I have known people that have let their bikes run 15 minutes before riding. To be honest, I don't believe any of those people at least during the time they owned the bikes to expiernce grenading. Still not a fan, it's not for me.

I checked 3 different Kaw owner manuals, 650, 10R, and 14 ('10) and none state anything about 2 minutes and letting oil get to the top of the engine. All 3 have specific warnings about not letting the bike idle for more than 5 minutes because of overheating. Who knows if oil pressure plays a role in this but nothing is stated about oil pressure.

There is a warning about oil pertaining to oil changes, and not racing the engine until oil has circulated througout the engine. Unfortunately we've all seen those videos, I'm sure there are idiots out there that change the oil and red line it as soon as they start the engine or something like they do any other time.

have been wondering whether there is a difference between engine idling after starting it, and engine idling while caught in a traffic jam...

Good question and I can only guess as there are differences.

Most people I know start the bike and do not touch the throttle. I know I don't, the motorcycle usually high idles itself for probably 30 seconds and that's good enough for me. Other than that, no revs from me until I'm taking off. I'll assume that's how most people do things.

a few key differences
- as I mentioned about knowing a few "long idlers", all started their bikes and walked away. Obviously while you're riding and stopped in traffic you are there to monitor your bike and react as best as possible to any warning signs.

- I am guessing circulation of oil and possibly coolant are contributing factors to Kawasaki's warning. If nothing else, it might be that both coolant and oil circulation remain low. While riding, even after having been stopped for a while the coolant and oil have circulated thouroughly throughout the engine and probably continue to do so. So my guess is when starting a bike and letting it idle it might be more apt to form hot spots instead of heating up evenly.

- It might have been stated here previously (in other threads) but some charging systems do not start charging immediately and sort of need kicked in the shin to actually start the charging process. Typically this maybe reaching certain RPMs at which points kicks whatever electromagnetic wizardry into production. I don't necessarily know if this affects motorcycle charging systems or charging systems in general, or what the RPM required to start the chargiing process if it does.

I'm not quite as astute as Hub as far as turning off the bike at stop lights, but I have before at extended stops (accident, trains, maybe lights occasionally). To me it doesn't make sense to turn the bike off for anything less than probably 5 minutes unless you are experiencing issues.

Vic, same starting procedure for me too, and has been like that for my previous Kawi bikes, hand off the throttle...
the bikes start at higher idle, and stabilise at lower revs after a while... for the zx14r it seems to happen after less than a minute when the engine temperature is around 45 degC, ... this is when i take off

"...but some charging systems do not start charging immediately and sort of need kicked in the shin to actually start the charging process.

There are permanent magnets or an electromagnetic type systems in our bikes. Electro is taking a wire and wrap it around a nail, take both wire ends and place them on the + and - side of a battery = Electromagnetism. So there is no needing of kicking in the shin to start charging.

A permanent magnet is that which is built as a rotor. The stator is stationary and the magnet moves past those wires. I can move the rotor a hair's width and E is produced, heads up the wire, and a meter can read that pulse. So E begins with the slightest movement.

There are 3 basic components in a computer/volt reg. Those are the chip (555 timer), a capacitor to store the voltage made, and a resistor that limits that voltage. The chip has 3 basic movements. I remember those as DTT. There is a "Threshold" saved in the capacitor. There is a "Trigger" that empties or "Discharges" this voltage to ground and this cycle begins all over again within 1000's of times a second.

Follow me on this. A harley uses a two wire 32 amp stator. If we cut this in half, meaning, one side is 16 is North, and the other side is 16 or South. Note that the 2 wires out of the stator are heading towards a volt/reg and each wire sends up 16 volts out of each wire. This is a steady 16 volts to the regulator. The engine rpm builds voltage, or as you can see if you wind up a hand crank flashlight, the faster you crank, the brighter the light.

So there is a fluctuating kind of current being made. Like I said, just pushing past the wire with a magnet, the volts being with .000001v and builds to 16.000v at full speed or at a certain rpm and that's all she wrote. So the volt/reg is built to dump or discharge excess voltage to ground. If the reg fails, 16v heads right to the battery. You can tell one is bad because of the boiling of the acid and the battery will give off that sulfur type vapor.

So we could say the same for oil pressure. For example, the oil pump will make 1 pound of pressure for every 1000 rpm. Run up to 6,000 rpm, you are putting out 60 psi of pressure. Same 'Discharge' is going to occur as more pressure increases. There is a spring that has a 'Threshold.' Once it is met, the 'Trigger' dumps the excess or you'd blow out seals with that kind of pressure up against the lip of the seal.

So for the oil needing a kick in the shin like E, it is a linear kind of pressure build. Once that oil light goes out, a spring moves away from the grounding source, turns the light off, we show pressure. When you rebuild a single cylinder engine, there is a copper washer at the head stud. This is where oil feeds up the engine stud and lubes the top end. To look for pressure after you rebuild the engine, you break the nut loose while the engine is running. If oil pours out of that head to washer to stud area, we have pressure.

We can pop the radi cap, start the engine and watch the water drop at the neck because of the pump pulling or pushing that much coolant thru the pump blades that fast. So between E, oil, and water, all 3 begin pressure as soon as the crank moves.

So the instant you start the engine, note the light go off, where it didn't take but another second to run up the top end and lube that area. This 2 minute crap in the book is to spook the Joe Squidly's from revving the crap out of the engine as soon as it starts. The idle is going to keep lubing the engine so there is no need to raise the pressure per say with more revs.

If I turn the engine off at a light, the channels and galleys are still filled with oil and it won't take but a second to hydrauliclly lock the channels [once again] upon takeoff. So if you boil water, turn off the stove, didn't the bubbles stop immediately and begin to cool? Even though we are water cooled, we still overheat like an air cooled engine. Our fans are not fixed on a belt per say where a car engine does and can idle forever without overheating.

Make sense?

* Last updated by: Hub on 8/27/2017 @ 7:40 PM *

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'The idle is going to keep lubing the engine so there is no need to raise the pressure per say with more revs".Yup.All one does with more revs,is heat the motor faster.Unless of course,the motor was fully cold,and had been sitting so the oil would drain out of the passages...which would be minimal anyway.Like from sitting overnight or something.All the internals regardless STILL are lubed safely enough at startup.The film doesn't simply evaporate by sitting.

Back in the 50's the military messing with jet engines and such already knew oil could be pressured down to a millionth of an inch. So you figure that oil is still there in the morning kind of dripped off the parts, but you'd touch the cam lobe and you can feel the layer left over.

Whether the oil is cold or hot, it still lubes. The startup concern is all about different metals heating up upon quickly made friction. Say the dense cast iron cylinder vs. a porous aluminum piston. So the friction would heat the piston faster than the cast iron could grow in proportion = Score.

So you already know the cold oil or no oil up top still has that millionth of an inch of oil to be wiped off, but here she comes within seconds. You don't leave you home screaming down street so obviously you putt quietly away. It's not about how much of a carbon print you leave, it's about the big C of Compression that is to be preserved.

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funny to me i watch road racers run WOT for minutes or miles and the oiling has no issues !!!

i've seen stunters ride wheelies for miles and no oiling issues for years

i watch dragracers with all kinds of oiling mods run for seconds and 1/8th miles and blow up engines all the time !!

i seen dragracers blow oil filters off due to cold start burn outs

i seen roadracers cold start every race with no oiling issues

but i've never ever seen a bike motor "blow up" at idle i've seen them lock up from lack of oil in motor or oiling issues like starvation or factory fuck ups like wrong sized rod bearings.

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