vintagemxr
Old Fahrt
Now that I have your attention...
How hot does it get inside the fairing storage compartments of the ST1300? How hot does your ST get while merely sitting in the sun? Why does the gas tank burn your thighs? These are some of the great questions of the age. Men have pondered it, talked about it, argued about, even as they found valuable electronics be ruined in the storage compartments.
Having access to some heat measurement goodies like thermocouples and a FLIR P40 thermocamera I decided to come up with at least a few answers so we can move on to other, more important topics like "Do sheepskin seat seat covers really work?"
So below are some images of my trusty 2005 ST1300 and a bit of temperature observation data. The wierd looking pictures were made with the FLIR P40 ($40,000 if you want your own). The measurements are not completely conclusive since there are a variety of factors involved in measuring the heat of surfaces (emissivity of each different material, reflected heat, blah, blah, blah) but are close enough for our humble purposes here on ST-Owners.com.
Note: I did all this "quick and dirty" by any normal test standards. The equipment was borrowed from work and frankly, no one was paying me so I wasn't going to get too carried away.
The test plan was this:
Add two Type K thermocouples to the right fairing compartment of my ST. One would measure air temp in the compartment and one would be affixed to the floor of the compartment.
The bike would sit in the sun all day facing north. This is the least damaging position for the bike. Facing south or west would be the normal test position but it's my bike and dash banding really happens. Normally the bike would be covered too but I made the big sacrifice for you guys.
At the end of the day I went out and connected the temp. measurement unit (Fluke 52 K/J digital thermometer for the geeks) to the T/C's and read the temps.
Test conditions:
Ambient = 106?F
RH = 25% (humid for AZ)
In the compartment:
Air temp = 116?F
Floor temp = 120?F
Not too surprising. Cars can get to 175? air temp inside under the right conditions.
So I attach the Fluke with highly scientific black tape to the storage compartment cover and start the bike.
…I head for the gate…guess what…the temperature drops slightly. Must be some airflow in and around the compartment. Interesting.
The road home is mostly country 2 lane. Speeds vary from 45 to 50 posted. As this was all for science I rode a bit faster, about 60 - 65 mph. Only three stop signs and one stop light for the 17 miles home.
Cruising at 60 - 65 the temps in the storage box start to climb slightly and max out at about 125?F on the floor. Air temp is slightly less.
Here's where it gets more interesting….
As I get into town and drop to 45 mph the bike is now properly warmed up and with the lower speeds the compartment temps start to climb. After two stops signs we're at 130? inside the compartment. Roll through my little neighborhood at 25 mph and we're at 140?. I park the bike in the driveway and let it idle. The radiator cooling fan kicks on and off and the temp inside the box starts to climb. After about 3 minutes the floor temp in the box is about 73.3?C…oops…163.9?F. Is your cell phone dead yet? Your PDA gasping it's last? Maybe. I was certainly hot standing there in the sun and having done enough for science and ST owners everywhere that day, I shut off the bike. The temp inside the box climbed to 162? and then after a couple of minutes begin to slide back as the engine cooled.
I rolled the bike in the garage and the Mrs. came out so see what I was up to. Happily, she brought some cold water with her. My next immediate project was to clean tape glue gook off the fairing. The heat had made a mess of the tape hold the instrumentation in place. Yuk.
So how hot COULD it get in the storage compartments? Can't say for sure and I'm not devoted enough to do a whole test regimen on the bike but I'd guess that stuck in traffic on a hot day the temp might climb to 180?, maybe a little more.
No doubt Honda has done all this themselves but they will never tell us the facts. Given that the inside of a parked car can reach 175?F air temp and surface temps on dashboards can reach 240? I suppose the temp inside the fairing storage compartments isn't all that out of line. But I still wouldn't put anything in there that was electronic. That sort of continuous heating can't be real good for consumer electronic components, at least not ones that I own.
Attached are more thermocamera images of the ST. Keep in mind that these are not photographs, these are measurements of heat coming off the bike (and surroundings). The FLIR measures 75,000 data points at once and then translates that into pretty pictures for our eyes. Color equals temperature. Think thermally, not photographically. Note also the temperature scale on the side of the image. Dark colors mean a cooler temp but it's cool relative to the scale, not your refrigerator. In these images, cool = about 110?. Also, really shiny metal stuff like mufflers, control levers, etc. reflect the heat around them so the camera is seeing mostly the reflection, not the temp of the part. It gets complicated sometimes so that's why the temps you see in these images should not by any means be considered exact but they do match pretty well with more rigorous measurements I've done on lesser vehicles like cars. The camera accuracy is +-2% >30?C so there's that to consider too.
Anyway, my next plan is to do some shots of the ST cold and then warming up and then maybe rolling down the road. We can see once and for all how much heat is coming off the bike and baking the rider or not baking him if he's a tough guy. ;-)
Some additional images attached for your interest and edification.
Enjoy.
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