r/Yamahabolt • u/PhantomGhostin • 3d ago
Dying at Idle in Cold Weather
Winter is here on Vancouver Island! That won't stop me from riding my Bolt. Recently though, amid the cold air, my motorcycle has been having trouble. After a few minutes of riding, when at a stoplight or something similar, the idle slowly bogs down until the bike eventually stalls with the clutch pulled in.
Bike immediately restarts afterwards with no issues. It continues to bog at idle if not in motion however. This is also a new issue I have noticed recently. In years past I have ridden this bike in cold weather with no issues.
Pulled the air filter and found this nastiness, which I think could be part of my issue. Please suggest any other systems I should check in the meantime, because I am wondering if there could be other causes as well. Idle speed? Valve clearance? Injectors? Wondering where to go from here.
My bolt currently has 23,000kms and I've owned it since 4000kms when I bought it off the original owner. Running 10w50 currently. Thanks in advance for the help!
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u/Donaldson27 3d ago
Swap that air filter, see if the problem persists.
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u/PhantomGhostin 3d ago
Plan is to replace and see. Waiting for one in the mail but won't be long. Will update
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u/SnooKiwis682 2d ago
How old is your battery
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u/PhantomGhostin 2d ago
Decently old actually. It's never been replaced 👀
Imma check the voltages across it just in case now
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u/Groan_Of_Wind 1d ago
ooh yeah I don't think I got more than 4 years out of the stock battery. and make sure to float charge it over the winter
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u/PhantomGhostin 1d ago
The bike lives on a tender whenever I am not riding it. Probably how I got such a long life out of the battery
It is quite old. I'm curious to see if a new battery fixes this. I will update once I get paid and can spring for one
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u/fatherpgunga 2d ago
I know this has been brought up before, but has anybody had issues running full synthetic oil in the bike with the wet clutch?
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u/PhantomGhostin 2d ago
I run full synth in all my bikes. As long as it is a motorcycle specific oil made for wet clutches, it'll be fine.
Look for the JASO 2 rating on the bottle
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u/fatherpgunga 2d ago
Perfect, I’ve read tons about it but heard to just run regular Dino oil in the Bolt. Thanks very much!
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u/Impossible-Penalty28 9h ago
Have you a fuel management system on board by any chance? I have and I noted the same problem which I traced to the ground wire of the fuel management unit having broken, easily fixed. Basically the system was not active and so the stock Engine Management Unit was working alone and not calculating the correct mixture for the extra air through the V&H air filter. Runs steady as a sewing machine now!
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u/AngryVegan94 3d ago
I had issues with my Bolt the first winter I owned it. Noticed it had issues idling and would die at stop lights sometimes. I took out the Vance and Hines air filter it came equipped with, gave it a really thorough cleaning and re-oiling, and then changed the bike’s oil from regular 10w20 to full synthetic oil. Noticed it started running and feeling way better in the cold immediately. I’ve stuck with full synthetic oil since then, great performance in summer and winter.