Fan cooling GS500f

[scottpA_GS]

mount a fan to the front of the engine/radiator.

If you can find a radiator to strap it to... Do it

[jp]

Anyone else know how to use and apply Ohms law??  Power = Voltage x Current

The figures are 2A total at 12v......that means the fans will draw 24w from the system, thats less than one half the power of the headlamp bulb.....and slightly more than 1 indicator bulb.

If you left it ticking over you would probably run out of gas way before the battery died 

I thought Ohms law was V=IR. The stock Yuasa battery is only rated at 11 amp-hrs, which isn't a helluva lot of reserve. If you're spending a lot of commuting time at slow speeds in hot weather, you could easily find yourself without enough reserve to withstand half an hour with those 24w added to the draw of the headlight and the rest of the electrical system. Until I get a motorcycle with an automotive type alternator putting out enough current at idle to run the engine indefinitely, I choose to be cautious when adding any extra electrical load to the bike.

For most people, adding any fan will be overkill, but if you do the type of riding that would make this mod worth doing, it would be worth the additional effort to add a voltmeter to monitor the state of the battery.

[sledge]

I thought Ohms law was V=IR.

There are 12 calculations based on Ohms law that will allow you to determine Voltage, Power, restance or current in a DC circuit....... V=IR is just one of them.

The OP is proposing to use 1 fan, thats takes us down to less than 10W, thats about the same amount of power as the neutral, indicator and high-beam pilots lights take when they are all on together............I cant see what you are worried about.

[vorBH]

Hmmm well, when I am on the road in stop and go traffic.....engine heats up like crazy....and conveniently Suzuki didnt put any temp gauge (thanks Suzuki) so we don't know the temperature range....but all I know is that it heats up at night riding downtown....and even more in the daytime....we hit max 35-38 degrees celsius, and even more with humidity factor etc....this is not Alaska

[fred]

Hmmm well, when I am on the road in stop and go traffic.....engine heats up like crazy....and conveniently Suzuki didnt put any temp gauge (thanks Suzuki) so we don't know the temperature range....but all I know is that it heats up at night riding downtown....and even more in the daytime....we hit max 35-38 degrees celsius, and even more with humidity factor etc....this is not Alaska

I ride around all summer in 46 degrees celsius and hotter in some of the worst traffic in the US and I've never had a problem. The bike does get hot, but head temperatures in the 176 to 204 degrees celsius range are widely reported and not a problem. You will know when the bike is too hot because you won't be able to get anywhere near the engine and you'll have to have been doing something like sitting in traffic forever. When that happens, just shut it off for a bit to let it cool down or get moving to get some air over the engine. The GS doesn't need a temperature gauge, there is no coolant to boil and the engine is built to go to really high temperatures and do fine. On an air cooled bike, a temperature gauge would just bounce all over the place anyways since the engine is constantly heating up a bit when load increases or airflow decreases then cooling off when the opposite happens. A water cooled bike uses the thermostat not only to shed heat, but also to keep the engine temperature much more constant, which is why water cooled engines can hold much tighter tolerances.

[jp]

An oil temperature gauge would be nice, and won't fluctuate that much. I suspect the original poster would find that the high temps aren't really much of an issue for him. I really miss not having an oil temp gauge on an air cooled bike. The only thing I ever had to do to address overheating on my 1100 was to change the oil a little sooner because it got overheated.

[galahs]

Fitting a couple of CPU cooler fans on the rear of the F models oil cooler could be a good idea.  (I'm sure they are 12 volts)

Just fit a switch that lets you turn them on and off.

[ohgood]

Yea but....really....it probably takes like 1hr at minimum to fully drain the battery...no? even with that situation described above with highbeam and an 'extra light'

i only quoted you to get your attention.....

shouldn't the AIG jerseys have a price tag of $300 billion dollars ?

nice site you've got there

sorry for the thread jack

[bill14224]

I'm surprised everyone ignored the one thing you posted that really needs addressing.  Someone told you it's bad to shut the engine off in a hot traffic jam?

Uh, not it's not.

When you shut-off the engine, the temperature begins falling and you stop wasting gas! 

Then again, what would cause someone to worry about overheating an air-cooled engine in Toronto?  It's now April 3, and it's cool and raining.  I'm in Buffalo, which is the same climate you have, and both of our hockey teams suck.  It almost never gets above 30C in Toronto.  You are obsessing over nothing.

Public education is in the toilet!  do-nothing public schools 

Look at your bike.  See the cooling fins.  See that there is no radiator.  Know the bike is sold all over the world for 20 years, and the Japanese have been selling bikes with similarly designed engines for 50 years.  Know the bike has no reputation for overheating problems.

Suzuki engineers are smart people.  Your bike doesn't have a temperature gauge because it doesn't need one.  Why do cruisers lack tachometers?  Same reason, don't need one!  Now just enjoy riding it and forget about fans your engine doesn't need.  If your bike needed a fan on the oil cooler Suzuki would have put one there.

[sledge]

Can anyone honestly say they have experienced overheating with an air-cooled bike? It happens but when it does its pretty obvious, symptoms include, rough and/or reduced throttle response, rough tickover and a general lack of power. The first thing the excess heat effects is the fuel-air mixture in the inlet tract and the way it burns as it passes the inlet valve. You will know about it way before any damage occurs and get the chance to do something about it  i.e.....turn the engine off and let it cool.

[joshr08]

other then the vrod  harleys have been around for ever and theres no fans on them.  gs500 has been around since 89 and suzuki doesnt think it needs a fan and im sure they test in higher temps then youll ever see and they didnt see fit to put a fan on the bike so i wouldnt block off the free flowing air while driving with a fan.  if your sitting it traffic that bad thats not moving turn the bike off until your moving again if your only moving a car and then sitting for a while again push the bike until you can see traffics going to get going again.  just my .02

[cosmiccharlie]

Why is this thread still going? 

GS500 designed to be aircooled = no fan needed.  /thread

[5thAve]

<cont thread>

But if he HAD fans, it would not matter if they drained the battery ... 'cause they could windmill in the airstream when he starts moving again, and act as mini generators to put 'lectricity back into the system!

Genius! I'm  a genius!  I should patent this.

</cont thread>

[tripleb]

Suzuki engineers are smart people.

except for the one that designed the stock airbox...

[mach1]

and the rear shock, the gas tank, the front end, and the fairings.

[Critter]

I've looked putting fans on mine and decided its not worth it.  I even went so far as to buy a couple of fans to test fit to the oil cooler, but found that the fans and the accompaning brackets would block airflow while moving forward and might even interfere with steering as the oil cooler is very close to the to the fork.  Besides I don't think that little oil cooler they put on the bike does much anyway.  If you are really serious about better cooling I would look into fitting a larger oil cooler on the bike.

[fred]

Suzuki engineers are smart people.

except for the one that designed the stock airbox...

and the rear shock, the gas tank, the front end, and the fairings.

I don't agree. All that stuff does work just fine. Just because you're not happy with the performance you get out of it doesn't mean it was designed poorly. They designed parts that did what they wanted them to do at a price you wanted to pay, which was quite low. They did have to make compromises in design because budget wasn't infinite, but the GS is famous for being a reliable bike that's easy to work on and people have been buying them for 20 years. Name some other bike with a suspension design that's been around for 20 years that is better...

[sledge]

I will back that comment up. The parts mentioned are not generally service items and are "fit and forget." If the design Engineers had to work around the requirement that every bolt head should be easily accessable and every part should be easily removable there would be some ugly and poorly performing bikes out there.

[jp]

The airbox is a bit of a bear to deal with, but not much worse than lots of other bikes. The shocks and front end were designed to a price-point, and not that hard to upgrade. But I would like to b!tch-slap the engineer who decided to have the turn-off valve for the tank petcock line up exactly with the drain tube from the gas cap area, instead of moving ONE of them a quarter effing inch forward or back.

[cosmiccharlie]

Y'all are still talking about this?