollars. That it endured about 6 or 8 years of this abuse is a testement to the mark, I think.

Speaking for myself, I don't idle nutin' honey.

sounds about what i do. start bike, throw on helmet, gloves etc. ride off using no more than 1/2 throttle for a mile or two, then ride it like normal. im a big fan of giving the motor a min to get some good oil flow up to the cams/cyl head before even touching the throttle.

My bike(s) get to warm up as long as it takes me to put my helmet and gloves on. No 1/2 throttle for the first couple of miles or anything like that. It's completely unnecessary. Especially on the WR since these motors are small. Oil flows very quickly and they warm up just as quickly. In 25+ years of riding, I've never had any motor issues because my bike wasn't allowed to warm up long enough.