Cold climate oil grades

I could if I could be arsed to do it. If I could have got a bigger
battery under the seat I'd have done it but otherwise I go with what
I've got.

 

Yeah. Seen it. I was rather hoping that there might have been someone
on the list with direct experience of running an oilhead in sustained low
temperatures.

I'm still worried that a 0w30 won't have sufficient flexibility to cope
at the upper end of the ambient temperature/slow running spectrum and
be a bit of overkill at the lower. I've been monitoring the temps over there
for a while and thus far the temps (in the coldest parts) have been around
-5ºC day to -12ºC night. With few night time dips down to -18ºC ish.

Thus far 10w40 is still my preffered choice, unless someone who has
experience of using an oilhead in those conditions can convince me
otherwise.

I was also warned about not trying to heat the engine block using a
heater. A practice common with older airheads. Apparently the engine
cases have been known to crack on oilheads when that trick has been
tried.

 

Cool. Battery top trumps.

My Odyssey PC680 can manage 220 CCA[1].

Oh. And I have a 700w alternator too.

I win.
)

It's just a pisser the bike is still fucking acting up at the moment.

[1]CCA, defined as the maximum current a battery can supply
for a 30 second period without any of the individual cells
dropping below 1.2V (7.2V for a 12V battery).
Test conducted at 0ºF (-17.8ºC).

 

Do we have to?

My stock Yuasa battery can manage 115CCA

**** knows what mine puts out.

Yes.

 

My leg beats all!

 

Curses.

Still there's a fair-medium chance I'll have a PC680 with me as well.
I used these at the Elefant and never had a problem with the BMWs.

And re the 700W alternator, looks like I've got a mobile charger for
my spare battery...

 

I wouldn't worry about it. It's highly unlikely a new battery will be
defeated, & even if it is, there are enough of you going to bump start
one bike even on ice. Once one's going the rest will be easy.

This does of course assume someone's taking jump leads and/or a tow
rope - it'd be mad not to.

 

Jump leads and tow rope are in the pile of 'stuff' in the corner of
the garage waiting to go. I don't think I've planned this hard for a
trip before.

Pretty much done everything on the bike with the exception of oil
change, coolant change, fitting of the new top box,

-Fitted centre stand
-Fitted heated grips
-Fitted 'heating controller' for heated clothing
-Fitted larger battery
-Fitted relay switched 'auxilliary' power (so none of the accessories
can be powered without ignition on.
-Fitted new fork oil and dust seals
-Fitted fork gaitors
-Replaced all 'non stress' bolts with stainless
-Cleaned all electrical connections and silicone greased them
-Fitted lowering links for suspension (drop by about an inch)
-Dropped forks in yokes by about 20mm
-Fitted Swedish Army Special winter tyres
-Fitted 41 litre aluminium panniers: absolutely massive... width of a
small car (almost).

Just got to check everything I want to get on the bike fits and
practise packing.

Oh... and put together the camping kit and bike spares/tool kit.

 

And adjust the headlight once everything's loaded...?

 

Nah, just give it a hefty thwack. Although, that could be described as
"adjusting".

 

Easier said than done if it's buried inside a fairing. I had to do a
couple of hundred miles in France many years ago on a well loaded Tiger
with the headlights pointing at the sky, & it wasn't much fun.

This trip to be precise: url:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30265817&l=5d7d2bd61b&id=135707324
6

 

Stephen wrote:

I haven't got to the piling stuff up stage.

I don't think I've done as little - not sure that's going to work...

I still have some clutch/reliability concerns. Although, at least my
bike runs above 3K.

Got one already

Extra jumper.

Magneto and kickstart (I hope it fucking works at minus stupid deg)

Hah, one feed only comes on with the engine running and the other is
direct another (yet to be fitted) will be relay'd for ignition on only.

Did the fork oil a couple of weeks ago.

Had them anyway.

Copaslip and yet to Waxoyl.

Cleaned - yet to silicone and waxoyl.

I can flat foot mine already.

Canvas panniers in metal frames, not great but it has an enormous and
substantial rack.

Camping is as per Elefant - I know it works in the cold. Incidentally,
what was the coldest we experienced camping there?

Spares are going to be simple - cambelt, bits of wire, emergency cable
kit, gaffer tape, cable ties, various nuts and bolts and 2 (maybe 3)
litres engine oil.

Need to take a fuel can to supplement stupidly small bike tank.

I changed the engine too.

 

Mine didn't this morning. Kept cutting out on anything more than an idle
throttle. And then when it stopped doing that, eventually, it took to
kangarooing instead.

I wouldn't have minded so much if it hadn't been pissing down and left
me riding with a completely fogged visor for the next 40 minutes.

Rubbish.

Still, at least I was only riding 12 miles across town, not a thousand
miles to the arctic wastes.

 

I believe the coldest was -16.

I've got spare levers, cable repair kit, wire, fuses, bulbs,
connectors, amalgamating tape, gaffer tape, nuts and bolts, wire,
slime for tyre, replacement tubes, cable ties, oil, nuts and bolts.
Think that's it.

Not yet...

 

He recons that it's a fairly up market chalet and tries to give a
decent service.
I don't ski, (1) and have only ever been there at the end of the
season to pick up a minibus, but it's a very nice building and you can
ski right into the back door for most of the season.

(1) All the rest of my family do, can't see what it's all about.

 

I'm pretty sure that's the reason. I don't know many people who keep a
top-up mix of 50/50 ready to hand.

 

even if the heater is kept on all night to stop the engine cooling right
down?

I can understand it happening on very cold engines given a rapid blast of
heat.

 

Oh, I'm sure the chalet is very nice, but the above is just transport. I
could fly the Atlantic, return, for not much more.

 

All I can say is that I took a car to Sweden one year at Christmas. I was a
fuckuing disaster every morning due to the oil getting so cold anf thick,
the starter wouldn't crank it.

My FiL had to tow me to start with the "tow wagon" which was a fucking Lada.
that bastard started on the first hit of the button and after getting the
wheels turning on my car, I could start it in top gear, then let it warm up.

I was using 20/40 and the only cure was to use some piss thin stuff. Can't
remember the numbers, coz I only bought it the one time, but it certainly
wasn't 10W30.

I'd throw the thinnest multigrade in I could get hold of.