Winter oil?

[chairhead]

January see's me head off for a colder climate to sunny Bavaria and Austria to do the Elephantreffen and the Taurentreffen,
i did both of these rallys this year on the Tiger and had a hoot,my only problem came when i wanted to start the bike every morning,although i had put a new battery on for the trip,it just wasnt enough to start the bike,which isnt suprising when you consider the bike was sat out overnight in tempratures of down to -22, this is where my trusty coleman cooker came in very handy,placed under the sump on Max it was used to thin the oil and the bike was able to turn over much quicker,so.......is there a thinner oil that i could use
without any detremental effect on the bike,what do you guys who live in colder climates use?,or would a bog standard 10/40w be good enough?
cheers


http://www.bvdm.de/index.php?id=47&lang=3

http://motorang.com/tauerntreffen/index.htm

[ChazzyB]

I think I'd make sure I had enough fuel in my Coleman stove.

[Chris Canning]

Castrol Power 1 10/50 and don't blame me when you see the price,i  think it's called high performance cats piss,about the same viscosity as tap water or C/P,I use(have to) it in my K1200.

[Mustang]

without any detremental effect on the bike,what do you guys who live in colder climates use?,

Heated Garage


you could try 5w 30 wt oil but it will probably not be much better than 10/40
It's the battery that is causing your trouble .........not enough cold cranking amps to work very long in zero degree F weather in conjunction with the oil being thick from the cold ..put a car battery in the chair , works pretty well .
Use a battery isolator , it will keep both batterys charged and when the bike battery gives up you have the monster cranking amps of the car batt. to fall back on .

[2004Tiger]

Shell Rotella T Synthetic is 5W40 and does well for year-round riding in Denver, although I don't fire it up under 40F ambient and I keep it on a trickle charger in the winter. In your case, I wouldn't even attempt to start on the bike battery, I would take a spare auto battery, keep it warm indoors, and take it out with jumper cables only to start the bike in the morning. All of your mates will want a jump also, so keep a trickle charger on the spare battery indoors. Make them pay for the service or suffer a DNS.

My second choice would be to use jumper cables to any available vehicle.

Running with a weak or depleted battery could stress the alternator/rectifier/voltage controller to the point of failure.

Second thought: Regardless of the starting issue, cold thick oil will not provide good lubrication upon startup. A 5W40 synthetic will perform better unless you want to fuss with the camp heater. (Take your oil inside overnight? Heat it on the stove in the morning? Should I stop now?) Good luck and have fun.

[Chris Canning]

Oddly enough because I do a group buy on another forum for batteries I have access to a variety of Odyssey's,I attempted to fit a PC535 and it's an absolute nats too big,I had a spare battery holder given to me and during the winter may try and see if I can mock up something better.

[chairhead]

I think I'd make sure I had enough fuel in my Coleman stove.

:lol: Yep,
that goes without saying

Chris Canning wrote

Castrol Power 1 10/50 and don't blame me when you see the price

Thats about the same price as the Mobil isnt it Chris,i also run an Odyssey(pc925)
on my Bandit 1200 which is inline to the standard battery

2004Tiger wrote

I would take a spare auto battery, keep it warm indoors

on the last night i camped in Austria,i took the battery off the bike and slept with it in my sleeping bag :lol: strange i know and not too comfortable
but it actually worked :shock:,an auto battery would be a bit of a squeeze

Mustang wrote

put a car battery in the chair , works pretty well .

this is the way to go i think,i might even take the Odyssey off the Bandit and save a few sheckles :roll:   .

Thanks for the insight guys,as always its good to hear different ideas and members input
cheers