I'm about to start riding my ST again after I cancelled the insurance for close to a couple of months, I'm particularly interested in this post, seems like a variety of different experiences with heat on basically the same motorcycle. I've got zero experience with anything over 25C / 77F with this bike and during this current record heat on the lower mainland I'd rather just sit it out, cooler weather is coming... isn't it?
What comes to mind overall is something I heard about I think it was Ford [and I like Ford] with one of their instruments, it was biased in some way, such that provided the measured variable fell within some acceptable range, it would display a constant needle position that had been selected by their psychology department deemed least likely to provoke inquiry by the owners.
Either BS - Ford would never do that, so Honda would never watch what happens to Ford for doing it, then copy it, or I've just got to cancel my subscription to The National Enquirer and Alien Weekly.
There's obviously a lot of variables concerning how hot a person is gonna get, you've got heat conducting, radiating and hot air with different humidity values impinging against you and so on.
It seems that more or less under just about all accounts I've heard so far, a well running 13 will achieve three bars and maintain that display until the tires melt.
I mean, there's gotta be some real variation in cooling system heat transfer going on between all these bikes; I mean doesn't anyone with a somewhat neglected cooling system and dirty radiator ever get to four bars?
I think by now I saw a 13 thermostat and aside from a min flow orifice [I think.. maybe? ... different thermostat?] it's a conventional type that will modulate through it's gradient through likely a narrow temperature range, so at extreme temperatures one of two things are happening; the thermostat is modulating close to wide open but remains within the gradient, or it reaches the full extent of travel. If it achieves wide open there's no more regulation so now coolant temperature becomes a function of how much heat your rad dumps and how much your aluminum alloy assembly can otherwise ditch.
I guess it's possible that the cooling system is that robust that yeah, between the pump and the stat it's always in control - built for death valley [or is that Lyton now?].
I'm wondering if anyone has actually monitored the temperature close to the thermostat under severe conditions and can actually verify a correlation between temperature leaving and three bars, or if the fourth bar doesn't come on until some - too late, sucks to be you - temperature.