gets hot in around town traffic

[Lazy7]

hey guys - when start/stopping in auckland city traffic going from one set of lights to the the next and not really doing much more than 50k in between my bike gets quite hot.

the temp gauge normally sits just over halfway. the fan seems to come on at about halfway and goes nuts.

once the bike gets this hot i need at least a motorway blast to cool it down or else the fan just keeps on going.

should it get this hot in traffic? should it creep up to those temps when riding slow at 40-50k?

its got oil and lots of water in the resevoir. was wondering if there is anyway of checking the actual level of the radiator without having to take the whole bike apart? because i am not sure if the reservoir is doing its job?

[Fishy]

Sounds pretty normal mate.

My bike has a digital temp gauge and in traffic it gets up to 107deg C, the fan comes on at 103. In the manual they recommend you turn the bike off if it reaches 122deg C (but thats for my bike) I think your will probably be around the same though.

[Firefight]

hey guys - when start/stopping in auckland city traffic going from one set of lights to the the next and not really doing much more than 50k in between my bike gets quite hot.





yep, happens to most of us, good reason not to ride round town more than you have to. Fans sounds like it's doing it's job.


F/F

[Pwalo]

I remember reading somewhere that they took temperature guages off some of the earlier oil/air cooled Suzukis because they were scaring their owners with their temperature readings around town.

Bike engines tend to run pretty hot most of the time. Just feel your bike's frame after you've been out riding. I don't think that you've got a serious problem, but I'm sue that there's a ZX7 owners club on the interweb somewhere that will be able to give you some pointers.

Nice bike, so take care of it.

[Edbear]

An advantage of having a liquid cooled bike is having the fan. On the 'F', if I spend too much time in traffic or dawdling, it just starts to 'ping' and miss when getting too hot. Hasn't got a temp guage either, so no way to know how hot it is. Don't spend much time at such low speeds though, so not generally a prob. Yours doesn't seem to be much to worry about. The 7R is an underrated bike, they're a good allrounder and damn quick!

[GR81]

yea, my new bike gets reasonably hot around town too... can really feel it on my legs.

[kiwifruit]

yep sounds normal m8
i kinda shit myself when i saw over 100deg on the gauge one day!
they love it tho, so i wouldnt worry if i were you :)

[Gremlin]

Mine never gets as far as halfway on the gauge usually. The fan kicks in on the first mark I think (which is a third) and it doesn't usually rise any more.

Like most sportbikes, its not designed to do 40-50 in stop start traffic. My fan doesn't come on all that much - but I don't sit in traffic :shifty:

Its actually rather nice on cold mornings, when the frame warms up, you get a bit of it on your legs, like automatic leg warmers :laugh:

[Mental Trousers]

You're lucky. Mine doesn't have fans for the radiator. Mind you, the radiator is farken huge.

[justsomeguy]

Does it quickly go back to normal when you get some free road? If it does then it's fine. If it starts going into the red zone PLEASE STOP IMMEDIATELY (of course I mean as safely as possible).

Bikes do get rather hot in those situations. I was beggining to get mild panic attacks on the last BRONZ Toy run..... but as long as it stays a bit away from the red zone and cools down quickly when you find some space - you're fine.

JSG

[Flyingpony]

Heard from some racers that engines with fuel injection can run on Methanol while those with carbs can't because Methanol consistancy is like vegetable oil.

Any way, whilst giving more bang, the engine actually runs cooler than is would on 100 Octane gas.

So why don't you guys run your bike on Methanol?
Solves the over heating problem.

[megageoff76]

My bike gets really hot on the commute to work..the fan comes on at least twice most days. Its worse when it rains cause it produces loads of steam off the radiator...it looks like the bloody bike is on fire!

[Ixion]

That's what fans are for. Cars do it too - well the ones with thermostatically controlled fans, anyway. Given me a nasty fright a couple of times when lanesplitting, all of a sudden there's this vhoom noise just behind y'. Shit, someones about to run me down, oh no, it's OK just some dude's fan cutting in.

BMW fan cuts in occasionally in very slow heavy traffic.

GT750 doesn't have a fan (early ones did, then they took them off cos they never got hot enough to turn on).

Easy answer, air cooling.

EDIT: Incidentally, running hot is GOOD. Engines should run at around 100+ degree C. Running too cold produces all sorts of problems and wears your engine and zorst out real fast. Pressurised systems can easily get to 150 degree without boiling.

[justsomeguy]

My bike gets really hot on the commute to work..the fan comes on at least twice most days. Its worse when it rains cause it produces loads of steam off the radiator...it looks like the bloody bike is on fire!
My first bike used to leak oil from the rocker cover and alternator gasket cover onto the header pipes. After a ride when I stopped at the lights a decent puff of white smoke would rise from under the handle bars :devil2:

[Flatcap]

This is why you need a SCOOTER when commuting in town

[kickingzebra]

A man needs a scooter like a frog needs a gas stove and a beauty therapist.

Scooters are only good for wheelies.

Even then its debateable!!

To keep your bike cool, you must lanesplit at obnoxious speeds. Its bizarre how just having the bike sitting, it'll pop up to 105 or more, but then fang the death out of it, and it cools back down...

[2much]

Heard from some racers that engines with fuel injection can run on Methanol while those with carbs can't because Methanol consistancy is like vegetable oil.

Any way, whilst giving more bang, the engine actually runs cooler than is would on 100 Octane gas.

So why don't you guys run your bike on Methanol?
Solves the over heating problem.

Two reasons,

a) That shit's expensive (admittedly petrol ain't cheap either these days).

b) Accessibility, you can't just rock up to any gassy and fill up with methanol.

Also, as far as cars go (I'm sure bikes would be the same) methanol uses different fuel systems/injectors, and the a/f ratios are different so I doubt a stock ECU could handle it.

[N4CR]

Its actually rather nice on cold mornings, when the frame warms up, you get a bit of it on your legs, like automatic leg warmers :laugh:

And on a ZX2R it comes with KILWS (Kawasaki Integrated Leg Warming System), along with KRAS and KIS-ARM etc etc. Sucks when you don't split.

I havn't had my fan come on the entire summer... I don't stop in traffic as I am much more confident. It used to be a case of hot legs for a long time though...

[iwilde]

Don't worry about it, my ZX9R fan comes on sitting in heavy traffic as well, normaly turns of when moving again for a few minutes.

[thehollowmen]

Methanol is cheep. $3 a 20L barrel. But no, compared to methanol it makes petrol look sticky. You'd have to do heavy carb tuning to get the flow right.

It ain't good with some plastics and it soaks up water from the air. You'd have to store your bike with petrol or something in it and run through the whole methanol tank.

My bike runs fine on a %5 methanol mix, but I don't want to rust out my tank so I don't do it.


Heard from some racers that engines with fuel injection can run on Methanol while those with carbs can't because Methanol consistancy is like vegetable oil.

Any way, whilst giving more bang, the engine actually runs cooler than is would on 100 Octane gas.

So why don't you guys run your bike on Methanol?
Solves the over heating problem.

[Toast]

EDIT: Incidentally, running hot is GOOD. Engines should run at around 100+ degree C. Running too cold produces all sorts of problems and wears your engine and zorst out real fast. Pressurised systems can easily get to 150 degree without boiling.

Really? My Kwak used to run at about 69 deg C on the road, and on the racetrack, not more than 74 deg. I'd have thought compared to 100 deg that this is a bit cold...that bike has a reputation for being pretty bulletproof too. I'm sure that running cold can't be that bad then.

What's the theory behind it?

[Ixion]

Combustion produces all sorts of acids. And water. If the engine runs too cold these don't get driven off. The lurk around, accumulating with time and cause corrosion .

Also, oil systems are designed to deliver oil when it is thinned by heat (not too thin of course). Cold oil is thicker oil.

Very old cars used to have unpressurised cooling systems, they boiled at 100 degrees. Then manufacturers put in pressurised systems, the pressure raises the boiling point so that the engine can run at 90-100 degree C. That's why your car or bike has a thermostat to keep the engine hot.

[Toast]

Ok, makes sense....so how come Kwak still have the temp running at about 70 degrees? Do you think that they are 70 degrees on the outside but the important bits that kill the acid thingies are 100 degrees...?

[Ixion]

I suspect that the 70 degrees may be misleading. One reason why many manufacturers don't show degrees , just a good/bad/shit scale.

As you say, the temperature that matters is inside the engine. Whereas, the temperature sensor, which feeds the guage, is, for reasons of practicality, usually on the outer edge of the machinery. Often the temperature there is cooler because of local air cooling etc.

I have even seen sensors mounted in the return hose , where they are actually reading the temperature of the water AFTER its cooling pasage through the radiator. I have read speculation that some manufacturers (Kawasaki perhaps one of them) do this because if they put the sensor in the "hot" part of the circulation system, people freak out at seeing 100+ degree temperatures, and insist "something's broken" A pain for warranty.

What *really* matters of course is OIL temperature. I have always thought it very strange that so very few manufacturers provide a guage, or even a light, for this.

[Toast]

True...yeah, all makes sense. I can def understand why the manufacturers would do that to stop people freaking. I guess it's all just relative, know the normal operating temp, don't let it get miles past that if possible.

[quickbuck]

Yep, 70 degrees is nothing. You can get metal that warm by leaving it in the sun. Well, almost.

Thermostats don't even flinch before 80 on most vehicles.

Oil temp is the big one, because over temping the oil wrecks it! As in, it doesn't lube your motor anymore, and wearout occurs at an alarming rate.

As mentioned earlier Suzuki did put temp guages on their SACS engined bikes, but the fluctuations disturbed the owners, so they took them off.

Ofcourse we are talking about the temperature of the cooling medium here, it is only an indication of how hot the engine is. The cylinder head temperatures will be vastly different to this, and will not be directly proportional in each case.

eg, high water temp in traffic, but low CHT (as air can't get through rad), conversly Low water temp (relativly) when fanging it at 180k's at Pukekohe, but high CHT.

[Ixion]

A case of knowing the bike as you say. If one has ridden in all conditions for some time on a particular bike, and never seen more than 80, a reading of 100 would be cause for alarm

On the other hand if the guage usually reads 100, and enquiry shows that to be typical of the model then all is probably well.

[WINJA]

ID LIKE TO TELL YOU HOW I FIXED THIS PROBLEM LAZY7, BUT I DONT LIKE YOU SO:motu:

[Crazy Steve]

AND-YOU-DONT-LIKE-COONS-AYE.......:laugh:

Craz y.. S teve

[imdying]

What problem? His bike gets warm, the fan turns on. No problem there...

[Krusti]

It's because Kawasakis are HOT:2thumbsup

[ALTRON]

My bikes fan hasn't worked in years. I try not to stop for long in traffic.. Never had any probs.

[kickingzebra]

My bikes fan hasn't worked in years. I try not to stop for long in traffic.. Never had any probs.

My bikes air conditioning doesn't seem to be working..... :violin: :weird: :weird:

Radiator fan is fine though!! :bleh: :bleh: :bleh:

Maybe I have to just go faster!!!