Winter riding, radiator cover
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:41 pm
Perhaps this is common knowledge but...
Noticed during a winter ride with ambients below -10c, thanks to my thermostat radiator cap, that the coolant on my xc250 was rarely getting above 20c, and it was running poorly (jetting might’ve been a contributing issue, but I do have a carb heater).
My xc has no thermostat, I think some xcw and xcfs do, and my buddy mentioned that his 17 150sx (no thermostat) came with inserts to block the airflow through the radiators for cold weather.
So I decided to make a quick n dirty n cheap radiator cover to try on the next ride. Measured and cut it out of a discarded gallon oil container, use heat gun to straighten and set bend at the top, and installed it. Bigger grab handle for gloved hands.
At the next ride of about -10, the bike performed much better, and indicated coolant temperature only ever touched yellow on slogging hard spinning climbs, as soon and the bike was moving again it was back to mid green, but also not off the bottom of the scale.
Cheap solution if it works for you.
Noticed during a winter ride with ambients below -10c, thanks to my thermostat radiator cap, that the coolant on my xc250 was rarely getting above 20c, and it was running poorly (jetting might’ve been a contributing issue, but I do have a carb heater).
My xc has no thermostat, I think some xcw and xcfs do, and my buddy mentioned that his 17 150sx (no thermostat) came with inserts to block the airflow through the radiators for cold weather.
So I decided to make a quick n dirty n cheap radiator cover to try on the next ride. Measured and cut it out of a discarded gallon oil container, use heat gun to straighten and set bend at the top, and installed it. Bigger grab handle for gloved hands.
At the next ride of about -10, the bike performed much better, and indicated coolant temperature only ever touched yellow on slogging hard spinning climbs, as soon and the bike was moving again it was back to mid green, but also not off the bottom of the scale.
Cheap solution if it works for you.