its been between 60F and 75F degrees here and in town my 954 still hits 215F. As I start moving and keep on it drops rapidly to 170 - 180F. then once I am at the lights it climbs up, again very rapid. It seems to run fine, no smoke, and cant see a loss of coolant (leak or low level). could my radiator cap be failing? Or possible blockage somewhere? 28k on it, and i have been running supercool by water wetter.

 

Well, unless you have some of the ****ties lights around it shouldn't go from 180 to 215 in ONE light cycle.
176-190 sounds about right for riding down the road (depending on outdoor temp) and 215-220 if idling in traffic.

The fan should come on and keep it semi cool.
If you meet those requirements I would say you are perfectly normal.

 

Dont worry about it. The bike doesnt overheat until 252 degrees. I hit 240s consistently during the summer heat.

 

thanks. it does do it at the first light and its usually the first one i hit coming off the freeway, (from an 8 mile ride home) its a left turn arrow that i wait for and sometimes i wait a minute or more. the fan does come on, and so far has kept it in check, its just i have never had it act like this during the colder months. Like you said i have seen 190 195 idling in town. I live in phoenix, so its about 70 F most of the time. Hmmm... I might take it in to have the cooling system pressure checked and the cap too. Scratching my head over this. Thanks again guys.

 

your fine..

 

well i rode it tonight to work and back. it is much cooler like 55 tonight. and i literally watched the gauge change from 170 to 189 back down to 180 then slowly up to 196 and back down again to mid 170's. basically large increments, up and down, and all in less than a mile of road way at about 45 mph and 5500 rpm. oh guess i should mention there has been head work done to this motor, maybe 7k miles ago. so its been off. so what a good way to check the head gasket? Compression test? cant see a loss of coolant and the oil looks fine.

 

did u stop at all in that mile.. maybe the temp sensor is fauilty..

 

nope, didnt stop until i hit a light, just at the on ramp to the freeway. Why do you ask? As i continued on the ride home at 75 (freeway) the temp stayed consistently in the low 180's. i reviewed the manual and noticed the radiator cap can cause sudden high temps. i also checked the coolant by draining the res, and drained a few cc of oil, cant see any evidence that they are mixing, so thats good. I mixed the oil and coolant in a clean and dry plastic water bottle i had in our recycling bin, shook it up just so i could be sure of what to look for. definately no mixing going on in the bike. maybe a leak in the cooling system letting air. shop has the bike as of this morning and i wont know until after christmas what the results of a leak down and cooling system pressure test will be. i wish i had the fittings for my mightyvac to do this myself! thanks it helps to here other scenarios.

 

check the cap but if you are riding in the city and it's warm out going from stop light to stop light the temp changes very often so might just be in your head

 

hope you are right!