Manual Stop/Start at the lights and junctions

[Robbie8666]

SWMBO has recently swapped her convertible Saab 9-3 for a Golf TDI DSG. We have manual Skoda Octavias at work with the same stop/start technology. Makes much more sense in the DSG car IMHO, vs the manual it seems clunky, annoying and just doesn't seem to work well with the gearbox. At work I turn stop/start off, driving her car I let it do its thing. On the bike, I'd kill it if I knew I'd be waiting ages; there's a level crossing just off the A59 near Airedale Hospital where you can sometimes be held for three trains in a row, I usually kill the engine (after filtering to the front of the queue) if I'm held at that crossing. For me it comes down to local knowledge; if I know I'm going to be held for a good while at a specific obstruction I'll turn the engine off, more so in hotter weather. Other than that I'd leave her idling, I feel I'd be hammering the starter motor, battery and alternator etc. doing much more work than it wasn't designed to do, i'd rather pay for a few pence more of petrol than several pounds for battery/alternator/starter motor work[size=78%].[/size]

I was talking to a mechanic friend of mine the other day.. (& Ill caveat this by saying I was talking about my triumph T-Bird) & he was saying that starting the bike needs a minimum of 11.6v to start a bike, and it takes approx. 16 miles of riding to get the charge from starting to get the charge back into the battery. so constant stop starting eventually kills battery/rectifier/starter motor etc so I consider that, but agree if sitting at level crossings I will kill my engine as quoted previously sometimes can be held for 2 or more trains...