Carburetors In The Rain And Other Things On Motorcycles?
Posted by Blogmaster in Rain Gear, tags: Carburetors, Motorcycles, Rain, ThingsSo this is something i have considered for a while. I own a gs500sf, ive had it for about a little over a month and a half now. I have put almost 3300 miles on so far (i love riding 
) anywho, today the weather was particularly ugly as it was 35 and rainy, but that just means you get a free cooling when riding right? 
well, great for me, not so great for my engine. I finally decided to call it quits when the bike would idle in 900-1000rpm range, and stall a couple times at lights. It would groggle coming out of first gear almost everytime. I DO give hte bike about 20+ minutes to warm up for every ride. Is this common in most bikes? just curious. But it wouldnt quite make sense as i have ridden in 14 degree weather with her, and she ran great. Perhaps it was just the rain cooling both of us off?
Well, aside from weather, its just getting on my nerves now, and i really would appreciate fuel injection (no more timing the exact moment to warm up the bike before picking up the ol date from her work )
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Carburetor equipped air cooled engines have a tendancy to ice up when running in cool, damp weather. It’s the same thing with small airplane engines… The air charge flowing through the carburetor cools when passing through the venturis and if there is excess moisture present, ice can form on the inside of the carburetor, and this will effect how the engine runs.Fuel injected engines aren’t bothered as much by this effect, as fuel is introduced directly into the cylinders. While airplane engines have a carburetor heat system to combat this effect, motorcycle engines don’t. There is no permanent damage done to your bike, and the ice will melt away when the air temp goes up, or the moisture content goes down.
Oh… a 20 minute warm-up is a bit excessive. 2-3 minutes should be more than adequate. As long as you can accelerate from a stop smoothly, the engine will actually warm up faster while you are riding.
If the bike appears to be miss firing, the plug wires or caps could be leaking electricity because they’re wet. You might look them over closely and make sure the rubber seals on both ends of the cap aren’t cracked and that the plug wires aren’t touching any metal on the engine or frame.
5 minutes warm up is adequate. The air filter box should stop all the water in your carbs,