I don't thing it's a good design gauge. Most gauges read straight up for normal conditions. These gauges have a very wide operating range on them, about the entire thing. Mine reads just off cold for normal riding and shoots up almost into the red in traffic. Well.....that's in the operating range of the gauge, right? The only time its anywhere where you think is normal is on its way up or down to the far ends of the range of the gauge.

 

It really seems to gravitate towards one or the other extreme, never in the middle. Crusing on the highway it's a constant 1/5 on the gauge. 5min later in traffic it's 4/5.

From what I gather - if you're worried about temperature - flush and clean your coolant and radiator and don't give the gauge too much attention unless it sticks to the right corner like mine did in the picture. These machines are build to run very hot even after a few minutes in congestion.

Once you get her going at a steady pace the gauge declines quickly and settles back at around 1/4. It's just how these machines are designed.