air/oil cooled engines in Texas summer traffic?

[TowJam]

How well will the GS/RT/ST's engine handle heavy stop & go traffic with an ambient temperature in the 90+ degree range? I make such a ride daily in the summer in the mid-cities area (between Dallas/Ft.Worth) and up until now, I've been doing it on water-cooled bikes. Is there any hints or precautions you can recommend to a new ST owner? Or to ask it another way, how well do boxers hold up in these types of heat and riding conditions?

 

thanks in advance!

[David]

The oilheads were fine. Every once in awhile you'd have to pull over and let them cool down, but very rarely. I've done some analysis on overheated oil from the R259 engine and it was peachy.

 

The hexhead is even better. Either that, or the oil temp gauge has a "rev limiter" on it. Mine hardly ever climbs. I understand that they beefed up the pump a bit.

[eric2]

It seems to work fine in the triple digit

austin stop n go traffic. Not as cool as the k12rs

but what is?

 

OTOH I've let my r12gs idle in my driveway

for about 10 minutes and the headers were

glowing red by then

 

Eric

 

Austin

r12gs

[Edgar]

My ’97 RT has spent its life in Dallas and hasn’t experienced any problems here. This summer I was in Denver in their heat wave (106) and got stuck in very heavy 3 MPH traffic for more than 70 minutes. I was fully loaded 2 up with camping gear and the temperature gauge went into the red area. I did stop and allow the bike to cool for 20 minutes and proceeded. I had to stop again down the road for the same reason. We got off of I-25 and used surface roads heading south. As long as we were moving consistently more than 15 MPH we stayed one bar below the read zone. When traffic was moving again 40 MPH and faster we were in the normal range. I do use synthetic oil.

[Deans BMW]

eric 2 says

 

OTOH I've let my r12gs idle in my driveway

for about 10 minutes and the headers were

glowing red by then

 

Eric, that is a definite NO-NO. You get on your bike, start it and ride off.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Its only a no no for a bike with tupperware strewn all over it. A GS is fine and doesn't care a fig if the pipes get red hot.

[WBoyter]

I've ridden mine everyday since the end of June. No problems whatsoever. It's even better when you can catch the HOV lane and bypass the stop-n-go traffice however...

[eric2]

eric 2 says

 

OTOH I've let my r12gs idle in my driveway

for about 10 minutes and the headers were

glowing red by then

 

Eric, that is a definite NO-NO. You get on your bike, start it and ride off.

 

Please no lectures mmk? I did it once, I was watching

it and 18k miles later it still runs great. I was a little

suprised by it, that's all.

 

Eric

Austin

too many bikes

[TowJam]

I've ridden mine everyday since the end of June. No problems whatsoever. It's even better when you can catch the HOV lane and bypass the stop-n-go traffice however...

 

Yeah, unfortunately there's no HOV on 121 going through the mid-cities. (During late Spring through early Fall, I can always count on the fan on my water-cooled bikes to run throughout that commute.)

 

TJ

[jackflash]

It isn't a problem with the RT's. The only time I saw my oil temp. rise, it was barely perceptable. I had just finished running the living daylights out of the bike, then rolled into a small town where traffic was backed up. The oil temp. gauge was happy. Must have a great oil cooler even when stationary.

 

How well will the GS/RT/ST's engine handle heavy stop & go traffic with an ambient temperature in the 90+ degree range? I make such a ride daily in the summer in the mid-cities area (between Dallas/Ft.Worth) and up until now, I've been doing it on water-cooled bikes. Is there any hints or precautions you can recommend to a new ST owner? Or to ask it another way, how well do boxers hold up in these types of heat and riding conditions?

 

thanks in advance!