Don't do those burnouts anymore... lol .... I'd check to see if the tires might be rubbing anything or check for wires or battery cables if extra hot to touch could be insulation getting on the wire.

 

How is the tire pressure? Low tires get really hot.

 

Have you checked the inside of your boots?

I had that problem, until I realized the cause.

 

All of the above plus check all along the exhaust to see whether you have picked up a bit of stuff that melted to it.

 

Griz, I get the same thing on my 2007. Not hot enough to make me think anything is actually burning or melting...just smells like warm rubber. Is definately not the tires. I've always considered it to be a hose routed near the engine but of course have never found anything touching or melting. I figure it'll either be no problem or it'll cause a failure which will then make it easy to find. Make you a deal....if I find it first, I'll mention it here...same for you?

 

Is the back wheel spinning freely when you have the Wing on the main stand? Any signs of binding brakes?

 

I've detected the odor of hot rubber on my '80 Standard, '86SEI, '93 1500 and my '01 1800. Seems to be the nature of the beast, I never found a burnt wire or hose and never had any damage caused by rubbing on the tires. Don't know what caused the occasional whiff of hot rubber but it occured more during summer than winter and that's about all I could ever determine about it.

 

Check the shift lever boot... They tend to fold in and lay against the exhaust system... Had a similar issue with my 09... I tend to smell this more when the toe warmers are open - haven't figured that one out yet though...

Les

 

On some of the earlier GL1800's there was a few that had the driveshaft boot that came lose and that made a rubber smelling issue.
The other smell I get from time to time is a sulfur like smell. This is from the formulated gas r the boutique gas we have here in Kaliphornia. One tank full may smell up a storm and the next few... nothing.


Corventure Dave

 

I also have an '06 that is ready for it's 24K service. On a few occasions in the last 1000 miles or so, I have noticed a hot coolant smell at the rear tire area. It's an odd smell, but I'm familiar w/ it and know that's what it is. It's my heads-up to go ahead and pull the gas tank when I'm doing the service to tighten the clamps on the coolant hoses that are located underneath the tank. I thinking it's 6 clamps total, but I won't know for sure till I check. Hope this helps.

 

The problem clamps are (2) three way plastic yokes, notorious for weeping coolant. The other thing I've seen is the hose that goes to the top of the coolant reservoir become dislodged.

 

Thanks to all of you who gave me suggestions on dealing with the intermittent burned rubber smell on my 2006 GL 1800. I was following up on those and I may have come across another potential cause. There are two rubber hoses that are routed down from the coolant reservoir that come out under the bike right behind the left foot peg and both can contact multiple hot surfaces. There is a retainer clip to keep them away from the exhaust pipe and I ended up using a zip tie to secure them to that retainer, we’ll see.

 

Burning smell

There were a few postings a while back on the GL1800riders site about a hose routed to close to the exhaust on the right hand side. Do a search on that site, you may find your problem.