Cold Running

So took the RMR200 to work for the first time today. Went absolutely fine on the way in. After sitting outside all day she started first time. Once she was ticking over without choke I rode out of work but she died on me after a couple of minutes riding. I made the mistake of engaging the choke to restart so flooded her I think. Once going though she seemed reluctant to tickover for a while. I had to keep her running over on the throttle for a couple of minutes till she settled.

Once on the go she was fine but from an idle there seems to be a bit of a hitch before she picks up.

What are other peoples experience of running these bikes in the current cold temps, around 1'c? same issues or do I need to be looking for a problem already?

Silkolene PRO FST or similar thinghy sloves "carb freeze" in cold temp | "Poor & creative" chinese: there's a cardboard stops it gets "cold"

I'll see if I can find some Pro FST, I did make sure to put high grade 97 petrol but I guess a little extra boost at -1 is going to help!

If you did have carb venturi icing there is no gas additive that will help. The additives are mostly alcohol which absorb water in the fuel. A good warm up should prevent carb icing since the carb is positioned behind the warm cylinder. If it does ice up you can usually just stop and turn off the engine for a few minutes while heat from the engine melts the ice.

thanks I'll be sure to let her have a good warm up next ride, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime I've changed the original plug to an iridium NGK and cleaned and reoiled the air filter. When I get the chance I'll also give valve clearances a check. Considering she's only done 800km since 2007 I reckon a couple of hundred miles of riding should bed her in a bit better.

went for a ride this morning, still pretty cold here so not too far! Anyway, with the stock can back on and the new plug she went just fine. A little hesitation coming off the throttle a couple of times, but didn't cut out, but to be expected gentle carb icing I think considering the conditions.

Not sure how accurate the speedo is but she will show a smidge over 70 mph on the flat with my 14 stone bulk on board, and seems to be happy to cruise in 5th at 60 to 65 mph. That sound fairly reasonable with stock can and gearing, I've got a 17 tooth front sprocket to fit so hopefully that will reduce the revs at the 60-65 mph cruise speed. I'm no speed freak and if I get the urge I can take the 600 Fazer out for a blast. This bike is all about low cost workman like reliability I hope:O)

Hope it will be as reliable and economical to run as my Lifan 200. It's speedometer is about 5 mph optimistic at 60 mph measured with a GPS and the highest GPS checked speed I was able to get stock was 72 mph on a slight down hill. Cruises easily at 60.

yeah, that sounds about right, not GPS accurate I was just judging by the general traffic speed in my area. I'm going to mess just with the gearing so that the easy cruise is around 65, that's plenty fast enough for me to be happy in uk traffic. Longevity and reliability are more important,soat some stage that gives me a stainless end can and a Kamikaze race CDI to sell on, whatever a Kamikaze race cdi is:O)

I tried one of those race CDIs on my Lifan and didn't like it at all. Spark was too advanced at idle which made it kick back when starting and the idle had to be set up to over 2000 to keep it running. Took it off. Foam pod filter, jets, and muffler work gave it more power yet it still runs nice. On my muffler I cut open the inside next to the wheel and removed all the guts, put in a 1.25" outlet, then welded it back together. You can't even tell it's been tampered with and it's not too loud. Power used to drop off at about 7000 RPM but now it'll run up to 9000. A noticeable increase in power.

Think I'll just leave as is for now, get in a good few hundred run in miles and a good service, see how she is then. If she's anything to go by this morning I'll probably not bother with anything performance wise. Just going to go with the 17 tooth front sprocket and do some of the preventative stuff like replacement of the rear sprocket bolts with the Suzuki ones. Other than that I'mjustn planning on buying lots of petrol!!!!!