Bike temperatures?

[st00ji]

where should the temp gauge on my bike be sitting during normal operating conditions? being used to cars, i assumed half - but the gauge on my bike barely moves off zero, unless im sitting in traffic - and even then the highest i have seen it go is about a third.

the engine itself seems to warm up normally, and after 5 minutes on choke will happily idle by itself. seems to run normally too, though my bike experience is limited. do bikes have theromstats? is this more likely to be a dodgy gauge / sender? or do i have something to be worried about?

its done it since i've owned it

[F5 Dave]

I wouldn't worry about it. Suzis of that era had silly thermostats (like mid 70s which is silly). On my RF9 I bought a car thermo (do a search on this site if you care) with a small bleed hole drilled at the top so to remove air pocket if mounted horizontally. Helped it warm up to 1/3 pos & ran a bit better at low revs.

[Laxi]

where should the temp gauge on my bike be sitting during normal operating conditions?

usualy somewhere near the handlebars

[pete376403]

Some bikes (eg KLR650, possibly others) have a half -arsed approach to water cooling, where the thermostat almost completely stops the water circulating until the temp in the engine is high enough to make it open, then a big slug of cold water enters the motor, thermo closes, engine heats up again. So the engine temp has these big swings between hot and cold, rather than maintaining a proper temp. A proper system would include a bypass, so water could keep going round even when the thermostat was closed.
For KLRs the answer is to install a Thermo-Bob http://members.cox.net/watt-man/TB%20Testing1.htm
Until I get one of these I've blocked off half the radiator with duct tape, and the thing still runs cold. Even on the BIKOI, where we were crawling along, it only got warm enough to turn on the fan in the final run up the ramp to the bike park.

[p.dath]

Mine usually sites between 1/3 and 2/3. At about 2/3 the fan turns on to cool it back down again.