[YakAspy]

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Yesterday was a sunny 39° day with dry roads so I decided to take advantage and dance with the GaL for my first ride of 2012. She fired up slowly for the first few seconds and then the choke kicked in and it wasn't too long before she'd warmed up to three bars while sitting. The wife turned down my two-up offer so off I went. I was blown away by the overall performance in the colder weather as compared to warmer weather during the spring/summer here. She performed flawlessly, smooth pick-up power, very smooth shifting and with a great feel to the engine and suspension... a beast in cold weather that just chewed up the miles. Now the question: What, if anything, can I do when warm weather approaches to try and get this same performance?

 

[newday777]

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My CB750 always ran better come fall, loved kicking up it's feet! My 1500 runs better in the cooler weather too.
Check your vent on the gas tank.
It might be from all the heat put off by the engine on these goldwings. causes the gas not to burn as good, but then the feds have mandated that the stations can water down our gas with ethanol so that might be the cause of it happening too.
Just my thoughts, might be way off base.

 

[sandiegobrass]

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Save 100 gallons of that winter blend for the summer...

Seriously, if you are noticing that much difference, I'd attribute it to two things:

1-less (or no) ethanol with more volatile additives... (I notice the same thing just going from regular blends to "no ethanol")... and with the more volatile additives, the generally weak spark of the Goldwing generally works much better..

2- thicker oil due to lower temperatures, making it quiter... (what oil are you using?.. you might try Delo 400 15w40 next spring )

 

[newday777]

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The other thing might be if the air is dryer now or not?
You would be wise to change the spark plug caps & plug wires with new wire & NGK caps, they can be gotten at most bike shops who buy it on a roll, 7mm works good.
They may be leaking and will show up especially when the moisture content in the air is high, and ground out at the leak, causing poor starting, firing only on 2-3 cylinders till it warms up and dries out the moister in the lines.

 

[oharaLTD]

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Cold air makes good horsepower.............no other way around it....................Thats why they make cold air intakes for racing and the nascar guys used to freeze the radiator before qualifying

 

[YakAspy]

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newday777 wrote:

Check your vent on the gas tank. It might be from all the heat put off by the engine on these goldwings. causes the gas not to burn as good, but then the feds have mandated that the stations can water down our gas with ethanol so that might be the cause of it happening too. Just my thoughts, might be way off base.

ANY thoughts are greatly appreciated. All our gasoline here in Washington state has ethanol in it and no way to get around it.

 

[YakAspy]

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sandiegobrass wrote:

Save 100 gallons of that winter blend for the summer...

Seriously, if you are noticing that much difference, I'd attribute it to two things:

1-less (or no) ethanol with more volatile additives... (I notice the same thing just going from regular blends to "no ethanol")... and with the more volatile additives, the generally weak spark of the Goldwing generally works much better..

2- thicker oil due to lower temperatures, making it quiter... (what oil are you using?.. you might try Delo 400 15w40 next spring )

(1) All our gasoline here has ethanol in it. No way around this.

(2) Running Castrol Elite 20w40 as that what the previous owner kept in it. I'll try the Delo come spring and see what happens.

 

[YakAspy]

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newday777 wrote:

The other thing might be if the air is dryer now or not?
You would be wise to change the spark plug caps & plug wires with new wire & NGK caps, they can be gotten at most bike shops who buy it on a roll, 7mm works good.
They may be leaking and will show up especially when the moisture content in the air is high, and ground out at the leak, causing poor starting, firing only on 2-3 cylinders till it warms up and dries out the moister in the lines.

We're on the "dry side" of WA state with not much humidity during the warmer months. I changed the plugs about 400 miles ago in the fall but I think I'll change out the wires/caps come spring as suggested when I completely go through her for the main riding season.

 

[rideandslidejim]

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Move farther North :ROFL:

Jim

 

[YakAspy]

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oharaLTD wrote:

Cold air makes good horsepower.............no other way around it....................Thats why they make cold air intakes for racing and the nascar guys used to freeze the radiator before qualifying

VERY interesting! Learn something new every day!

 

[YakAspy]

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rideandslidejim wrote:

Move farther North :ROFL:

Jim

:applause: Maybe I could "snowbird" to Alaska during the summer. LOL...

 

[sandiegobrass]

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oharaLTD wrote:

Cold air makes good horsepower.............no other way around it....................Thats why they make cold air intakes for racing and the nascar guys used to freeze the radiator before qualifying

Yes... though of that, too but was thinking 5% difference in Hp wouldn't be noticeable at the seat-of-the-pants(between 39F and 77F)... but maybe you can feel it.. (I know you can measure it..)

HERE is a calulatorto play with..

 

[wildman]

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Great little online toy there. I entered some reasonable values and got a 10% gain in horsepower just by dropping the temperature from 90 to 20. And yeah, in my younger days I would ride when it was 20.:cooldevil:

 

[wingsam41]

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rideandslidejim wrote:

Move farther North :ROFL:

Jim

Dammit Jim you stole my line! I was gonna say Drive North.

Cold air is denser-better horsepower for sure. I remember getting to ride jump seat in the cockpit of our airplanes any time we had a maintenance roadtrip.

Even passenger jets feel like rockets on the colder days!

Lastly at same temp. My bike runs like a raped ape once into Canada-that's gotta be all in the fuel.Also more fun becausethe northern coast of Lake Superior is awesome.

 

[rgbeard]

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Supercharger??