Just read through a bunch of old posts and I learned:
-Cyberpoet sells an oil temp gauge (figured I'd beat you to it since you answers all my questions)
-Kats are pretty good at not overheating
-First signs of overheating is steam/oil smoke in the fairings
-Idle can go over normal
-Motorcycle specific oil is better at keeping you from overheating
What happened to me:
About 70 degrees I'm riding the highway into Manhattan. Come up on horrible traffic. Get off the highway and I'm in the horrible traffic on the side streets. So even when I can cut through traffic to the front of a light, I'm waiting at a red light. This goes on for 30 min or so. Dont notice anything weird at idle, but a few times when I first start out in 1st gear the bike is like "dieseling" until 3k rpm and it goes away. Like its running on 3. I dunno if thats motor knock or not. That happens a few times and I decide to turn off the sidestreet I'm stuck on and go up an ave for a few blocks just to get the bike moving in some air. I took it to high RPM in 1st and 2nd then coasted in neutral. My thinking there was to clean off the plugs (do they foul during an overheat and cause that knocking) then coast with some air getting through the cooler. That worked for a while but I decided since I wasnt getting anywhere fast anytime soon anyway I parked at a diner for a milkshake. Traffic was thinned out after. So was I starting to overheat or something else? I put new plugs in the bike when I bought it last fall and just changed the oil (yeah I used car oil, shame on me).
So next oil change (or before I try going into the city again) I'm gona get some bike oil (jato or whatever Poet said). And if the bike IS overheating whats the best course of action: water on cooler, shutdown (for how long?), or find open road no matter what?
-Cyberpoet sells an oil temp gauge (figured I'd beat you to it since you answers all my questions)
-Kats are pretty good at not overheating
-First signs of overheating is steam/oil smoke in the fairings
-Idle can go over normal
-Motorcycle specific oil is better at keeping you from overheating
What happened to me:
About 70 degrees I'm riding the highway into Manhattan. Come up on horrible traffic. Get off the highway and I'm in the horrible traffic on the side streets. So even when I can cut through traffic to the front of a light, I'm waiting at a red light. This goes on for 30 min or so. Dont notice anything weird at idle, but a few times when I first start out in 1st gear the bike is like "dieseling" until 3k rpm and it goes away. Like its running on 3. I dunno if thats motor knock or not. That happens a few times and I decide to turn off the sidestreet I'm stuck on and go up an ave for a few blocks just to get the bike moving in some air. I took it to high RPM in 1st and 2nd then coasted in neutral. My thinking there was to clean off the plugs (do they foul during an overheat and cause that knocking) then coast with some air getting through the cooler. That worked for a while but I decided since I wasnt getting anywhere fast anytime soon anyway I parked at a diner for a milkshake. Traffic was thinned out after. So was I starting to overheat or something else? I put new plugs in the bike when I bought it last fall and just changed the oil (yeah I used car oil, shame on me).
So next oil change (or before I try going into the city again) I'm gona get some bike oil (jato or whatever Poet said). And if the bike IS overheating whats the best course of action: water on cooler, shutdown (for how long?), or find open road no matter what?
Comment