[superslomo]

I'm going to be taking my Wee-Strom to and from the train station whenever weather allows, it's a mile and a bit each way. Other than the occasional errands that might come up, and longer weekend rides, that may be it for the day (2.5 miles in total.)

I know it's not ideal, and and and, but I'm curious as to what the effects might be on service life, and how I should handle keeping the bike healthy under those duty conditions... more oil changes? Different grade? Synthetic all summer? Battery tender all the time? How long does a motorcycle battery take to recover charge from starting? Any advice is much appreciated.

Obviously when it's possible, I will run any household errands on the way home, and probably have days of tooling around for a bit before heading back to the house, but I love the bike and want to keep it as healthy into its dotage as I can.

 

[rockitcity]

Do you have a bicycle? That sounds more appropriate for a mile commute. Why bother gearing up for a 1 mile ride? (Or maybe not...)

I don't have definitive answers, but I would think your battery is going to take most of the abuse. Your oil will also not get warmed up enough to evaporate any accumulated moisture, so you might want to change it more often. Better yet, take that Wee out for a long ride once a week to keep it (and yourself) happy!

 

[greywolf]

I would go with 3 months between oil changes if you don't get out and burn off contaminants regularly. A battery tender overnight may be a good idea. It probably wouldn't need to be done every night. Maybe once a week would do the trick. See how long it takes to go from charge to maintenance cycles. At least the combined stainless steel and aluminum exhaust system should stand up well. The best thing to do is get out and ride it for fun.

 

[superslomo]

The parking is paid for, and while I have a bicycle, and I have done the bike commute some, it's tough in that a) I have to wear work clothes on the way, and by the time I've locked a bike up, it's almost as fast to walk... also, there's a pretty decent climb on the way home. I have also gotten a pretty nice sprain or wrench in my ACL that makes bicycling pretty brutal at the moment.

ALSO also, family errands are much easier if I can do shopping on the way home, which is tougher on the bicycle.

ALSO ALSO also, it's a way for me to get at least some riding in daily at the best time of the afternoon/evening.

 

[OydnaR]

I would recommend finding a longer route, go outta yer way enuf to make the commute about 25 minutes, then yer bike & oil get up to temp and battery gets its charge

 

[superslomo]

Possibly down the line... it's not particularly awful duty, it's a nice leisurely barely-above-idle ride down to the station, and I can take a few miles on in the evening. It's mainly so we can avoid feeling the need for a second car...

 

[Moedad]

I would recommend finding a longer route, go outta yer way enuf to make the commute about 25 minutes, then yer bike & oil get up to temp and battery gets its charge

This seems like a good answer to me. Even just a couple or three times a week would help.

 

[superslomo]

Longer diversions in the evening are no problem. Adding a few minutes of pootling about is absolutely fantastic as far as I'm concerned... main concern: do I completely kill the battery in a day or two if I don't do longer stretches in a pinch? I know the old rule of thumb I was given was that a car battery takes 15 minutes of running to recover the charge for starting... would that be covered by just putting a battery tender on as needed?

 

[Improperly Torqued]

Not to be snarky, but most of us don't get enough exercise, and a mile is a paltry 15 minutes. Why not walk?

Just askin'.

 

[aldntn]

I use the Wee just like I use the car. I don't worry at all about short trips. In your case I'd probably try to get the temp up to 3 bars once a week and change oil every 6 mo if I didn't get to the mileage for a change. Battery tender if it worries you.

Just my opinion...letting it sit is worse than short runs. The bikes I've owned got insulted if I didn't ride regularly.

You may find it is harder to keep rides short than you think.

 

[tiggergv]

My commute to work is 1.5 miles, there are a number of reasons for not riding the motorcycle (takes longer to gear up than the actual ride, possibly bad for the engine, etc) and there are one or two reasons for NOT walking/riding bicycle (dangerous road with no shoulder, but more importantly - too lazy!).

While I do get out most every weekend for a decent ride, to date I've put about 13k miles on the bike with regular services as recommended by the manual and had no adverse affects.

I suspect it will be many more miles before I see any adverse affects, it's a price I'm willing to pay.

 

[khager]

Move to Texas, 1 bar when the key turns on(before starting and sitting at least 10 hours) otherwise 2 bars on startup, 2 bars before I get her mounted and out of the driveway, and 3 bars before I make it a mile down the road. No problem with warm-up here.

 

[ken mier]

My ride is 8 miles one-way; so about 15 minutes one-way. I do get out on errands frequently, or, for those 'if I don't get out for a lunch ride, I'm not going to play well with my co-workers :argue:' kind of days.

I've been doing this for about three years and 14k miles with no battery (or other) issues - and I'm pretty maintenance intensive.

 

[superslomo]

Not to be snarky, but most of us don't get enough exercise, and a mile is a paltry 15 minutes. Why not walk?

Just askin'.

-It's pretty vigorously uphill and down.
-It's not a mile, it's over that.
-If I need to pick up anything on my way home, it's well out of the way, and stores close very shortly after I get off the train.
-I spend nearly 2 hours door-to-door each way commuting (yes, that's as much as, or over 4 hours a day in total), and if I don't get home quickly, I don't get to see my baby daughter and put her to bed/give her dinner.
-Any other questions as to my lifestyle priorities you'd like to have answered?

Not to sound snarky myself, but on a typical day I'm out of the house at 5:30-6 to get to the train to get to work, and I'm home 7 in the evening if I get out of work at 5 on the dot. I can use an extra 40 minutes of my life to take care of all kinds of things, whether it's being home to be a parent, or mowing the lawn, or brewing beer, or taking the dog out for a walk or whatever else.

 

[crosscountry]

Move to Texas, 1 bar when the key turns on(before starting and sitting at least 10 hours) otherwise 2 bars on startup, 2 bars before I get her mounted and out of the driveway, and 3 bars before I make it a mile down the road. No problem with warm-up here.

That my story. My bike starts with 1 bar, and if I start it before gearing up it will be two bars at least by the time I get on.

My commute is 1.5 miles each way, but often I'll take a longer route home or go visit someone that is farther away.

 

[djmarchand]

I ride about 4 miles round trip every day

I am retired and use the Wee to ride to the coffee shop in the morning, about 2 miles each way, about 5 minutes or less. The engine gets to 3 bars on the temp gauge by the time I arrive. Of course that is with 80 morning temps. When it gets colder I am sure it won't warm up that far.

No problem with the battery so far. I think it only takes a few minutes of riding to replace the couple of seconds of cranking to start.

I take an hour or so ride at least every month to shake out the kinks and blow out the plugs.

I probably should change the oil more often, but as little as I am riding now, once a year is all I can deal with, probably every 3,000 miles.

David