Transmission Heat
98valk:
Quote from: Peteg on July 23, 2025, 02:36:15 PM
Thanks Timbo! Full of ingenuity is a nice way to describe me. My wife just says I’m crazy. I don’t think I have the fortitude to ride a big air cooled bike when Texas puts out a heat advisory.
I’m with you on the wings. It really helps to throw lots of air into the mix. I had to combine them with knocking down the header heat which is worse than when you had the bike. I wrapped the 6x6 baffles with muffler packing. I’m sure there’s more back pressure especially at high speed / load. The pipes are bluing where they exit the heads. The muffler packing allows me to ride all day with good ear plugs without degrading my hearing, but the headers were cooking my feet. Now that I have the headers insulated, the wings provide really good cooling. The issue for me with wings is I need distance between me and the heat source to allow the wings to dilute the heat before it cooks me. With my feet about ½” away from those blue headers the wings couldn’t do too much. I think my issue with the right side tranny and final drive is similar to the headers only much less uncomfortable. Again at high load the block heats up probably well over 200 degrees which the wings just blow away, but then the tranny case starts soaking up heat following the block and I have this hot mass about ½” from my leg. I wear quick dry pants so the heat becomes uncomfortable. I’m so close to the heat source the wings can’t dilute the heat away. I’m sure I’ll work it out with a little insulation. I have 3 water cooled bikes. The Valk is my favorite ride but before I added wings and header heat shielding it was by far the hottest. Now it’s about the same as my VTX which is also hotter on the right side as that’s where the mufflers are. My Triumph is the coolest, it’s probably at least as cool as the Valk and VTX’s left sides on both sides. My goal is to get the Valk as comfortable on a heat advisory day as the Triumph. The Valk is also the bike I would ride down the highway on a trip, so living in Texas the cooler the better.
Don’t get heat stoke riding that Ultra Classic!
"I wear quick dry pants so the heat becomes uncomfortable."
wrong pants wrong material. most likely high % of polyester which holds heat body. Cotton esp when wet removes heat from the body. the thick canvas pants insulate the legs from the heat.
CoreyP:
Here is SC the radiator fan blowing on me at stops is the worse heat offender. I have the trans covers and I doubt they do much of anything heat wise. I 'm usually fine until I end up at a long light or two, I can hear the fan kick on, here comes the heat.
BTW where I am in Bluffton, SC we've been pushing 92 degrees and 70-80% humidity for weeks now. The heat showed up early this year and is unrelenting.
I've found my Alaskan sheep skin seat cover to be nice during hot and cold weather. https://www.alaskaleather.com
Idea is the seat cover makes an air gap.
Peteg:
Corey thanks for the input. My bike doesn't have the radiator air dam so if my fan comes on while sitting it pushes straight back. Fortunately mine almost never comes on just sitting at a light. It pretty much only kicks on if I've been running in the 60 - 75 high power range, then stop at a light. My VTX on the other hand does about 10 mpg better than the Valk, but it's idle is pretty inefficient compared to the Valk. The VTX fan kicks on as soon as I stop.
I'm with you on the cool seat cushion that allows air circulation. We have 3 bikes and 6 air hawks. I have a really short inseam, so I cut foam out of my seats and use the air cushion to provide comfort with minimal seat height. Hot vinyl makes a really nasty seat.
I have a cooler for each bike and put ice cubes in a frog tog and wrap it with the cubes at the back of my neck. It last about 30 minutes. Picked that up from other VRCC members!
Jess from VA:
If I get stuck at long lights in high heat/full sun, I switch the bike off until I get green.
My bikes always fire up instantly.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page