This is my first summer with the bike and am wondering if any of you living in hot climates have your tank and frame right below the tank get very hot? My tank gets hot, but I can still put my hand on it, however the frame gets so hot that I can't touch it for more than a few seconds. Is this normal? The temp gage during our summer heat stays between 195 and 223, so its not overheating.

Dave

All of your engine heat is being transferred to the frame through the mounts, and radiating off the exhaust, etc.

The frame does get pretty hot, as a lot of guys have complained about it before.

The tank doesn't get near as hot because it has fuel to cool it.

Dunno if it's related, but the backside of my right leg burns like a mofo if my speeds start to come down for traffic or whatever. '97 'bird with stock pipes.

-Pace

Even thru leather?

2002 yup, same thing, 19k miles of it. yes, thru leather also. i couldn't imagine riding this bike in shorts :shock:

the tank heat is one reason i ditched my 1/2 lp tank bra for a mag knight, i found the leather bra was making her hotter, now at least the heat dissipates more easily.

how to cure it?.. i've done water wetter, and exhaust header to can wraps with no improvement. also run mobil1 15/50 syn, doesn't make a diff.

high octane gas makes her run hotter.

the leaner i tweak the efi with my pc3 the hotter she runs.... so you could tweak her rich i suppose (just a guess) at different rpms where you want to run cooler?

can't wait to hear any new ideas?

David, do you have slip-ons, or the stock mufflers?

My factory cans were ridiculous for radiant heat, and I even burned my ankle on them the second day I had the bike.

Both sets of slip-ons I've had since run a lot cooler, and I can hold my hand on them after a good, long run. Radiant heat is definitely reduced with them.

My GF and I test rode a VTR1000 about a month ago. Besides the vibration of the V-twin, her biggest complaint was the heat off the factory pipes. She thought she was going to burn her feet right through her boots if the ride was much longer.

Yeah, the stock SS pipes get hot and stay hot forever. If I didn't like the stealth sound so much, I'd replace em with Ti or CF.

duh, that was an important fact i left out!! :oops:

you are right the stock cans are ridiculous for the heat they produced.... and replacing them would be the first choice item to reduce heat.

i've currently got a tbr 4-2-1 CF full system. It helps the heat at the can end, but even heat wrapped, the TBR blows a lot of heat!

By the way, leaner is hotter, go rich if you are trying to cool her off....I want to get a pc2 to richen mine up a bit, don't know if it will really make that much difference though...anyone.....anyone.....Beuhler?

Wow. A girl that COMPLAINED about the vibes of a v-twin? Amazing. :) Maybe she just had a headache...?

Well, I can't testify to the bike getting cooler as you richen the mix via a pc but I CAN testify to it getting hotter if you lean it out.

I ride a full tank each day on a commute and at first I was spending way to much of the 'last stretch' on a flashing reserve so I tweaked the cruising rpm / throttle positions down to -20 in each of about 7-8 spots.... DAMN she ran hot.

... but no more reserve flash on the way home :shock:

I've subsequently backed off to a -10 in those spots, less heat, and I still don't flash on the final stretch :grin:

btw, I'm using a dyno'd setup map as my baseline, not zeros after the pipe install.

I have a '97 with Micron CF slip'ons. No heat problems that I've noticed. Might be the codura pants shielding me though.

While I found the vibrating very annoying, as well as the lack of power, she indicated that another 5 miles, and she would have made me pull over! :wink:

Apparently the XX has the same effect, just takes a few more miles to work up to that point................ :razz:

the carbed versions run cooler. i had a 97 also at one point and don't remember it being this toasty :grin: