I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but since I've never seen it discussed, I thought I'd throw it up here.

I ride pretty much every day, but live in a relatively small town. This means most rides are only a few miles and rarely enough to get her up to full operating temp. In fact, most businesses I frequent are less than a mile from home, so I deliberately take a little cruise beforehand, along the beach, etc., just to get her warmed up...

Problem is, this means I spend much of the time riding with the enricher out.

It's a little ridiculous that I have to take a 10-15 minute ride first, just to go somewhere less than a mile away, but at 60k+ miles, she's VERY coldblooded and needs the extra time.

I'm sure this has to play hell on the plugs and MPG. ...And maybe a good argument for investing in some Iridiums? And what about condensation issues in the crank case?

If a couple weeks go by without a good long ride on the highway, the bike starts running like crap, but once I get her out and ride her hard, she always comes back running so much better.

So, I'm interested to hear your thoughts, comments or just general musings on the subject.

What say you?

Riding with the enricher as you have described will definatly play hell with carbon on the plugs and low MPG. I don't think I would be to concerned with condensation with the weather conditions in California. It's not quite the same as starting your bike in MI in December and letting it run a few minutes. I'm also sure that Irridium plugs will not help with the carbon deposits from running short distances with the enricher pulled out. Although I do recommend the irridium plugs. It sounds like you are just in a situation that you will have to deal with by taking that extra bit of a ride every now and then.

Buy a FI bike

I always try to push the enricher in about 1/2 way within a couple hundred feet of starting out first thing. To me, this keeps the RPMs up enough to keep it going, but isn't putting such a rich mixture in the motor.

Other than that, I got nothing. I usually get 50 miles when I leave the house so I can't really relate.

I know that when I have multiple cold starts my mileage suffers. My cold start routine is to pish the enricher half way in a few seconds after she fires, idle 30 sec to a minute, then all thw way in within about a mile. Seems to work for me.

Penguin wrote:
I know that when I have multiple cold starts my mileage suffers. My cold start routine is to pish the enricher half way in a few seconds after she fires, idle 30 sec to a minute, then all thw way in within about a mile. Seems to work for me.X2

I stay in the lower gears to get warmed up quicker..............

Penguin wrote:
I know that when I have multiple cold starts my mileage suffers. My cold start routine is to pish the enricher half way in a few seconds after she fires, idle 30 sec to a minute, then all thw way in within about a mile. Seems to work for me.

I do the exact same thing Penguin does. I have about 20 mile ride to work with 10 or so miles wide open and the rest is stop and go the closer I get to the base. On pretty days like yesterday, I will take the long way home and run the hell out of my bike..

I pull the choke all the way out to start . After about 10 seconds she stumbles . I push half way in and let set for about 3 or 4 minutes while I put my gear on and then push it all the way in and she is good to go .

Not trying to be a smartass here, but you should not have to be choking/enriching your bike in 60+ degree weather.

I might have to pull mine out to fire it after sitting for a day or two, but then it goes all the way in after about 10 seconds and she runs like a dream right from the get go. If your mixture is right the enricher shouldn't be needed once it fires. After a cold, cold night maybe, but not during summer weather.

Woody