Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Tour highlights just started. I want to go out, so please someone watch it to confirm Harley sighting.

I’ve seen a few R9T as well, which surprised me given how hot they must get on the cols. mine clocked 140 degrees the other week in traffic!

Have rebuilt older wheels, with dented or deformed wheels and found some spokes damaged but then I could have been over cautious.

But rebuilding is like rebuilding a bicycle wheel. Found it very therapeutic.

I went over Galibier and a few others years ago on a K5 GSXR thou and was amazed at how hot and asthmatic they get as you get up there.

And you presumably weren’t riding at cyclist pace!

Well no MOT equivalent for motorbikes in France.

Were you running stock or re mapped ignition and fueling?

Hey if it was a buell it would have broken down.

Shite. I take it all back and apologise. Thought you were referencing the post about the pump.

Yeah I guess if you’re gonna cash cow someone. GS owners riding in from Essex are a good bet.

That’s mental! What fucking oil do they use?
Thought the tiger was hot but it never goes above 103 before the fan is shredding

Hmm can’t remember…no fan etc of course so they do run hot. The Pier City guys see 130 regularly during flat track races without issue but I did stop for ten mins before getting back in the queues when I saw 140. That was “spirited” country lanes until hitting traffic from Mitcham to Brixton

No worries.

Can the pump be dismantled? Can the pump filters be cleaned by using a closeable tub and a hole cut in the tub so you can insert the pump like in the tank and flush the pump with clean petrol?

Or sluse petrol through so the filters are cleaned that way.

Yeah it's a 3 part. I've taken it apart multiple times and know it quite well now. The issue is the high pressure part is a sealed unit with a cap that's been glued on.
A fair few people have back washed it or used a compressor to clean it, but that breaks the fine mesh inside.
I'd like to remove the cap, clean the mesh and re-glue it somehow. The unit is some form of ABS plastic.
Pump itself works totally fine.

@jackbepablo Just realised I don't have an inkling on how hot air cooled stuff runs really.

Water gets cooled in the radiator, oil doesn't hence the difference in temps for the most part. Running temps are pretty similar at cruise. Even if you have an oil cooler, it's generally smaller as boiling point of oil is so much higher than water, and it's not really the oil that does the cooling in an air-cooled bike.

Normal operating temp for the R9T is 113 or something

Mechanically I get how it works per se, more along the lines of being static kinda floors me a little in terms of engine design. Any difference to head and piston design in terms of rings and gaskets. Those temps consistently must get the oil pretty low in viscosity.

My Guzzi runs at 110, this is useful in winter when you want to warm your hands on the heads

Flash point for the oil in the engine is 236

https://oilgroupbg.com/pdf/motul/motul-7100-4t-10w40.pdf

Dunno really - lots of other factors involved, liner material, cast or forged pistons, etc. I'm fairly clueless, aside from a soupcon of knowledge on 2 strokes, which cool a much larger amount through the charge anyway. Head design, squish and porting wouldn't really change for an air or liquid cooled engine of similar output. You can go further on LQ though, more compression and timing before you get towards detonation, you can run leaner as well.

Air cooling can be incredibly effective though, Aluminium wicks heat like you can't believe. In theory it kind of doesn't matter that it gets hotter sat stuck in traffic. If everything expands at roughly the same rate, the important clearances are maintained. For 4 strokes, the head and underside of the piston are getting splash cooled by oil in the head and crankcases, cool charge coming in, and big time radiation through the cases and fins. The combustion temps are not hot enough to burn anything down anyway (or shouldn't be...)

Miss that on oil cooled bikes.

You want oil to be thin cold and thick hot. Multigrade is quite trick.

If you want to know more, great resource is the bosch automotive handbook, known as the blue book.

Air cooled engines like beetle/2cv/fiat 500 means they can cope with wider temperatures from hot to cold.

It's coming though... my mate in Paris just sold his awesome HD Evo Chopper as he knew it wouldn't easily pass the upcoming testing...

Not sure how this might effect tourist bikes though?

Still don't understand the crit air system.

But did enjoy the cheap public transport

The weather is just so depressing for the foreseeable.

Has anyone done the UK TET route? Good fun? I'm thinking of doing Spain next year and some of the UK this year.

Yep done a fair few miles of it around Wiltshire into Dorset. GWT is a good short route. Each area of the UK has its specialty. Around Swindon is clay and ruts, so, if you visit I’ll show you what hell is like.