[Stoge]

What is the best way to start it when its cold outside? Below 40°F temps makes it pretty difficult to start my bike in the morning.

Do you:

Turn choke all the way on, give it gas, then hit the button?

Choke off, give gas, hit button, adjust choke until it fires?

I can usually get it to barely start, and then it dies shortly thereafter. The less wear on your starter the better... so what's the best way?

[The CyberPoet]

It's not starter wear you need to concern yourself with as long as you aren't overheating the starter by running it for 20 seconds at a pop -- it's the engine spinning up with little or no oil in the upper engine segments that's the major concern.

General Rules for when it's cold outside:
No throttle, as much choke as you need to get her to spin to 2k RPM and not a bit more. Cut the choke back as the engine RPM's climb over 2k, and kill the choke after 30 seconds (60 seconds if it's really cold out) -- at that point keep it alive using your throttle as needed.

Use the trick listed above about using the rear wheel/tire as an extra helper.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[roosed]

Slick 50?!?!?

[quote=The CyberPoet;1390158]It's not starter wear you need to concern yourself with as long as you aren't overheating the starter by running it for 20 seconds at a pop -- it's the engine spinning up with little or no oil in the upper engine segments that's the major concern.

CP, years ago I bought the Mrs. a Dodge Shadow Turbo, Quick arz little go cart! Living at the time in the great white north, the dealer said the same thing about the turbo spinning up AT ALL before being fully oiled, mother has 0 patience with cold engines.

After inital break in they highly reccomended synthetic oil & Slick 50, or a similar slickem metal coating, for the internal parts.

Is that a good idea with a Kat engine as well?

[The CyberPoet]

cart! Living at the time in the great white north, the dealer said the same thing about the turbo spinning up AT ALL before being fully oiled, mother has 0 patience with cold engines.

After inital break in they highly reccomended synthetic oil & Slick 50, or a similar slickem metal coating, for the internal parts.

Is that a good idea with a Kat engine as well?

All oil additives, especially those like Slick50 (friction modifiers), are a horrible idea for the Kat (and any other motorcycle with a wet-clutch, i.e. where the clutch sits in the motor oil). If the friction modifier coats the clutch plates, the clutch won't grab right, and the solution is to drain the engine completely (real PIA), run through fresh oil for five minutes, drain that, then disassemble the clutch and replace all the frictional clutch components (friction plates, pads) -- and pray you got all the additives out so they don't coat your new components.

On the other hand, using a synthetic motor oil that is rated for the Kats (i.e. - JASO-MA and/or API SF or SG or if you must SH, but never SJ/SL/SM), that's fine and makes perfect sense. Esp. in a weight that matches your actual weather... Most modern motorcycle motor oils are polar-bonding, meaning the oil has an affinity to stick to ferrous metals, and thus provide some protection even at start-up -- although it will still fall back off at some point if you leave it parked long enough (week+). SF and SG rated oils have a high content (compared to later API ratings) of Zinc, which also helps protect against damages at start-up to a degree (acts like an anti-seize paste to help keep parts from sticking).

As for "warming up the engine", a couple limo & cab drivers taught me good -- they said the reason they see (typically) 400k - 450k on their vehicles is because they let them run up for five minutes before they drive off for the day (to make sure everything sees lots of fresh oil before any load is presented) and they do their oil maint religiously. When you're paying $70k-$120k for a stretch limo, engine life and down-time means dollars lost.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet