Why do KTM for one recommend to warm the bike to a specific ‘3bars showing’ on the temp indicator?

No idea but it shouldn’t be necesary. I’ll cut and paste the post I saw on another forum later, which explains it all. It’s all to do with the way modern fuel injection works. 10-20 seconds idling is about right though, basically

Here you go, from the Honda NC UK Forum

When the cylinder is cold some fuel condenses on the cylinder wall (a large part of the reason why it need enrichment, formerly “choke”, for cold starting), and similarly combustion products which is largely water can also condense. The fuel and water contaminate the oil on the surface. Leaving the engine idling to warm up means it takes a long time to reach a temperature where water no longer condenses and contaminates the oil film.

For the above reasons the mixture is set rich for starting and as soon as the engine is running it begins to ramp down the “after-start enrichment” over a few seconds (typically 10sec but it varies) down to a base fuelling setting for the temperature of the engine. Once the lambda sensor is up to temp it will switch to closed loop fuelling, controlled by the sensor to give “stoichiometric” A/F ratio (i.e. just the right ratio of air to fuel. I don’t know any detail for the NC engine, but 45sec from cold start to closed loop is a reasonable ballpark.

You can reduce the amount of oil contamination by putting the engine under a bit of load and speed, i.e. ride/drive off gently. I usually wait the few seconds for the after-start enrichment to ramp down before riding off since it is often a multiplier and so means it can run pretty rich if you load it while the enrichment is on. As said, 20sec or so is enough for the engine to be running without the enrichment under most circumstances, or at least most of it will be off by then.

Just as an example, this is a measurement of injector pulsewidth (i.e. a measure of fuel added) after a cold start with the engine idling on one of my toys I took just out of interest. It shows the after-start enrichment clearly, then it reaches a base idle pulsewidth between 10-20sec, then it starts to reduce speed and enrichment as it starts to sense warming up. I suspect the blip at 100sec might be closed loop establishing (this is an old engine, modern engines reach this much faster). Something like 20sec gets you onto a reasonable fuelling for drive-away.

Interesting to hear that the police are going back to Pans. They switched from them to BMWs after a cop died due to a high speed wobble on a Pan. Thoughts at the time were that its balance/COG were affected by all the equipment, rather than an inherent problem with the Pan. Must have resolved it.

No idea but it shouldn’t be necesary. I’ll cut and paste the post I saw on another forum later, which explains it all. It’s all to do with the way modern fuel injection works. 10-20 seconds idling is about right though, basically

Whether you think it should or shouldn’t be necessary, that’s the recommendation from their manuals. I know who I trust, random STWer or the blokes who built the bike.

I have these same discussions when people try to inform me how to run in new bikes ‘correctly’, which completely contradicts both Ducatis and KTMs manuals too 🙂

I did the CBT, 125 route, rode the 125 for around 3 months before I was sick of it.

I then did 2 days training before doing full licence.

I would reccomend the doing direct access, the level of training I had compared to CBT was far superior. I feel a much better and safer rider on my bigger bike (ducati monster so nothing crazy!) than I ever did after a rushed 1 day CBT training.

If you in south west then Chris at MTS training, okehampton is awesome!

Who cares if bike is faster / slower, its better!

Whether you think it should or shouldn’t be necessary, that’s the recommendation from their manuals. I know who I trust, random STWer or the blokes who built the bike.

Check my reasoning, go on, I dare you.
Not a ****ing hope in hell I’m ever gonna stand round and wait for a bike to warm up. I actually ride too much to arse about with that.

Sticking to the manual makes sense. My 2014 BMW F800GSA manual quite clearly states the rider should not wait for the engine to warm up. Start the engine and ride away reasonably steady until the engine reaches temperature. Then go crazy.

(Not sure it said go crazy)

Rachel

Check my reasoning, go on, I dare you.

written by whom ?