Engine warm up time?

Bought a 81 kz1000 csr this spring. It was sitting 2 years. Cleaned carbs new plugs new air filter oil change. Bike is running great. Just curious how long does it take to warm up. When I start it I use full choke fires off instantly. Then right away go to half and in about 5 min its ready with no hesitation. Only thing I havent done is have the carbs synced. I have put about 200 miles on it and running great. Is this warm up time normal for this bike or do i need to adjust the pilot screws out a little more. I am at 1 1/4 turns wich is what the manual says. Thanks
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I have a 1978 KZ1000 and the carbs are sync. You got what I got. About 5 min. and ur good to go. I have had mine 4 yrs. and it has been like this. Just a little cold blooded. But it's all about what that baby will do after the choke is off, and she's got a little heat in er. Isn't it !!

it sounds like u could be a little lean. it wont hurt to try to run a little richer, then u may not need the chock for so long. does it run smooth at cruise without choke during this 1st 5 min's? as the weather warms, the bike will naturaly run leaner, so u may need to add fuel anyways.
try a little richer if u like, u can always go back.
dont be afraid to experiment. just remember where u started(how many turns out the fuel/air screws are, from lightly seated.). the key is to be able to cruise at , say 3000/4000/5000rpm in first smoothly. if it will do that, then the fuel ratio is good.
after u find the sweet spot, sync the carbs.


i need the choke to get mine stated,then turn it off, and put the cruise control on at a high idle,while i suite up. then away i go with no choke.

Depends on outside temperature, but for mine it ranges from a couple of minutes to maybe 5 minutes max.

You're lucky you don't have flatslides. Mine are finicky and will start wanting jetting changes with as little as 10 degree temperature drops.

thanks guys. new to bike but am mechanicaly inclined. i guess she is just cold blooded. i will play with it and get it synced. after i find a sweet spot do i need to re plug my pilot screw holes. i took the plugs out to get to them. thanks a gain it is running great other than being cold.

i do have flats. no problems hear, and i live in snow country. :lol:

mark1122 wrote: i do have flats. no problems hear, and i live in snow country. :lol:

I meant the o.p. mark. And yours don't run leaner in the cold morning air?

Do you guys actually wait for the bike to warm up before riding ? For ever and ever I would start a bike on full choke, reduce to half in a few seconds and as soon as I get my gloves on I'm off down the road reducing the choke as I go. Might take 5 min riding for the motor to fully warm but cold motor is only evident if I have to stop at a traffic light.

generally riding the bike before its warmed up is bad, as is running the engine under load with the choke on. the least amount of harm it can do is foul your plugs, leading to a decrease in performance, the worst is mixing gas into your oil, leading to a new engine being put into your bike. (not very common, but its what happened to my brother in law on his suzuki)

I agree with warming up the bike for around 5 minutes sounds about right.
I have a oil pressure gauge on the right side of my motor that reads up to 15 psi. When I first start the bike the reading goes up to the needle stop of 15 psi kinda like a extra tach. As I rev the motor to keep it running clean the oil pressure rises with the rpm. After a few minutes the oil pressure drops to about 3 psi. Thats when I know its truely warmed up and ready for some real fun. I cant speak about the carb settings anymore as I only have one bolted to the turbocharger, but the oil gauge predates the turbo and I love knowing what the motor is doing as oil pressure drops to normal after the warm up discribed above

Hmmmmm. Interesting
I always though that the best way to warm an engine was to run it. Not put under load with choke of course but just run it. I've been doing what I described above since the late 60s with cars and bikes. Cars back then had manual chokes - a knob you pulled out from the dash - and once we got a car engine going we did pretty much the same.... kept going with the choke until you could reduce it and finally shut it off altogether. Most chokes are really just high idle for the last i/4 or so of lever travel. Then came fuel injection on cars or "automatic choke" and today we turn them on , maybe give a couple of seconds to get the oil pressure up and just go. most people turn em on and go and let the computer take care of the rest. Should we wait ?