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Indications of R1200 engine overheating?

ExGMan

Active member
I was coming back from a trip to the South last week, and after passing over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in NYC, was headed for Remsenburg, LI via the Belt Parkway. I found myself immersed in heavy traffic due to road work (they were painting tar snakes onto the roadway surface), and moving along about five feet at a time in ambient temperature of 65F. Of course, my non-RT-P engine started to heat up, and once it got to about the 3/4 level on the gauge, I moved off the road (lucky there was a place to do this), to let it cool.

Ultimately this backup lasted about 1/2 hour, and I stopped two more times to let the engine cool. I just figured that having the heat bar 3/4 high was enough. Does anyone have some experience with this?

Candidly, I was happy to be sitting in the breakdown lane, watching everyone else in traffic, but wonder at what point the engine gets too much heat.

John Gamel
 
My , new,07 RT got it's baptism of fire on the first ride home from the dealer. 118 F and stop-n-go on the 101 for a bit over 8 miles and it never showed any indication of over heating other than the gauge .
No knocking or rough idling , nary a thing.

Other than the gauge's reading did you notice any other indicators ?
 
I was coming back from a trip to the South last week, and after passing over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in NYC, was headed for Remsenburg, LI via the Belt Parkway. I found myself immersed in heavy traffic due to road work (they were painting tar snakes onto the roadway surface), and moving along about five feet at a time in ambient temperature of 65F. Of course, my non-RT-P engine started to heat up, and once it got to about the 3/4 level on the gauge, I moved off the road (lucky there was a place to do this), to let it cool.

Ultimately this backup lasted about 1/2 hour, and I stopped two more times to let the engine cool. I just figured that having the heat bar 3/4 high was enough. Does anyone have some experience with this?

Candidly, I was happy to be sitting in the breakdown lane, watching everyone else in traffic, but wonder at what point the engine gets too much heat.

John Gamel

Similar experience - not happy.

Went out and had my dealer install BMW aftermarket fan to cool the oil cooler - now no worries.

It can (and will!) be debated until the cows come home as to how hot your engine / oil can get before there may be damage, but no one can gaurentee no damage will occur - it's all about personal peace of mind.

If it bothers you, then do something proactive about it, and keep on riding! :german
 
Other than the gauge's reading did you notice any other indicators ?[/QUOTE said:
I didn't notice anything different. The engine kept on idling in a regular fashion and pulled strongly when I eased out the clutch.
 
This is a case where the high temperature capabilities of a good synthetic oil are really valuable.. most synthetics won't start breaking down until the oil temps exceed 300F.. I believe the BMW synthetic is around 360F something (from my last Brookstone analysis.)
 
This is a case where the high temperature capabilities of a good synthetic oil are really valuable.. most synthetics won't start breaking down until the oil temps exceed 300F.. I believe the BMW synthetic is around 360F something (from my last Brookstone analysis.)

+1 ! :german
 
Not to turn this into lane splitting, but that was the original intention of that law: to allow air cooled bikes to travel through traffic and keep the engine cooled. It was not to allow motorcycles to split lanes in traffic already moving 30 mph! In this sense, I support the original intent of lane splitting and wish laws would be well written to allow it in situations like these only.

Also, the way you described that traffic, could you not have just shut the bike off and duck paddled the 5 feet now and then? I've done this, and I've also ridden the shoulder to the next exit. The engine does cool quickly when you get moving a bit.

I rarely hit traffic like this but the cooling fan does sound like a decent option for those that do, but if I had to deal with it a lot, I'd be riding a liquid cooled machine.
 
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