volt and temp gauge?

[CatatonicBug]

How about this one? Looks simple enough, and only $40.

[natemoen]

I'll agree Nate, you don't need any more holes in your head.

Are saying engine head or are you implying my head head...

[DiverRay]

That should work for Cyl. head temp.
As far as Cy and his comment, I think he forgot the . My take was YOU got to decide, depending on how much brain power you are using trying to get what YOU want, within budget. We've all been there, so a friendly jab now and then sometimes helps.
If not, DEMAND a beer from Cy, he's good for it!

[natemoen]

I would much prefer an actual gauge to the digital one you found there. Don't mind the.price though.

As for Cy, well........he is just a post whore anyways

[bikerphil]

A long while back, I used to run a Home Depot BBQ grill thermometer on the top of the head. Head temps on a 95F day in stopped traffic would hit 400F+. Easy to mount, just grind down 2 sides of the mounting nut to the right size and tap it between the fins over by #4 spark plug (facing up) and thread in the guage. The probe would be close but not touching the head. It worked pretty well I thought.

[natemoen]

Interesting concept there Phil!

[cywelchjr]

Are saying engine head or are you implying my head head...

That would be a good guess. Of course if you come by for a ride, I'll buy you a cold one afterwards.

[webbcraft2150]

I have used the Krurikyn (spelling?) LED volt meter for years. Mounted it with two sided tape to left handlebar. Nifty little unit. Dims by itself at night, starts blinking when you get below 11 volts. Has survived well. Beats having to figure out where to mount a traditional round gauge. Auto Gage makes a mini volt meter, 'bout 1-1/2 face if your looking for a traditional gauge and have a place to mount it, like a fairing. As far as engine temp, I never worried about it much. I can petty much tell when my XS is getting too hot.

[Rickrod3]

This site may be of interest

http://www.digitalmeter.com/

Any body have a baseline Temps Like Steve's 250 for oil.
Would help to know what's good and not so good.

Rick

[natemoen]

That would be a good guess. Of course if you come by for a ride, I'll buy you a cold one afterwards.

you would probably put a hole in my head afterwards as well wouldn't you.

I wasn't really looking to mount the gauges on the bars, I was more looking to point them on a plate down on the left side of the engine.

[81xsproject]

Getting something mounted well in a good spot is actually quite difficult. This is an issue I have dealt with quite a bit. It wouldn't be as big an issue for just having a gauge, though, as your engine isn't altering its enrichment during the warm-up period based off readings from the sensor. I am still no happy with the set-up I have to engine temps. Oil temps are considered pretty good, especially if you, again, aren't actually USING those values like you do on the FI set-up. One of the issues with using oil temps (for me) was the potential for there to be variance between oil temps in the pan and head temps at start up. I am still considering giving it a try though as well as a spark plug/head bolt washer. As far volt and temp meters go, both circuits are fairly simple to build with an LM3914. My long lost 'secret' project uses a couple of them to light some 10 LED bar graphs for voltage and fuel level. I planned on installing them in the pilot box, but who knows if it will ever actually happen. Life has all my projects on hold and I had to use Stabil in my tank for the first time ever.

[natemoen]

Life has all my projects on hold and I had to use Stabil in my tank for the first time ever.

Just think, if you had winter you would have more time! Can't do this, might as well do that!

[cywelchjr]

Just think, if you had winter you would have more time! Can't do this, might as well do that!

He has a LOT more of a winter up there than we do down here in the central valley. Of course he doesn't get the heat in the summer like we do either (I actually loved my years up off highway 101 north of the bay).

[b.walker5]

Okay, a volt meter I can understand, might even add one myself, but a head temp guage?? Not dissin the idea, but other than curiousity and paranoia what possible use would that be. Know the temp is one thing, but doing something about it on an air cooled engine is quite another. Air cooled engines are designed to run hot, damned hot, and for the most part, never have any issues, unless your going to spend lots of time idling at the lights or something. But then if you notice your getting hot what are you going to do? shut it down on the side of the road for a couple of hours while your considerably sized lump of cast steel and aluminuim cools, or just ride and let the air temp cool the beast.

400 degrees f (200c) is nothing for these beasts, the design temp of most air cooled engines is around 300c, with acceptable tolerances of another 100 degrees built in, and when you have 300 degrees in your engine on a 30 degree day (sorry, I'm metricated) then you have 270 degrees of cooling when stationary, more when moving due to wind chill. So if your worried about things being too hot, as long as you have good oil and clean cooling fins you have nothing to worry about.

Now, oil temperature is a different animal and can be worth knowing, especially when your due for a change and it's getting thin.

[natemoen]

It is all just for curiosity sake! No reason!