With most water cooled engines , things are OK so long as things don't stray into the red . As for the accuracy of the gauge , who knows?

 

Thanks Hawkwind for putting up the link. To answer the question as to did it work..... YES. The difference was remarkable. I was lucky to be able to get my hands on that sort of material but I think anything that reflects & insulates will work. From memory Shadow was going to use a space blanket & wadding. Give it a go but because I've now crashed my bike I can't see the difference in winter. I get the impression that you may want to be able to remove the insulation in winter as it will be too cold. See how you go.

 

I think I may try a little insulation this summer also. Thanks to all for the experiments and links...
As far as temp gauge, masterbry, my bike runs exactly the same as yours. 1/4 while riding...1/2 (plus a tiny little sometimes) when stationary on warm days. I'd say that's normal, but like nevada said... as long as you're not hitting red all the time, all should be ok. I've seen others that ran hotter like nevada's does at 3/4.

 

My temperature runs exactly the same as yours Master, the heat gets a bit much up the thighs when stuck in traffic etc but not 'that' noticable otherwise.

 

Well since we're on the subject, might as well drop in

Get the same reading as nevada's, riding in city traffic easily goes up to 3/4, even got closer to the red zone one very hot day in summer.
I'm thinking there might be something wrong with the fan motor. It goes on once the meter is above 1/2, but temp doesn't comes down a bit. Instead, once the fan cuts it keeps going up. That is until I get out of the red lights and the bike starts moving.
Shouldn't the temp drop a bit as soon as the fan starts working, so it remains stable and not going up?

One thing I found out, if you ride without the small covers up front (thermostat and fuses), that's a cheap way of getting heated grips