Seat Heat Shield

[effectspedals]

A friend of mine ordered some of this heat shield product for the sides of his Givi paneers. When he mentioned it, I wondered if it would reduce the heat I feel through the stock seat. It's not bad, but when it's 110 in Arizona, you just don't need any MORE warmth. (I'm getting in on the Russell Day Long in the Fall, but until then...)...

Anyway, I applied the shield this evening and have a 400 mile trip planned tomorrow. It's still in the 100s here, so I'll try and report back how it behaves/feels. See pics.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/2/9/187/4166/ITEM/Moose-Racing-Heat-Shield.aspx

 

[TomD]

Interesting, looking forward to the follow up.

Tom

 

[effectspedals]

Post Mortem on heat shield:

This effort was an absolute bust, I'm sorry to say. I did a 426 mile ride with a group to Lake Havasu, Az and back home, Glendale Az. The heat of the day was miserable... 110 and it really never let up.

The seat felt hotter that it has ever been before. I surmised the shield was TRAPPING and creating a heat pocket of some kind. It was awful. If I could have stopped and removed the shield I would have. It's coming off today, I HOPE! I may have to get a hairdryer out to soften the glue.

Bottom line guys: Don't do this! I think it was a decent execution of a bad idea. And a shame, because, I'd like a neutral temperature seat the way my Suzuki Bking treats me.

My ST has proven to be a great bike, providing me adventures in solving minor irritating things. (Heat - shins/butt, abrupt throttle, high speed wobble in dirty air.)

With respect to the high speed wobble... wrong thread, but I'm just chatting now... It was late, and I10 wasn't traffic laden. Some of us were pushing 95 and 100. Usually, when approaching a truck I'd notice the wobble creep in, I'd back off on the throttle and it would chill. I always pour speed on through a truck pass. I don't dilly dally in their dirty air. I've read all the threads on the wobble and some not on this site. It's a little disconcerting. The bike is certainly capable of that speed. Wish I knew where it came from and what the solution is. My bike is a new 2010 with as of yesterday, just over 3000 miles on the odo.

 

[Twempie]

I haven't experienced the wobblies yet. But when my bike was new (2009) I found it a lot more squirmy than previous bikes. The squirm went away when I replaced the tires. FWIW.

 

[two_wheeled]

Bummer. I tried something similar with bubble-wrap foil heat shield from Lowes. It helped a little bit but not as much as I had hoped.
The only thing that made a big difference was removing the inner forward fairing pieces so that forced air could be pushed through the fairing. I put them back on as the fairing seemed to need these pieces to hold it together up front. I might modify them a bit instead.

 

[bdalameda]

The real problem with heat is that the seat acts as an insulator that traps your body heat. I made my own seat pad out of a material called Supracore (honeycomb polyurethane) which is mostly air. I put it under my Sheepskin pad and it is really wonderful. A sheepskin pad alone will help also.

Dan

 

[effectspedals]

Interesting tips... will investigate.

Dan, there's no way the heat I'm feeling is trapped body heat. There's no way I generate that kind of heat. It was a burning heat on the inside of my thighs in contact with the seat, while wearing jeans. It didn't do that before I installed the heat shield material. And the rest of the seat was markedly hotter. Prior to the heat shield, the seat was warm. I didn't need a warm seat in Az. So, I tried the shield as a theory. It just became hot... period... warm was a distant memory, it was now hot.

There's definitely engine heat coming up underneath the rider. I can't see any way around that explanation.