I am new to motorcycles and new to the forum. I picked up a 97 F3 with about 9100 miles on it about 1.5 weeks ago and the bike is in great condition. One thing that I find strange to me, maybe it's not, is that when i get the bike out on the open road the thermostat reads that the bike is running cold. When I am just riding around town, stop and go traffic, the thermostat gauage sits right in the middle which is what i'm used to on cars. When I get the bike out on backroads or the interstate and have constant airflow across the engine/radiator the thermostat gauage reads colder, not all the way at the bottom but significantly lower. Is this normal? Should I be concerned that the themostat isn't working properly or that the coolant isn't properly mixed? Any advice or experience on this would be great.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

when thermo's are broke they usually dont read at all or read really high redding out at all times, the stop and go traffic will always run your bike warmer, but the only real problem is if your bike is overheating.. See how hot is it getting in the stop and go, at a certain temp your bike fan should kick on and should cool to a certain temp then cut off, i would only worry if your fan isnt kicking on , and the bike is frying itself. Write back CYA..

 

Your situation with your temperature gauge is normal!

It's common sense that stop and go/traffic will make your engine hotter than constantly moving air throught the radiator...

 

I would imagine these gauges aren't dampened like most car gauges - does anyone know if that's correct?

OP - your car gauge sits in the middle all the time because it's designed to sit in the middle unless the engine changes temp a LOT. Usually there is a range of +/- 30 degrees or more that it will just sit on center. I don't think the CBR gauge is like that, because mine is the same way, reading very cool when moving.

 

thanks for the quick feedback everyone! The non-dampened gauge makes sense...just like the fuel gauage on my former 83 gmc jimmy...if i remember correct it was going uphill that refilled the tank with gas

 

Mine is the exact same way. ANd from what I understand, that is the temp these bikes run at.

 

Totally normal. Don't sweat it.