I would not consider trikle charging a starter battery cheating because then most of us living within 300 km of the US/Canada boarder would be cheaters in the winter. Block heaters would also be cheating and that in the end would become "logica ad obsudtum". For me I look at the FE numbers as +/- 1 mpg anyway and the contribution of trikle charging in winter is vanishingly small...
My personal winp-out temp is 0*C, more due to ice on the roads than temperature. I only know of one person in this area who rides his bike on snow and ice covered roads. How about a solar powered charging and heating station for the bike?
