| Author | Message | ||
     Jimustanguitar |
It's been in the 90's this past week, and riding the 1125 has just been miserable (fun still, just really really hot). I've read bits and pieces about people installing heat shields and ceramic coating their headers and all kinds of stuff. An under seat fan has also been discussed. What have you done to cool down your ride? I'm trying to get an idea of what I should do this winter to make things easier next year. In addition to the rider comfort things, I'm interested in making the engine run cooler too. Mobil 1 has been reputed to lower running temps (I've seen this on race cars). Anybody using the synthetic coolant that doesn't expand? Supposedly you can run cooler and ditch your overflow. Anyway, I'm looking for any thermal management advice, rider comfort, engine temps, heat shields, etc. Thanks! | ||
| Cherry_bomb |
coolant: tap water and water wetter headers: exhaust wrap if you got the my08, put some insulation between frame and engine. helps a lot. | ||
| T_man |
1) Ensure the bike has proper fueling (ie. not running too lean). My 1125R with the stock ECM was running in the 90 degree Celsius range. I solved this in two stages; firstly a global fuel enrichment on the stock ECM (via ECMspy) and later an addition of an EBR Ecm. The running temps dropped to high 70's. This made a huge difference. 2) Swapping out stock exhaust for aftermarket exhaust. This made a huge difference to the 'foot roasting' department. Curious to know how the heat wrapping has helped other posters with the 1125 series. My old XB12R was fully heat wrapped yet cooked me regularly on warm days. | ||
| Jimustanguitar |
I actually suspect that my bike is a little rich when it's hot. There's some popping in the exhaust at low RPM's, especially when engine braking. My bike runs between 180 and 200 when I'm moving down the road (80-90c, and as hot as 209 or 98C at a stop light once). Stock ECM so far. Haven't looked into ECMSpy. That's new to me. I'll have to research it a little bit. I'm also curious if the CF case guards would help hot foot. I think that the pegs get a lot of radiant heat from the engine case itself (headers are higher up, and muffler is lower down). @ Cherrybomb, you ought to be using distilled water. There's some nasty stuff in tap water that you might not want in a coolant system. | ||
| Hildstrom |
Rear fuel injector disconnect in neutral. http://hildstrom.com/projects/buellfi/index.html It helps quite a bit in stop & go traffic and at stop lights when it's over 100F. I may do some additional stuff this winter: * front and rear header wrap * additional frame insulation * EBR ECM * out-flow radiators http://flexi-glass.com/buell.php | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
Def distilled water.....and better oil. The Mobil 1 bike oil is crap. Honda HP4, Motul, AMSoil etc, but it sounds like you're in the ballpark with 210 at the high end. Mine was hitting 220+ with the stock oil, got so hot it warped a body panel, good oil dropped it to 210ish. It seems like the most effective thing is to insulate the inside of your frame when you rotate the engine or remove the frank for the valve adjustment. Just from reading threads here.... I shut off at longer stop lights and let it coast down hills when it's hot. If it's over 95 I just don't ride anymore, to be honest. Wife beaters under the mesh helps too.....dump water all over the mesh jacket, it evaporates as you go. As far as I know, there's no such thing as non expanding coolant. If anything straight water would be the coolest possible option, with the water wetter deal being a bit safer. I'm still on regular coolant, myself. | ||
| Kw1125r |
I found that the EBR ECM dropped temps on my '08 - it consistently runs around 75 C on even the hottest days here (and we get a lot of 30 plus Celsius days). It was worth the price just to be able to ride around town without a lot of popping and snorting from the lean mix let alone running cooler. Mine does have some heat shield material and aftermarket exhaust. Basically I've never felt 'too hot' when riding it but don't spend a lot of time not moving... not all that much traffic around here. | ||
| Mako |
moved pods out 5/8 in. with nylon spacers. raised seat half inch also, air gap, it seems to have decreased readings by 3 or 4 degrees. I tested on the same afternoon and ride. ebr ecm, hfm exhaust and rotor mod (full price as mine was not reusable) another 4 or 5 and a lot harder to hit 195-200 then it seems to hit 210 the same on a fairly warm day | ||
| Jdugger |
The flexi-glass ram-air setup is a miracle, but it's probably not suitable for street riders. It eliminates the fans entirely, and gets the heat away from the frame. It's a remarkable difference in operating temps! | ||
| Dannybuell |
cold water in the helmet starts with a brain freeze but is wonderful after that. Over 90 degrees I use the car. | ||
| Smoke4ndmears |
Jimmustang, popping on decel is a lean condition with the factory ECM. Things that make my bike a cool runner: #1 EBR Race ECM The rest is for the rider: Inner frame adhesive heat shielding Techspecs frame grips ceramic coated headers. Never even begins to bother me now, and I often think back to how hot it used to get back in the days of the flawed ECM mapping. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
Take your shirt off and soak it in the sink. Put it back on and open the vents on your jacket. Feels like air conditioning for about an hour. Rinse and repeat. | ||
| Samcol |
i bought my 08 new and it was terrible. i put heat shields inside the frame. the ecm flash did the trick though. i can't complain. | ||
| Cherry_bomb |
i use tap water for ages in my track bikes...no problems so far. everyone does it on racetracks...had many discussions about it... distilled, diluted, tap, premix...blablabla...it's always a discussion with a lot of "experts"... actually, your bike won't last that long that you will experience any problem at all with that "nasty stuff in tap water". so, if you living in an area where the temps won't go below freezing point you're good to go with plain water. btw: distilled water is a problem for aluminum. | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
@cherry bomb- Depends on your tap- bleach in municipal water is a problem for everything. The well water from my place in southern VA is God's own nectar, ran it in bikes for years.... but very hard well water, like my place in Northern VA, causes Godawful scale. After seeing what it does to the house plumbing.... Distilled water is just boiled & reclaimed.....I think you mean true, De-Ionised water is bad and will leach minerals. They use it in some diets as a cleansing regimen to leech heavy metals out of the body, but not long term. Some manufacturers ask for one, some the other. It seems like the bottom line is that the coolant will have enough chemicals in it to counteract any "leaching" effect and prevent scale. Which takes us back to tap water  I'm trying to remember what we used in my National Gaurd shop.....it was probably premix and whatever water was handy....I'm gettin' old..... |
