The Essence of Warm Up Driving | Is It Necessary to Warm Up the Motorcycle in Summer?

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Everyone feels like they should be driving warm if it's cold. But what if it's hot in the summer?

If the motorcycle is parked in direct sunlight, the surface will be too hot to touch, and at least it won't be like winter, where the engine doesn't feel good right after starting.

If you don't warm up your motorcycle, the engine will heat up as soon as you start driving, and you won't suddenly accelerate at full throttle right after you start, so you don't need to warm up your motorcycle in the summer. Don't you feel that way?

However, that's not what warm up driving is all about. If you know what warming up means, you will understand that you cannot be so prescriptive as to say, "You should do it even in summer," or "You should do it more in winter," or "You don't need warming up in the first place.

Regardless of the season or temperature, what is a warm up driving? Let's take a closer look at the essence of warm driving.

What is generally referred to as warm up driving?


When you hear the term "warm up driving," what you think of is "letting the engine idle for a while after starting it to warm up the engine, coolant, and oil before starting to drive. I think this is what most people think of as warm up driving.

In fact, there are many opportunities to witness people warming up their motorcycles in this way, and I believe that the more you take care of your motorcycle, the more carefully you carry out warm driving. If you want to take good care of your motorcycle, warm it up a little and go! The best thing to do is to warm it up enough so that if you have to open it all the way, you'll be fine! You may be thinking, "I don't actually do that". 

What is the purpose of warm up driving in the first place?


It warms the water temperature up to the right level, making it easier for the engine's internal components to work! I think most of you are aware that this and you are correct.

If you are a little more knowledgeable, you may know that in addition to water temperature, you can also heat the engine oil to increase its fluidity! If you are a little more knowledgeable, you may also want to heat up the engine itself to make sure that the clearance between the pistons and cylinders is correct. Some of you may be aware of this. All of them are correct.

The engine is designed to have optimum clearance at the right temperature, so it is definitely better to warm it up to the right temperature and ride it. Engine oil and coolant are also designed to perform at their best only when used at the right temperature. No matter what kind of engine you have, that is what an engine is all about.

On a cold winter day, the engine may stall if it is not warmed up. This is because the engine is not at the proper temperature and the clearances between the various parts are not proper, the oil is not warmed up and the viscosity is high, and the gasoline mixture is not good because it is difficult to vaporize. That's why it needs to be warmed up in order to be able to start working properly.

However, there are also opinions such as the following

Warm up driving not required theory


There is a theory that "modern engines are designed not to break down without warming up, so there is no need for warm up!"

Actually, in a way, this is also correct. In the old days of air-cooled carbureted engines, water and oil temperatures were read by sensors in the latest water-injected motorcycles (FI motorcycles), and when the engine is cold, it automatically tries to warm up (i.e., the idling speed rises, which is the same as accelerating in the old days).

Unlike in the past, the clearance of each part has been improved, so even when the engine is cold, there is no need for the gap to be too tight. This is clearly different from older engine designs, so it is not wrong to say that warm up driving is unnecessary.

Besides, even engines with older designs, such as air-cooled and carbureted engines, do not break down instantly if they are not warmed up. Such engines may have to be warmed up a bit in cold winters, such as ......, which will stall if not warmed up, but they should be fine in the hot summer months.

So it is reasonable to say that warm up driving is unnecessary ......, but actually there is another meaning in it. If you misunderstand this, you may think, "I don't need to warm up the engine because it's a new engine! You don't even have to warm it up! You don't need to do anything special because the fuel injection compensates for it! If you think that, you are neck-deep in a big trap. This is not the case.

Warming up isn't just about the engine.

The engine is fine without warm up, that may be true, but the problem is that there is more to it than just the engine. A motorcycle doesn't perform on the engine alone.

The front and rear suspension, front and rear tires, chain, and other parts that are supposed to move and heat up need to be warmed up.

To put it another way, the parts that need to be warmed up maybe more important than the engine because they are safety-related.

When we say that we don't need to warm up the engine, we mean that it is useless to warm up the engine because the tires and people also need to be warmed up. It doesn't mean that you don't need to warm up the engine, because today's engines don't break down even if you suddenly start driving with them cold. This is very important.

It's not the warm up time or water temperature that matters.

Of course, it is better to warm the engine to the right temperature. It may not break down without it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need to be warmed up.

However, there is no point in idling the engine to warm up the coolant and oil.
There are many theories about warming up the coolant and oil, such as "5 minutes in summer, 10 minutes in winter," "until the water temperature starts to move," or "until the oil temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius," but there is no such thing.

It is true that it takes that long to be able to ride in earnest, and that the temperature needs to be that high. It is true that it takes that long for the engine to be ready to perform, and that it needs to be at that temperature, but if you only get the engine to that temperature before you start riding, you're doing yourself a disservice.

To make matters worse, engine oil becomes harder (more viscous and less fluid) due to the cold during the harsh winter season, and the hardened oil easily raises the oil pressure, causing the relief port to open and release the oil pressure. When this happens, the oil pressure immediately after the oil pump is high, but the actual oil pressure is actually low. If the engine is idling with such low oil pressure, the possibility of mission-critical damage such as galling due to insufficient lubrication of the camshaft or metal damage due to insufficient lubrication of the large end of the connecting rod will increase. In the summer, this would be a non-issue, but that's what idling to warm up is all about.

In addition to the scary stuff, the idling mixture (gasoline and air) is far from ideal, and carbon can easily accumulate in the combustion chambers of the engine.
Warming up the engine with the intention of working on the engine makes the internal condition of the engine even worse.

However, the engine should be warmed up, and the body parts should also be warmed up, but it is not good to warm up the engine by idling it endlessly. That's the problem.

Mistakes in warm up driving

When I left home, I accelerated all the way to the top speed of 6th gear! Who wouldn't?
Even if it were possible, you wouldn't do it.

To sum up the situation, if you have an injected motorcycle with a modern water-cooled engine, there is no harm in letting the motorcycle idle until the water temperature rises. In the past, it was difficult to work the engine properly unless it was warmed up to a certain extent, but now it is possible to perform the engine normally. The engine will not break down if it suddenly starts without warming up.

It is possible to warm up the engine by idling it at a standstill. However, this will only warm up the engine, and only a part of it, the combustion chamber.

The water and oil temperatures circulating inside the engine will rise, giving the impression that the entire engine will warm up, but this is not the case. However, this is not the case. Idling for 5 or 10 minutes is hardly enough to warm up the entire engine.
It is only a temporary relief.

And as mentioned above, warming up the engine is not just about warming up the engine. It is necessary to warm up the entire vehicle as well as the engine.

For example, the damper oil in suspension systems generates heat when it is moved, which in turn generates damping. For example, suspension damper oil heats up as it slides to produce the desired damping.

Tires also need to be warmed up, as the rubber is too hard for the tires to grip properly when cold. They need to be moved by riding to warm them up from the inside.

A blind spot is the need to warm up the rider himself. Rather than warming up, it is time to regain the feeling of being able to control the motorcycle. Human beings are very capable of driving a motorcycle after a long time, but there is a big difference between "being able to drive" and "actively controlling". However, there is a big difference between "being able to drive" and "actively controlling" the motorcycle. The rider needs time to reconfirm the feeling of driving the motorcycle.

Warming up the engine will simply make the throttle more responsive, prevent the motorcycle from stalling, and make it easier to change gears, but I hope you understand that warming up other parts of the motorcycle is more important. You may think that this is such a big deal ......, but it is very important because it is related to safety.

Warm up driving is necessary even in summer.

You already know the answer, right? Warming up the engine oil and water temperature by idling is not the most important part of warm driving. Of course, it is important to keep the engine, oil, and coolant at the proper temperature, but it is just as important to keep the entire vehicle at the proper temperature. It is important to warm up not only the engine, coolant and oil, but also the tires (not just the surface temperature, but the internal temperature as well) and the riders themselves.
Besides, idling for a long time is not good for the engine in the first place.

In other words, once the engine is started and slightly warmed up (to the point of not stalling), we should start riding quickly and let everything, including ourselves, warm up as we ride. After riding for a while, the engine, water temperature, oil temperature, vehicle body, and I become acclimated, so I gradually return to my normal pace.
The best thing to do is to start riding immediately as if you were driving warmly rather than warmly. By the time your body gets used to it, the engine will have finished warming up on its own.

This is true regardless of the season. Is it because it's hot in the summer that people regain the feeling of driving a motorcycle faster? No, of course not!

A bonus story

There are some motorcycle models that are difficult to warm up and ride...... slowly as soon as the engine is started, warming everything up to acclimate it. This is a vehicle that uses a CVT (continuously variable transmission), such as a scooter.

As the fate of the CVT gearbox is that the engine speed and vehicle speed cannot be controlled separately, it is very difficult (though not impossible) to control the speed by increasing the vehicle speed while the engine speed is low, or by revving the engine while the vehicle speed is low.

Therefore, it is best to start the motorcycle at a low speed and with a low accelerator pedal pressure. This is much better than idling at a standstill and letting the engine warm up.

In a race, it is not possible to warm up the engine while driving, so warm up the engine while stopped before the start. (Tires are warmed up with tire warmers, and the riders are acclimated with preparatory exercises.)

Rather, we want to aggressively increase oil pressure, and for reasons such as extreme carbon buildup in the combustion chambers with low RPM race fuel injection mapping, we use a very high RPM range to warm up the engine as soon as it starts. It may look like we're blasting the air like our parents, but that's what happens when you take the "warm up while driving" method of production motorcycles to the extreme.

It is a shameful and meaningless act to mimic the shape of a motorcycle and idle it and let's not do it. It's just a nuisance to the neighbors because of the loud exhaust noise, and nothing good will come out of it.

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