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How does you bike run in this weather?

vf1000ride

By vf1000ride,
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How does your bike run in this hot and humid weather?  

27 members have voted

  1. 1. How does your bike run in this hot and humid weather?

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vf1000ride Mentor

vf1000ride

Posted
Posted

My Duc runs just fine in this heat and it's aircooled. Oil temps run a little higher than normal but it's not anything that is gonna hurt the motor. Heck it wasn't 95degrees last weekend but puttering around at idle all day up at Mid-O for the races didn't faze it in the least. Modern fuel injection rocks. :bow: I have only ever had to turn it off in traffic once due to engine temps. Got stuck in stopped traffic due to an accident, I sat in the 1mph crawl almost 30 minutes. Oil temp was at 290F, the overheat warning comes on shortly after that so I turned it off. When things started moving again it started right back up and off I went, oil temp was still over 270F and she started just fine.

The Triumph runs good in the heat also but the blast furnace coming off the motor when the rad fan comes on in traffic will get your attention. Haven't had the luck to sit parked with it yet for more than a turn on a traffic light so the jury is still out on if it will behave as well in the worst case scenario.

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granda080 Veteran

granda080

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So Oldschool and I went for a little ride Monday evening and all was well and good. Until at one of the stop lights my biked decided to stop and eat a shit sandwich. It was bogging down during acceleration around 7K. The engine temp was slightly higher than usual, but nothing too crazy.

Anyway, we stopped and waited a bit and let the fan run until it clicked itself off. Got back on the road and it was fine. My thought was it had to be the weather effecting it.

Has anyone else experienced this before?

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ReconRat Grand Master

ReconRat

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high compression water cooled bikes will darn near shut off in stalled traffic.

low compression water cooled will get by with the radiator fan running.

old school air cooled, well... sorry about your luck. Park it over there and wait a while.

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m0rtal1ty Enthusiast

m0rtal1ty

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Well.. my 250 needs 26 of its 27HP to just to maintain 70MPH on the highway anyways but it does feel even slower in the heat. My car is also frustratingly slower than usual, making me think for a minute something was wrong with it :/

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granda080 Veteran

granda080

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My FZ has a dead spot around 6-7k all the time. I just figured it was the Motorcycle Gods telling me to buy another Ducati.. so I did. I guess the joke's on them. :dunno:

LOL, did you ever change the sprocket in your FZ? I did a -1 on the front and it really helped, which is why I wondered about the weather possibly. It felt like it did before with the stock sprocket on it. I'd love a Duc. Congrats on your upgrade by the way!

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mgbgt89 Community Regular

mgbgt89

Posted
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Mine runs like dog poop in this weather. Then again i've got it tuned pig rich so it will start at or below zero.

It takes a lot for it to get too hot though, unless you're sitting forever. I got stuck in a parking lot on 71 between Cincinnati and columbus sunday and just parked it on the shoulder for 2 hours until traffic cleared.

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dustinsn3485 Grand Master

dustinsn3485

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Where do you notice it being short on power Dustin?

It just runs a bit richer...I get a bit of a hesitation in the mid range that I normally don't get on a cooler day when the air is better.

I've got carbs though, not FI. FI should be compensating and you really shouldn't notice anything.

Even what I mention isn't worth mentioning as being down on power, it's just me being picky.

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granda080 Veteran

granda080

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It just runs a bit richer...I get a bit of a hesitation in the mid range that I normally don't get on a cooler day when the air is better.

I've got carbs though, not FI. FI should be compensating and you really shouldn't notice anything.

Even what I mention isn't worth mentioning as being down on power, it's just me being picky.

Hmm, thanks for that input. This is definitely me being picky. I was just interested if weather could have had a role is all.

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Pfloydgad Rising Star

Pfloydgad

Posted
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In this high humidity season, it is even more important to treat the fuel and tank with a good water evap additive. I use ISOHeat, in the red bottle on every 3rd tank full. I put in about 1/3 the bottle with the fill-up, and let the ride that follows as the mixer.

I would also recommend that you keep your tank as full as possible. The humidity and the heat from your moter when you park her will cause some condensation in a half full tank.

I have done for so many yrs I can't remember, but I do remember how many times I have had to pull the carbs, 0.

JMHO, everybody ride safe out there.

Greg

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ReconRat Grand Master

ReconRat

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Posted (edited)

It's actually the density and humidity that makes the difference in performance. Dense cold air allows a greater amount of air to charge the cylinder. The humidity is best at 100% for performance, it's oxygen and hydrogen and will be used up. So the worst condition would be hot and dry air. And it can be noticed, but usually I think it's the lower atmospheric pressure at higher altitude effecting carburetors that would be most noticeable. Regardless of what the temperature or humidity might be. The carburetor just won't compensate for conditions like fuel injection will.

But ambient temperatures or lack of a cooling wind flow, that raise the heat of combustion inside the combustion chamber too high, will also cause a reduction in performance from poor combustion of the fuel being burned.

I've had air cooled engines in the past overheat and literally stop running. Pushing the bike off the road and waiting for it to cool down was very common back then. It's why we all wanted oil coolers, back in the day. I haven't seen that happen on any newer bikes. I have seen a few high compression water cooled bikes get really hot when stuck in traffic. It can get hot enough to puke coolant, and might as well just stop and cool off.

Harley riders say that their rear cylinder will switch to firing every other combustion stroke when the engine temps get too high. I haven't looked that up to see if it's something new and/or true.

edit: I do hear a difference in exhaust sound in hot weather like this. It basically reminds me not to goose it and raise temps any higher than they already are. From experience with cars, I've always taken it easy on my engines on the hottest and coldest days. That's always when the engine suffers the most, and tries to grenade.

Edited by ReconRat
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Joey614 Proficient

Joey614

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Today I finally got my bike back from getting new tires and a check up i went to put gas and when I opened the gas cap it had a good bit of pressure in the tank. Idk if it was the weather or what but it kinda startled me lol

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jporter12 Grand Master

jporter12

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Kind of afraid to take my 250 out fearing that it would over heat. Pretty sure it won't but I also don't want to go to work sweating really bad. It seriously needs to cool down.

Don't be afraid to take it out, unless you KNOW that you'll be sitting with it running for a long time. Unless your cooling system is in really bad shape, it will be fine.

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