Need advice about riding slow in high heat

[Stormrider51]

I think Ugo was making a joke. I liked his remark about "cowboys, redskins, and rattlesnakes". I live in boots and jeans but Texas is getting to be less Texan every day, especially in the Austin area. Half the country seems to be moving to Texas. I knew we were in trouble when there started to be soccer and hockey teams here.

John

 

[ugocon]

I think Ugo was making a joke. I liked his remark about "cowboys, redskins, and rattlesnakes". I live in boots and jeans but Texas is getting to be less Texan every day, especially in the Austin area. Half the country seems to be moving to Texas. I knew we were in trouble when there started to be soccer and hockey teams here.

John

Yes John, I was joking...

But I'm serious when I say that an Harley (air cooled) is not the "optimum" bike to ride at a very slow speed in hot temperature or, even worse, stopped at idle in 104° (40 °C)

The threshold before getting a damage is obviously lowered: it could not happen... but the probability is much higher!

I love the Harley's, of course, but I think they're made for the original spirit that created them: to ride (not to stop... :s)

BTW this morning I had a fantastic ride north of Rome: I re-discovered some beautiful roads I rode long time ago.
I never stopped!
:s

Ciao
Ugo

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Nice country ride in Italy, my daughter has dreams of visiting there some day...! Just saw bicycle race there on the TV and can only imagine the joy riding there...

 

[walleye]

Yes John, I was joking...

BTW this morning I had a fantastic ride north of Rome: I re-discovered some beautiful roads I rode long time ago.
I never stopped!
:s
Ciao
Ugo

I wish I was there riding with you. Unfortunately, I have never had the chance to get over there. Ride safe.:s

 

[tteazis]

The Engine Idle Temperature Management System is disabled by the factory as a default. You need to enable it. It is really easy and it is explained in the user manual.

I believe it is like this:
Turn Ignition ON and switch to RUN.
Rotate throttle forward and hold for 3-5 secs. You will notice that the Cruise icon on the tach (or speedometer) will flash green (ETIMS is enabled) or red (ETIMS is disabled).
Repeat above to toggle setting.

I enabled it on mine. When ETIMS is happening, the engine feels like it is a single cylinder.

Theo.

 

[hoggy25]

Seems to me I (my body) overheat before my bike does. I start looking for a way out when that happens.

If I unplug one cyclinder on my evo it won't run at all. Makes me wonder how the new bikes with EITMS do?

 

[sgtcowboyusmc]

I would if there were any backroads between downtown and home. The choice is between streets with stoplights every couple of blocks or the freeway. Backroads are for weekends.

John

If you can keep moving, even on a surface street you can keep the heat down better than stop and go on the freeway. It's worked for me in Southern California, Phoenix AZ and Odessa Texas, I am sure it would work in Austin.

Cowboy

 

[glyd-n]

The recent improvements in engineering that HD has made with "Engine Idle Temperature Management System" (ETIMS it is also called) should help on your 2009 but some might debate how good it might be. In theory it should help. In reality who knows. As far as more info on ETIMS, you can do a forum search as a good deal of information has been written about it here on HD Talking.

I live in the Phoenix, AZ area so we can get pretty hot as well. I ride to work as well, all year round. I don't have a car that I can call my own. I could own a car but I choose not to waste my money on a vechicle that would sit around not being used.

My bikes over the years have never had oil coolers on them. I am faced with a bit of slow moving traffic but not to the extent that I read you have everyday. You mention "then about 4 miles on a freeway at about 5 mph or less". If that were me, I might do a bit of revving the engine when sitting in that slow of traffic so that the oil pressure were maintained (higher than idle pressure) to allow the oil to cool the engine. Revving would help but moving faster than 5 mph would also and that is your problem. Problem with revving is the cagers think you are trying to be cool by making noise and that is not the case in prolonged stop and go traffic.

The other problem with revving is it will cancel the ETIMS.


I LIVE IN THE HOUSTON AREA AND YEAH SOMEBODY TURNED THE HEATER ON. WHEN I'M IN THE TRAFFIC I HAVE THE ETIMS ON BUT I'M NOT SURE IF IT WORKS. HAS ANY ONE EXPERIENCED THE SYSTEM ACTUALLY WORKING.

 

[airbusdriver]

My mechanic said no way no how will you cook the motor. Although the pressure indicates low at idle there is actually more oil flowing around the motor. Pressure is caused by back pressure ? Plus, you can activate the EITMS to shut off the rear cylinder at idle as well

 

[GreyGhost]

I don't know that I am a big fan of the EITMS after riding to San Diego this weekend! For those of you that know I-8, there is a Border Patrol checkpoint about 20 mile east of Alpine on an uphill slope. Sitting there in 100 degree temps the EITMS kicked in and we had to keep reving the bike to keep the rear cylinder kicked in, remember this is uphill, stop and go, and was a real pain to keep the two '09's that were on the ride from stalling out. On the return trip Sunday, we hit the CP outside of Dateland, the EITMS worked fine here since we were on flat land, the air temp gauge actually pegged out above 120! Oherwise I love the SG and it was a great trip.