This whole discussion around Winter weights, etc.... Yeah, I learned something recently.
For the past two winters, I assumed my bike was having trouble starting with 10W40 in the winters. This winter, I strayed from 10W40 and went with 5W40 Rotella Synthetic. Without surprise, I went out, one cold morning and the bike struggled like heck to start. Seemed like it was trying to stir some tar in the crank case.
On a completely unrelated note....I decided to purchase a battery tender for my bikes battery. Interestingly, on a day where we had 4 degree temps, I decided to "test" the bike to see if it would start. With it on the Tender, it started up like it was 80 degrees.
So, I have now learned that a bike's struggle to start in cold weather has so much more to do with the strength of the battery than the thickness or thinness of the oil.
By the way...here is the tender I have....
Schumacher (SEM-1562A)
(See Link)
6 or 12 Volt
1.5 AMP - Maintain
Fully Automatic with Float-Mode Monitoring
Cost a whopping $19.97 at WallyWorld....
Also, I have three quarts of M1 R4T 10w40 sitting on my shelf, waiting for the March oil change (out of Winter storage). Originally, I purchased 6 quarts of this stuff (a whopping deal when Checkers had M1 for sale....and I snagged it for $4.50 a quart!!!!...Yeah, it is $14.50 a quart at my motorcycle shop.)
The only problem is.....seems my V-Strom likes to drink this M1. Over a 2,000 mile run, I lost about 1/2 a quart. Now in the oils defense, a bit of that run was on I25, running at 80 mph at about 6,500 to 7,000 RPM's.
I am sure it is a great oil, but because of the consumption....I am a little leary now. Come March, I think I am going to do two quarts of M1 R4T 10W40 and one quart of Amsoil 20W50 V-Twin. I bet that cures the consumption issue.