Heat shielding, general conversation

Hello all. I wish to insulate underneath the side covers and fuel tank of my 1996 k1100rs to help absorb some of the heat this bike puts off. I'm tossing ideas back and fourth as to what I would like to use for insulation. I believe the most effective would be "reflective" type insulation (the shiny stick on stuff). My concern is due to the reflective property of this product, it would cause the motor to overheat in the south Georgia climate. I'd love to hear any ideas for or against this type of product or an alternative.

bwoods1100 said:

Hello all. I wish to insulate underneath the side covers and fuel tank of my 1996 k1100rs to help absorb some of the heat this bike puts off. I'm tossing ideas back and fourth as to what I would like to use for insulation. I believe the most effective would be "reflective" type insulation (the shiny stick on stuff). My concern is due to the reflective property of this product, it would cause the motor to overheat in the south Georgia climate. I'd love to hear any ideas for or against this type of product or an alternative.

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Try it and see what happens. I don't think your bike will overheat unless you restrict airflow into or out of the rad. Just my opinion.

Use your Google-fu to look up a "Johnny blanket" - they have been successful on many bikes to reduce heat. The K75/K100's (and I'm sure your 1100) actually came with foam insulation underneath the tank, but this takes it much farther. My father's K75RT has a the blanket, the plastic panels that cover the engine openings and reflective tape on the side covers. A simple battery-operated industrial (one that reads higher than 110 degrees) temperature gauge with remote temp sender mounted on the bike before/after your mod should quell your fears.

Heat from K1100RS

FIRST OF ALL, LET ME SAY GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED. The 1100RS is the most abusively hot bike I ever owned and I got rid of it within 7 months of buying it. Those K bikes were so hot that one of the highest ranking officers of the Flying Brick club wrote an article saying that after years of trying to get the heat level down to a reasonable level, he finally sold his and bought another brand. Do yourself a favor and get rid of the damn thing unless you use it for an October to April bike and ride something else during the warmer months. How this bike EVER passed muster to be released in the north american market is a tribute to German Engineering Arrogance (IE: There is nothing wrong with the bike, it's the rider's fault. I have had both Airhead, Oilhead and Hexhead Boxers and NEVER had a heat problem. The problem is in the design and the design sucks. I know this is not what you had hoped to hear but believe me, when it comes to the heat management system of the K1100RS, as an old German I used to work for was given to say "Ya can't shine ****"

One of the engineers I used to work with added a little transmission cooler, or power steering cooler (?), to the fuel return line, from the rail back to the tank. It helped.

The problem is fixable. It is unfortunate that you have to do some of the engineering that BMW neglected, but I would not pass off on the bike just for that. A Johnny blanket and fuel cooler are sufficient to bring the heat to tolerable levels. Both are important. Make sure that the factory materials under the tank that direct the air from the radiator out the side vents in the fairing are complete and in place. Most of these are no longer available form BMW, but can be hand-fabricated from available materials. If you want further improvements, you can add a manual fan switch or change to a programmable fan controller to get the fan going sooner when stopped in traffic. I used some heat reflecting materials from this company under the tank and seat, and also wrapped the part of the exhaust system (header pipes) that were under the fairing. Lastly I replaced the exhaust system with a non-catalyst Remus exhaust system (header wrapped also).

https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/moto

Great responses, thank you all.

Also does the thermostat that enguages the cooling fan need to be BMW oem or will universal ones work ? If so, what is the technical term for this part