03 K1200RS coolant temp question..

I just bought this bike. It has 71K miles and has been taken care of. I noticed today, that while running around town at speeds varying from 30-45mph, that my coolant temp was up just below the lower red line, then the fan kicked on and brought it down a bit. It seem to hover a bit below the lower first red line.

When I got the bike up to 60 mph it would the drop down to between the middle mark and the first red line. My coolant is clean and clear. The outside temps where I'm at are around 76 degrees today.

Anu thoughts?

Thanks

Normal.

In traffic runs fine, but, thermo shows highish.

As long as fan kicks in, no problem.

Even if it didn't just get rolling and temps drop.

But fan important.

There is some folklore voodoo about thermostat/gages etc and the range of safety that is still built into the level showing because of X or Y reasons.

The rider;s manual or initial schedule on coolant change was 2 years, but, it was upped to 4 years.

Just watch the gage, you'll see the routine, and perhaps slight air temp increase you'll feel.

Don't recall an over heating issue on these bikes as very likely.

Dennis?

Thanks tallman

The thermostat isn't even fully open until the gauge reaches the red zone. On a hot day in heavy traffic I found that upshifting to keep the RPMs lower helps.

I replaced my thermostat after I noticed the gauge never reached the normal operation range on cold mornings. I figured it was no longer able to close completely.

You know about the easily broken fuel line quick disconnects, right?

"....On a hot day in heavy traffic I found that upshifting to keep the RPMs lower helps." per Dennis.

I noticed this yesterday, that the temp gauge is that sensitive to RPM, even on a level road, constant air temp and speed. Not at all what we're used to on a car. I began to wonder about radiator flush and (exterior) fin cleaning. I've used chemical radiator flush in cars and trucks that made big differences in the cooling capacity of the radiators. Is this ever used in K bikes??

I had recently blown the fins on this K1200RS with an air nozzle and was amazed at the amount of detritus that came out of each side. It seemed to be mostly organic, bug parts, leaf parts, and seeds with some road grit. But I could still see more stuff trapped in the tiny passages between the tubes and corrugated (crenelated??) fins that the air jet couldn't dislodge. Maybe a low pressure water jet would help.

Before cleaning with air:

Some of the stuff that came out:

Simple Green works well to dissolve/loosen the bug parts in radiators.

Spray on, let soak, spray from the reverse side.

Yes the K's run just where TM says.

When you do the coolant flush, always replace the radiator cap too.

I took my radiators off once and soaked them in a bucket of hot soapy water.

Yes.

Caution with water pressure or even high air pressure.

or brushes.

All can help, but just go slowly and low pressure, IMO.

No need to remove 'em....I used some bug/tar spray remover from the front..soak 'em down (oil cooler also)...do it again...then a pump sprayer w/ H20 & spray wash from the back side..pump sprayer nozzle can be adjusted from stream to finer spray mist & can't really put out too much pressure