{"id":28407,"date":"2022-04-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/?p=28407"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:45:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:45:59","slug":"thoughts-cold-start-crisp-engine-upper-end-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/20220417\/blogs\/thoughts\/thoughts-cold-start-crisp-engine-upper-end-feeling","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts: Crisp cold start? That satisfying engine upper-end feeling."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Basically, I don’t do engine work for others. I only work on my own bike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When compression is solid, cold-start performance is outstanding.
When the valve area seals properly, it feels absolutely wonderful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Air-cooled engines that open right up are truly amazing.
You can check most things without even removing them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s sad how rare air-cooled bikes have become these days.
With some water-cooled bikes, it’s faster to just drop the engine and do the work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valve sealing is super important.
Just valve face polishing, seat cutting, and lapping alone can have dramatic results.
Removing carbon from the piston head won’t make much difference, I think.
I should find some time soon and do a head-only OH to refresh it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carburettor maintenance is important too, but when the fundamentals are solid, that’s what really gives you that satisfying feeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too much valve area leakage means poor cold starts.

You can get terrible cold-start performance or weird fouling issues.
It’s less common with four-valve engines, but you see it all the time on older Z and GS models.
The fact that I’m thinking about engine overhauls while parts are still available shows how much time has passed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basically, I don’t do engine work for others. I only work on my own bike. When compression is solid, cold-start performance is outstanding. When the valve area seals properly, it feels absolutely wonderful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pochipp_cv_data":"","swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-28407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}