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I have Baker wings on my 1500, they make them for all Goldwings. Work great, look like hell. I was planning on taking them off, but after riding 5000 miles with them in cold and hot weather, will keep them. They help a lot! I'd go for clear ones though, I have read ones that match my bike but that makes them more conspicuous.

http://www.bakerbuilt.com/bbawindex.asp

 

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I like them too, but when it's raining or when a bug hits the windshield with a big splat, I like fairings. Naked bikes are by far easier to work on!

 

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I really like the windshield vent, intending to put one in the next windshield. My current one has a lot of rock pocks and will go when the budget allows. I think the vent would really be a nice addition. With a vent and my Baker Wings I'll probably get blown right off the bike!:goofygrin:

 

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If it stays there and doesn't overheat, sounds okay to me. You will have a rise in temp with increasing ambient temperature. Stop and go and slow riding is something to watch out for in very hot weather, it isn't a design fault so much as there are compromises in designing a bike, the radiator can only be so big and the fan can only draw a limited amount of power.

 

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The cooling effect of evaporation is enhanced with low humidity. That's why swamp coolers work so well on the desert and so poorly in Florida. The only problem is keeping the item wet.

 

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It seems to me that either thermostat should work as long as they fit and the valves don't bind on the castings whenopening and closing. I agree a wetting agent can sometimes help but, I can't go along with Vic on needing a restriction to keep things cool. It's not the time the coolant stays in the radiator that makes the difference, it's the difference between the coolant temperature and the ambient temperature that determines the heat given up to the atmosphere. Delta T. where T is temperature. The fact that the spring in the car thermostat is heavier isn't relevant either, but I'd sure put both of them in a pan of water and see at what temperature they open.

 

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Goldwinger1984 wrote:

Paul, you should reread my post. It's not the length of time the coolant stays in the radiator I speak of,a radiator is built to expel heat rapidlyit's the amount of time it spends collecting heat around the cylinder walls inside the engine.

Sorry, misread it. A friend and I got in aargument building a homebuilt aircraft a few years ago, we had to use two radiators and the arguement centered around whether to run the water through them in parallel or in series. It was easier to plumb them in series but my friend insisted that they would cool better in parallel because the coolant would have more time in the radiator. to settle the argument we tried it both ways. The result was about the same amount of cooling.

 

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GSMacLean wrote:

OK, I got the Baker wings for my 82 GL1100A. It took me about 15 minutes to put them on, and then I found the instructions, so it probably would have taken less. Quite simple.

End result is amazing. We went out on a long ride on a rather hot day yesterday, and the wings blew away all of the engine heat that normally cooks my legs. I am more than pleased with them. The effect is most noticable at 40 mph and above.

So end result: I love them. Well worth the $80. Problem is solved!

I was going to take the Baker wings off my bike when I got the bike, they really are ugly. I got the bike in February and quickly discovered how the wings helped in the cold. Now that summer's here I find them just as good in the heat. So they stay on the bike ugly or not. I guess if the woman who hangs around here can put up with ugly so can I.

 

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dean_3326 wrote:

Kyle wrote:

They wanted $150.00 to ship me two tires to Canada

Kyle

That is highway robbery.:whip:

:12red:

There's something going on when shipping across the US/Canada border these days. I sold some bike parts and shipped them to Vancouver and Victoria which are both less than 150 miles from me and the shipping cost more than twice as much as a part of larger size that I shipped to Chicago, well over a 1000 miles. As for packaging and handling costs, that's a laugh, all of these companies use that to make a little extra profit, every one of them are expecting to ship stuff, a lot of it is already boxed anyway. JCW does go a little too far in that direction for my taste but most of them do it. If they ever start charging sales tax on internet or catalog sales it's really going to slow that kind of business down, right now the sales tax and shipping to Washington is about a wash.

 

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I do find the Baker wings to be well worthwhile even if they are butt ugly!

 

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That's true, there's a lot of hidden expense and time in the boxing and shipping. I've done my best to estimate shipping costs on items I've sold through eBay but more often than not end up eating a bit of the shipping cost. But I sure like eBay, I've found stuff that I would never have been able to get without it. It's like any place, you have to be careful, but it can be rewarding.

 

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My 1200 had the engine covers and I never had a problem with them trapping heat. I admit the highest temps I rode that bike in was in the low 90s but I don't remember feeling the covers themselves getting hot. They might raise the temp of trapped air when idling but I think there's enough air movement while riding that the temp increase would be pretty slight if at all. My bike was a SEI with an oil temp gauge. The oil temp was pretty consistent once the engine warmed up, I didn't see a lot of rise in stop and go traffic. If anyone here has an LTD/SEI with the covers they could check this out pretty easily by riding when the weather is hot both with and without the covers and watch the oil temp gauge to see if there's any real difference. That would tell a lot of the story since the oil is going to the pretty much the same temp as the engine case. Not that the elevated temp its self is a cause of stator failure. The LTD/SEI doesn't have a record of stator failure like the Apencade and Interstate. Given that it's a different stator, it's made much the same way so if heat were the problem I'd expect a similar failure rate.

 

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I don't think so Vic, if you have an oil temp gauge as the LTD/SEI does. The stator is washed withoil that's being circulated throughout the engine sothe stator should be pretty close to the oil temperature. You can't get an exact temp off the digital gauge since it just shows bars, but it would seem that it might be possible to discern a difference with and without the covers. It's not quite analogous to wearing or not wearing a T shirt (depending on the message on the shirt) since there is still quite a bit of air flow between the engine and the covers. You'd feel alright with an air hose up your back under that shirt.

If I wanted the covers, I'd get them. If there's a problem you could always take them back off. If it's just heat on the legs that brought the question up and not the bike's appearance the easiest solution is air wings. The damn ugly things sure help both winter and summer.

 

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Damn, that's a good looking bike! One more thought on the cover deal. It's entirely possible that the covers could make things run cooler. When working on light aircraft I have more than once flown one with the cowling off (prove it FAA). It's pretty common for an aircooled aircraft engine to run cooler with the cowling to direct the airflow than with the whole engine exposed. The same could be possible with the covers. Who knows?

That really is a good looking bike, I used to have on pretty much like that!:cheeky1:

 

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GSMacLean wrote:

I'm surprised you didn't overtemp and destroy the engine flying it without a cowl in place.

After 44 years of flying and working on them one gets the idea it's a good idea to keep an eye on the CHT once in awhile. When it comes to light aircraft of the 40s, 50s and 60s I already know how to suck eggs.