2021-01-13 Gary - North County Ride, KZ1300

All in all, a nice ride today.. Beautiful weather, even though we need rain.. badly. Today's temps were predicted in low 70's, the highest I've ridden while trying to determine overheating KZ1300 issues.. 

Neighbor Gary was nice enough to accompany me in case a ride to cell phone reception was needed for the dreaded AAA tow truck call.. He rides a very trick DR650 Suzuki, so speeds would be lower than normal, but OK... as I wanted to see how overheating responded with newly flushed cooling system and Evans waterless coolant..

Interesting.. As the temps rose from high 50'sF to high 60'sF, the coolant temp DROPPED by 2, maybe 3, needle widths.. from the 'P' of TemP, to the E of TEmp.. Could it be I've been running in lower ambient temps that keep the thermostat bypass slightly? Then when ambient F rises, the t-stat fully closes bypass and allows for full cooling?

Don't know.. but in 2 days 80F + temps are predicted, so will run it again and test.

Oil consumption is an issue. Call it ~150 miles today, and 300cc consumed. Gary, my riding partner today, report blue smoke on deceleration.. and today processed a healthy dose of Yamaha RingFree to see if it would help. Consumption seems to be a bit less than previously on the 'Flog' ride..

On the bright side, even in low 70F ambient temps, running slow in traffic, she never overheated.. got to the top of 'normal operating zone'... but no needle past the far right side of 'hot' zone.. as has previously happened.

On the good side.. running strong, about 36 mpg.

Pulled plugs 1,2, 5,6, the 'easy' ones to remove.. 1,2.... these are the oil consumers.. 5,6 look text book great.. 1,2... low side on kickstand.. coincidence? 

Anyway, a short video...

2021-01-13 Gary Ride - N County from dcarver220b on Vimeo.