I've often considered the idea of fitting a louvre on my rad, just like the type commercial lorries have to stop, or at least control the effect of ram air through the rad. When you're warming up you don't want any air passing through, when you're running up to temp you only want what's necessary. When you're in slow traffic the fan cuts in and you want all you can get. Consider that. you could even build in some nice LED lighting to highlight your lovely polished casing.
There's a lot of nice perforated mesh on the market that would look well nice without causing too much drop in air flow.
Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

 

thanks henryM-
ive been tryin to find a good explanation of ram air and i dont think i really understand it well yet- i thought it depended on foreward movement of the bike?
can you reccomend any page thatl lay out the basics for me? is my main ram air behind the rad, and the auxilliary coming in the black tubes on the front sides of the tank? i know all i doo is ask big questions - but i sure am enjoying learning all this new stuff!! my bike is a coupla weeks old now(to me)

 

Here's some interesting links to get your juices running.....

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...Air-Scoop.aspx

Well, I actually couldn't find what I was actually thinking of except for new patented ideas which are boring as hell to read.
THis is something I've been interested in for a while now and if I do find anything I'll post it up. The above link is closest to what I had in mind.
What you're after is protection. I'm jumping a step ahead. With a little imagination you could do so many things that would look pretty cool. Consider altering the mountings and adding a ram air chute to the bottom of the rad to improve air flow. That way the protection issue won't be quite so critical. Just make sure the fans can still do their job when you're cruising at 5 MPH.

 

your link to that scoop stumbled me to this which is basically what i was gonna make-
theyre for mx bikes . what do ya think anyone ? good idea/bad idea?
im gonna have an aluminum "v" piece as th front of my belly pan curving up into this mesh panel to help direct airflow up to the rad.

 

The below link is from a company called *** Racing. They make rad covers for a bunch of AMA racing bikes. Thinking about ordering one soon.

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c....category.15/.f

 

thanks cwmc29!
those look simple enough-
i think im gonna make mine out of 5$ worth of stock & a coupla rivets...
i dont think theres enough there for it to cost 70$ and i want mine to wrap around the outside to make a pretty lil box to neaten up my look as well...
but if youre gonna order one for yourself i think you outta pay the extra 10$ for titanium! that cost makes more sense to me as the material for that is expensive enough that it makes the price quite resonable...
ive broken alot of tools tryin to work ti. its gnarly tough stuff and worth every penny.
i had a collarbone and a fist made out of it for my self!

 

I wonder if the weight difference will be worth $65 though. Ti is heavy stuff. If you're thinking that it's worth it for the extra protection that Ti can offer above Aly, by the time some unscheduled high velocity debris has punched through your aly guard you're probably going to need a new bike let alone a radiator. I bet the weight difference will be at least a kilo between the two metals for the same size.
Just my titanium penny's worth of food for thought...

 

im agree- the ti suggestion was regarding the link cwmc29 put up and i think they were steel for 69$ and ti for 79$. thats the suggestion i was making is NOT to get a steel one!
i didnt see where it listed a material for the basic one but it looked steel to me.
either way i think theyre gonna be heavy-
youre right tho - all i really need (if anything) is morw of a flyscreen. not bulletproof.
haha though i was gonna make a kevlar shell for my tank, but i went with a carbon wrap instead. its cheaper than a powdercoat and really flashy (kind of silly really)
thanks for the two sense.

 

Are you running a front fender? If you are I wouldn't be too concerned about your radiator. Without one the rad will be hit by more debris than without

 

I've seen many guys use the same stuff CBRclassic recommended. Its easy to fab up & looks pretty good too. Good luck on whatever you use.