BEAT THE HEAT! How To Keep Your Bike Cool

hey everybody this is scott gustafson with vital mx today we're here to show you how to keep your bike running cool in these late summer months now the first thing that we want to address is your bike's cooling system the main component here are your radiators normally stock radiators work really well and you won't have many issues with them but if you're racing and you're putting your bike under a lot of stress demand you might want to invest in oversized radiators you can get them in the aftermarket there's a few available to you and sometimes also you want to look at your bike's off-road version sometimes the off-road radiator is a little bit larger and you can use the same manufacturer's radiator on your bike now besides the fact that most radiators work well you want to make sure that the condition of your radiator is um in good working order if your bike is old and there's a lot of corrosion inside you can clean the radiator by first draining your old radiator coolant using a solution of white vinegar and distilled water mixed 5050 you'll pour that into the radiator you'll heat the bike up run it through the system and then flush it and you can do that as many times as you need to until your radiator and your cooling system is clean one way to maximize the cooling effect of your radiators is to keep them clean after you've washed your bike you should basically blow out the dirt both front and backwards on your radiator so that you get good air flow through here the and the other thing you're looking for too is you want to make sure that all of these cooling fins are straight if you do get one that's bent a little bit you can actually straighten it with a zip tie plastic works really well so it's just something you can put in there and straighten that out real easy now in these really warm summer months even if you have a motocross bike you might want to borrow some of the things that are used in the off-road world a couple of those things are an aftermarket fan and you might want to look into something like a coolant recovery tank you can see them on the off-road bikes you might even be able to bolt one on from the off-road version of your motocross bike or i believe motion pro sells them and you can just put a little small recovery tank that way when your coolant overflows you're always at least guaranteed that you have full coolant in your radiator now the one thing your radiators are going to need is good coolant most motorcycles are going to use water-based coolant with ethylene glycol or propylene glycol and depending on what bike you have there'll be some type of corrosion inhibitor in there and those are the things that are specific to your bike whether it's a japanese model or a ktm a european model those are the things to look for when you are buying coolant some of the things to remember when putting coolant into your bike you want to make sure you get all of the air out of the lines and a couple different ways to do that you can tip your bike over at say a 30 45 degree angle that usually clears air out of the lines the other thing you can do too is you can grab your hoses and just squeeze them and a lot of times that will force air out of the lines if you're lucky enough and your radiator has a bleed screw that makes it real nice to just be able to pop the bleed and get the air out of the lines when you're filling your coolant you always want to make sure that the level is about 10 millimeters above the fins that way you have some room for expansion finally as far as radiator coolants are concerned there is waterless coolant available and these are real neat products where they have a very very high boiling point and it could be advantageous to you to use some of these products like evans coolant boils that i believe the high 300 degree range so if you are experiencing boil overs and problems like this it may be an option for you to look at one of the key issues to look at in hot weather riding is your radiator cap now most japanese bikes have a radiator cap rated at 1.1 bar so you figure a bar is 14.7 psi so that's about has a blow over pressure of about 16 pounds ktm models are a little bit higher they're 1.8 so you do have it will take more pressure for the radiator to blow over now if you get a bike that let's say you've had repeated problems with overheating you probably want to replace your cap if you're running your engine hard you might want to get a cap that is has a higher rating now you don't want to get it too high because this can put a lot of stress on the engine one of the um key things about uh your coolant boiling over is it's telling you something it's telling you hey it's too hot you gotta stop so you it is to your advantage to get a higher pressure rated cap but it's also to your advantage not to make it too high one key thing to remember about the radiator caps japanese bike caps generally all fit japanese bikes the ktm cap will not fit on a japanese bike it might screw on but it doesn't give a tight fit and it will boil over too easily another key area to look at in hot weather riding are your hoses if your hoses are old it's a good idea to replace them some of the new aftermarket hoses that are silicone based are real nice because they're very heat resistant and they're very abrasion resistant one key thing too is always try to eliminate bends in your hoses to make that coolant flow very freely now most of today's water pumps are really well designed and they do have a good amount of flow and work real well you can increase performance by going to an aftermarket water pump poison makes a supercooler that increases volume increases flow sometimes you can also increase flow on your own merely by looking at how the impeller is pushing the water through the pump here something as simple as adding a washer behind the impeller and moving it out can increase increase flow and you can check that simply by unscrewing the radiator cap on your bike and watching the coolant travel as the bike is running if you've ever noticed you'll see a lot of professional teams using something like this uh it's thermal tape and there are different grades of it and you'll see the teams either wrap the bottoms of the gas tank with this to prevent heat from going into the gas and boiling it or wrapping the radiator hoses themselves to keep engine and exhaust heat off of those areas now engine oil is another way to help your bike come back combat heat issues using a higher weight oil in the summer is a good idea ktms generally use a heavier weight oil than most other brands 10w50 in most cases and they recommend using a 1060 under extreme conditions for the summer so you can see how a heavier weight oil is going to help your engine work a little better the other thing to look at too are is to make sure that your oil is flowing well inside the bike you're going to want to look at your oil screens make sure they're cleaned out and you're going to want to always have a clean oil filter just to make sure you have good oil pressure in your bike now your air fuel ratio in your bike is a good way to keep the engine temperature your bike down on a two-stroke or older four-stroke that has a carburetor you're going to really concentrate on jetting sometimes richard jetting will allow the bike to run cooler on the four strokes that are fuel injected you should be able to tune the bike um using a clip or and whatever engine program you have to make it a little richer so that the bike itself will stay a little bit cooler spark plugs are a good way to help your engine fight the heat now generally a bike with a higher number in eight as opposed to a seven is going to be a colder spark plug and more desirable to run when the engine is running really hot so normally what i would tell people to do is if your bike specifies using a 7 i wouldn't go more than one heat range greater but it is something to keep your bike running a little bit cooler and a little bit better as if you do go to a colder plug okay the final thing i want to touch on today as far as helping your bike in in the heat is the condition of the engine one of the single biggest things i find that cause heat problems in a bike is the clutch itself and so if you have a worn out clutch your bike is going to run that much hotter if you get it into 100 degree weather and you're riding in the mud the sand some extreme conditions like that you're going to have real problems with your bike you'll overheat it you could cause it to seize so checking you know various parts that can the overall work and condition of your bike is good but especially the clutch it's probably the most important thing to look at other than that i hope you found this video helpful if you have any helpful ways to combat the heat during the summer months and keep your bike running let us know in the comments below otherwise if you like these videos let us know and if there's anything out there you'd like to see us cover let us know again once again this is scott gustafson with vital max we'll see you next time you

Channel: Vital MX

Views: 28,989

Rating: 4.9288025 out of 5

Keywords: Vital MX, VitalMX.com, motocross, supercross, dirt bikes, mx, motorcycle, Vital Tech Tip, How To, overheat, boiling, coolant

Id: 84omgBY5EK4

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020