Air cooled question

[cywelchjr]

Really wish there was a law about that. I usually do it to get off and stay on the feeter road

CA allows lane splitting for exactly that reason. It was really needed down in the LA area in the summer for the air cooled CHP bikes. And of course I NEVER see CHP bikes stopped in traffic jams, they are always splitting.

[wa407mpp]

You can't compare lawnmower engines to motorcycle engines, because lawnmower engines have a fan vanes built into their flywheels, to force air through their fins and motorcycle engines don't.

[Athedra]

I'm in South Africa. Think that if it can handle the heat over here, it will handle the heat over there. I must however add that I have a oil cooler fitted. I am looking at an electric fan with a sensor connected to my oil line, but sofar doesn't seem necessary. December is the warmest month of our year, and might look at a sensor and electric fan if it is necessary, but at the moment I have never gotten an overheat ping from the motor.

Just for interest, in South Africa, if you are driving a bike you are allowed to pass between the vehicles going slower than 60kph on the freeway. You are also allowed to use the emergency lane during peak traffic when safe to do so.

It's a lot faster to get to work and back with a motorbike since there is no traffic jams for you as a biker.

This law is mainly passed as a safety measure for bikers. The last thing they want is a biker trapped under a truck and the emergency staff cannot get to him / her because of heavy traffic.

[Larrym]

Heat=Get out of the kitchen!!

If there were a poll here for members to fess up whether or not they had seized up their motorcycle’s air cooled engine by “riding” in stop-n-go city traffic…..I’d have to answer, “Yes. I did.” Not got it so hot that it quit but really had it seize up where the piston rings were stuck to the cylinders. (Kick start was a no-go until it cooled down…)

The bike was a Kaw 500 three cylinder 2-stroke which I used for commuting to and from work. The place was Tucson, Arizona where riding on the blacktop was like riding inside an oven: 100+ ambient air temp in the shade. The two stroke had a power stroke on every revolution and the center cylinder was the weakest link cause it got the heat from the other two with little way to radiate it out/away.

Point is that I was aware of this bad situation of a bike which needed air flowing over the engine to cool it down and the problems of stop-n-go traffic. I did everything I could to prevent the overheating: taking alternate routes when I could, turning the bike off when I knew that I had to wait extended periods, etc. I even have the citations to prove it. (The local judge was not moved when I explained why I turned into a parking lot and drove through it in order to keep “airflow”. Guilty of avoiding a traffic light---pay your fine at the window…Next case on the docket, Mr. Baliff??)

With these experiences on another bike, I am not about to play a game where there is no way to win. I like my Xs1100 Special. A lot!! When I was in Tucson this year in June I did have to travel through city traffic to get to the roads I wanted to ride. But even though I timed it so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the commuter crowds, there were times when I still had to wait for longer than I felt was safe for the motor. I did turn off the engine and restarted it a few times when the situation called for it. But then I never took that same route again.

I like my bike. More accurately, I like my superbike. I just can’t see myself agreeing to put my superbike in stop-n-go traffic along smug hybrids with cooling systems equipped for the urban crawl. There’s something wrong with that picture IMHO.

“I don’t think so….Homey don’t play that.” Homey D. Clown

I’ve got a sock with a bar of soap inside it and I’m not afraid to use it…

[wa407mpp]

Having also owned a H1 and ridden it in a high temps with no problems, I'd have to say your problem was probably with the center cylinder oil injection jet which injects oil into the gas as it enters the cylinders, or a carb set too lean. a lot of guys used to set the mixture too lean to improve their terrible gas mileage, and those engines really needed to run rich to help cool the engine with the evaperation of the extra gas. The best I ever got was 39 mpg and after I hopped it up it dropped down into the teens.

[Pat Kelly]

Early 1980's in Phoenix. Had a neighbor that worked at a used car lot. They took-in a bike in trade (don't remember the make/model). He was going to buy the bike. He started it and was just listening to it run. The boss called him to do and errand. He didn't shut the bike off and it idled for about 3 hours. It got so hot the valve cover turned blue. Bike still ran fine.

[trbig]

When I first got my bike, it was really hard starting.. and I didn't even THINK about cooling the motor being a problem. I went to a buddy's house to talk to him and left the bike idling outside. We got to BSing, a beer was offered.. then another, and the bike running was forgotten. After at least an hour to an hour and a half, I remembered and went out and shut it off. Nothing seemed incredibly hot.. but it wasn't summertime either. I didn't have any immediate problems... BUT.. that was my first motor that spun a crank bearing later on.. lol. Who knows.

Tod

[Crazcnuk]

"If there were a poll here for members to fess up whether or not they had seized up their motorcycle’s air cooled engine by “riding” in stop-n-go city traffic…..I’d have to answer, “Yes. I did.” Not got it so hot that it quit but really had it seize up where the piston rings were stuck to the cylinders. (Kick start was a no-go until it cooled down…)"

That isn't the rings sticking to the cylinders.

The pistons swell until they sieze in the bores.

I did that twice, on my A100 Suzuki. Siezed the engine solid. Had to push it the 1/2 block home, went in, had lunch, put injection oil in the tank and rode it back to school.
It overheated because I let the oil injector tank run dry, but same issue.

[MindWebs]

Fuel...?

i don't have an H2 750...

but i do have it's smallest sibling.. the S1 250 triple

my s1 is ported and polished with factory pipes.
I get 18-22MPG (i can also do 108MPH)

i found out about the center cylinder issue before i started riding it, and i turned up the oil injection as a preempive measure i also run it rich on fuel.

i have put 40,000 miles on this bike with no sign of wear on the cylinders and still have great compression(for this machine)

Sorry to make this post so long..

Here is my question. running a 2 stroke rich on oil and gas helps cool it.

Would this same principle work on a 4 stroke?

yes, the plugs would need changing more often and MPG would drop.

[T99Ford]

Even on a two stroke, running rich will only cool to a point. The problem with this on a four stroke is that your oil is not in your fuel, and if you are real reach, you will have problems with cylinder wall wash, etc. A proper a/f mix will still run the coolest, rich can run warm, and lean will run warm. I have seen all of these on both my bike and my numerous sleds. Mod tuning will teach you about all this in a hurry!

On hot days here in MT, I will shut it off in stopped traffic. The beauty of a air cooled bike is that it cools off quickly when the heat source (running) is removed.

I have more the other problem, though. Getting the bike to warm up for the 10 degree rides to work!

[Larrym]

Cool or not so Cool??

I was the sole mechanic for my H1 and tuned it according to the service manual. Cylinders were not set to be lean in an effort to tweak more Mpg. I'm just gonna call the "seize-up" as my fault for putting the bike in a situation that was just asking for it to happen. Just part of that "mission mentality" of having to use it to get to work no matter what the heat/traffic conditions were. (Mea Culpa...)

I'm sure that there are any number of means to try and make an XS1100 Superbike more compatible with stop-n-go traffic. But in the end the bike would be there in that situation where I'm sure the little japanese guys in labcoats who designed these bikes would squint their slanted eyes even tighter.

I mean someone who owned an SR-71 Blackbird could take it out of the hangar, taxi it down the runway, turn off the tarmac, and join those in the anti-destination league deadlocked on the roadways. How cool would that be?

It's a free country......

[XSokieSPECIAL]

I have more the other problem, though. Getting the bike to warm up for the 10 degree rides to work!

So--- your bike has at least a couple brass nuts on it!

[T99Ford]

At that temp, though, they are really little ones

[wa407mpp]

I wasn't saying to run your bike rich to make it run cooler, I was saying to run it to lean would cancel out one of the things the engineers designed into it to help keep it cool. Also you can't run a SR71 on the freeway all the fuel would leak out of the tank seams, they don't expand enough to seal until you reach cruising speed.

[XSokieSPECIAL]

you can't run a SR71 on the freeway all the fuel would leak out of the tank seams, they don't expand enough to seal until you reach cruising speed.

You can't run an XS1100 at 80,000 feet or 2,000 MPH either.

The shocks and forks couldn't take the landing, without modification. And at 2,000 MPH your glasses and do rag would most definitly not stay on!