Curvy difficult starting in cold weather.

Morning all,

First time user of this site, have been a frequenter of SVRider until now.

Few basics - 2002 SV650S - 13000 Miles, 3000 miles of which are mine from the past 12 months.

My concern:
Every morning the past couple of weeks I've had difficulty starting my bike.

Its obviously a symptom of the cold weather, and new sparks and oil hasn't helped.

I have no choice but to store the bike outside, I cover the bike with a towel, followed by one of those car wind-shield covers (to keep the towel dry) and then a standard bike cover.

Without building a garage and installing heating, is there anything else I can do to help?

Are there any additives or particular areas I should focus on keeping warm?

Last weekend I visited my parents, over night the bike was in there garage, which was warm and the bike started first attempt like a dream.

Cheers

Morning and welcome to the site, on the bones of it I'd say no. There seems to be little other option, if it starts then it starts however if you'd like some added piece of mind whip the carbs off for a service and check and lube the choke plungers. I dare say though if it started fine when in the warm/dry then you're probably seeking a problem that doesn't exist.

[yorkie_chris]

Carbs nicely balanced and clean inside?

If you're only doing 3000 miles a year sometimes they can whinge a bit about doing short trips, a good run out every now and again can help.

[Biker Biggles]

And a good trickle charger.Keeping the battery in top condition is a must for winter starting.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

And a good trickle charger.Keeping the battery in top condition is a must for winter starting.

Even when parked outside?

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by Roberrrrt

Even when parked outside?

Yes.You maybe cant keep it on permanently but even a weekly session on the Optimate maintains the battery and helps prevent it sulphating and deteriorating.Have you got anywhere at work or somewhere else with a leccy socket handy?

[Mark_h]

Super unleaded as soon as it gets cold.

Thanks all, it does have a new battery as I was having some problems with that.

Yorkie Chris - had the carbs balance about 2 months ago.

Biker Biggles - Its also on a trickle charger constantly.

Mark_H - Didn't know super unleaded was meant to be better for cold weather - shall read into the pros of that...

Just a bit more info on the start...

It always starts first time, choke out full - then the revs drop and it stalls. Attempting to re-start it struggles to turn on. (Not a battery issue). And then once started its fine, performance is normal. If I turn off and then attempt again, it starts first time.

Perhaps it's just one of those things that as a rider you have to put up with through the winter.

[Biker Biggles]

Thats pretty normal.The carbs need to fill with fuel so there is a brief period when it runs but the pump hasnt quite topped up the carbs,hence the stopping.As long as it goes OK after that theres no problem.

[embee]

Sounds like it's pretty normal from what you say. Use full choke and DON'T TOUCH THE THROTTLE. This is most important, the choke (or strictly the cold start enrichment circuits) is engineered to give the right balance of extra air and enriched fuel to get it to start and fast idle with the throttle closed, if you move the throttle at all it can upset this and I find it can then be a pig to start.

My curvey always fires straight up but like you say it will very often stall after a couple of seconds. Don't alter the choke and don't touch the throttle, just press the starter again and it will 99% of the time fire up and run just fine.

Ease the choke off gradually as soon as you can while maintaining a smooth fast idle. Don't leave the bike idling for prolonged periods to warm up, just start it, let it settle while easing the choke down a bit for say 30sec at most then ride off gently. Get the choke off fully as soon as it is happy to run without it.

Super grade fuel often helps a bit with cold starting due to the mix of ingredients, iridium plugs help a lot too (need less voltage to spark and give better ignitability of lean mixtures). If you get carb icing at all, add 2% iso-propyl alcohol to the fuel (IPA - available on ebay - basically the main ingredienty of stuff like Silkolene Pro FST and much cheaper).