Why Won’t My Motorcycle Start In The Cold?

 Cold has the potential to make your motorcycle and ride way go cold and frozen. Because cold weather is one of the few things that walk against the soothes of a motorcycle or riding a motorcycle. 

With a decrease in temperature, problems over a motorcycle begin to increase. Motorcycles take longer to start is one of the main from the list. Other problems include difficulty in riding, harder to brake, have less control over the motorcycle, not ver comfortable riding, and so on. 

Today we shall talk about why motorcycle doesn’t start or takes longer to start in the cold weather. 

One of the main reasons behind this is the battery. As battery lags to work properly in lower temperatures that are colder weather.  This is because of the battery’s capacity. The capacity that the battery has is lower when the outside ambient air is freezing. 

The second reason beige, due to lower temperature the engine oil tends to thicken and restricts the smooth starting of the engine. There it takes longer to start a motorcycle in colder conditions. 

How is a battery responsible for a motorcycle not starting in the cold?

Inside the battery of a motorcycle, there are several cells with plates present. Generally, a 12 volt battery has six cells. The six cells produce just over 2 volts each. 

The cells unanimously are submerged in an acid mixture. This is in the case of a lead-acid battery. Next, a series of chemical reactions are made to perform mechanically. 

As a result of which current is created. The generated current ultimately provides the charge to start your motorcycle.

To keep you informed, though the battery of motorcycles in 12 Volts, a fully charged motorcycle battery stands somewhere higher than that. Somewhere near about 12.4-12.6 Volts. 

Above this, when the bike is in motion, the alternator keeps the battery charged at a much high value. 

The battery of a motorcycle actually provides two distinct types of measurements. Both the values of the battery affect the ability in starting the engine of a motorcycle. The first being the Volts and the second is the Cold Cranking Amps or CCA. 

Cold Cranking Amp (CCA) is the value that the motorcycle’s battery is generally able to set as output. It basically determines the battery’s ability to start. It massively affects the battery’s ability to start your motorcycle’s engine. 

The ambient temperature negatively casts an effect over the CCA of a motorcycle’s battery. 

Generally, a definite amount of CCA is specified for a kind of battery. But if the weather gets cold to real good extend it will still cause trouble in starting the engine. 

Also, it is important to mention that, if your motorcycle’s battery is old enough then it would even be affected by comparatively less cold, than in the case of new batteries. 

Related read: How to start a motorcycle with a dead battery?

How does engine oil affect the starting of a motorcycle in cold?

Colder temperature makes the engine oil thicker and causes hindrance in the smooth movement of the piston and thus takes longer and more effort to start the motorcycle. 

Alike, the battery of a motorcycle, engine oil also gets affected by cold weather. It reacts differently over different air temperatures. 

Engine oil is measure by weight and temperature rating, you might have noticed this when changing the engine oil of your motorcycle or car. The oil is assessed to a specific definite weight. 

But the weight of oil might vary with manufacturers. 

The weight of oil in case of motorcycle does not have any relevance with kilogram or pound measurement. It is measured by the thickness of the oil. The thickness of the oil is also affected by the temperature of air around. 

The thickness of the engine oil is inversely proportional to the temperature. As the temperature decreases the oil thickens. As you start you motorcycle, the oil heats up and becomes thinner. 

Is it hard to start a motorcycle in the cold?

Definitely it is harder to start a motorcycle in the cold, because the charge of the battery drops and the thickening of the engineer oil resists against smooth and easy starting of the motorcycle in the cold weather. 

These are the two most important reasons which we have already mentioned above.

The status of the battery, or its its condition also play a role in starting a motorcycle in colder condition. 

Most often people in the way of starting a motorcycle in the cold rev it to the absolute limit, while some keeps trying to kick start it over and over again. This impacts the engine in a bad way. So, I would recommend not to do so. 

Instead you can try the following listed way by which your motorcycle potents to start quickly than usual in cold and doesnot cause damage to you motorcycle’s engine. 

  1. Turn the petrol knob from Off to On. In case you are running short of fuel you may turn on and off the Reserve knob. This lets let the fuel to flow into the motor . This  take around a couple of seconds. 

This makes the fuel into movement and enhances it mobility.

  1. Try moving it in the available space. As the fuels tends to settle down because of the zero movement of the vehicle. Moving the motorcycle lets the fluid lubricate the gears and increases the chances of starting the motorcycle quickly.
  1. Trying to kick start the motorcycle rather than using electric start. 
  1. As soon as you start the engine, adjust the idle screw or knob which is located on the carburettor itself.
  1. After you start the bike, let it warm up for some time. This will bring back your motorcycle to natural state which lagged because of the colo weather.