Sorry, but I must be a bit thick or am having a bad day or two at work (bit of both probably).

I've just ordered the 180 thermostat.

What benefits might it give me and will it mean my bike will run cooler than it already does?

On my commute it is very cool when riding freely for 7 miles then pretty hot when in traffic (10 miles).

Thanks

 

^ The way I see it, it opens up sooner, buying you more time when you hit traffic.
It stopped my hot pinging and stalling. In traffic it will stay open longer and the fan won't kick on and off as much.

It won't make much difference on the open road. As a matter of fact, I really don't know of any real difference other than the lack of hot stalling and the pinging on take off.

I'd like your opinion when you install it.

 

Fitted the 180 thermostat.

Who said it was a five-minute job?!

I had to do it twice; the first time resulted in a coolant leak because I didn't replace the O-ring. So I added some black instant gasket in the O-ring groove and on the O-ring. So far it seems to be holding...

I also didn't remove the little wobbly metal tab from the hole at edge of the stat. The old stat didn't have this tab in the hole. What does this tab do?

Now the bike seems to warm up quicker (even in the current cold weather). Also the idle seems to be less erratic in traffic. Though this may be because I added a lot of Redex and ran the engine until it died due to lack of petrol then did the same on choke.

 

It goes without stating: any part with an o-ring\gasket - the associated o-ring\gasket should be replaced with the part. Most all o-rings should go on dry.

That's a "jiggle-pin" (a form of one-way check valve). It's designed to allow trapped air (on the source side) to pass through the thermostat when the main valve is closed- leave it in place.

Thermostats have a rated temperature - your new one is rated at 180*F - that's the temp at which the main valve opens; the main valve will be fully open at 15*(+3-5*)F above the rated temp.

If the bike is warming up quicker, most likely, the previous thermostat's main spring was weak (or some sort of debris lodged disallowing the main valve to close against its flange).