Just wondering - first thing I noticed on my 05 Ultra as compared to my last bike (Metric - Yamaha Road Star) was that the Harley seemed much hotter. In reading this forum, noticed a lot of interest in heat from the TC88. Just wondering what's the difference? My Metric was a larger cc engine and also air cooled. Are the metric mfg's doing something better than the moto company? I've also read that Harley's are generally setup to run lean to meet the EPA regs - I would assume the Metric folks must do the same - so why the difference?

Thanks,

 

just because a motor is air cooled and needs to be leaned does nto mean that all motors need to be leaned out to pass emissions. Their are other things that come into play. One major one would be engine design. It oculd just be that the HD design runs a little hotter.

Unless you have overheated you really do not know if you will have a problem. I have only seen my bike really hot one time. That was in stopped trafiic in Daytona for bike week.

 

I had no idea there were still metric air-cooled motors.

What did you ride?

 

"still" ??? When was there ever??

 

Actually, Yamaha has always had air-cooled bikes in their line. The V-stars and Road-Stars are all air cooled. And the entire XJ line, from the early 80's to present are air-cooled.

And on the point, I don't notice my Springer classic being any hotter than the V-star I had previously. The V-star might possibly have been hotter.

 

305,350,450,750 hondas
900 z-1's kz 1000 kawasakis
etc etc etc...

 

The answer is simple. It's the just the superior "Harley-Davidson mechanical feedback" at work. Your right leg becomes your temp gauge. TRY that on a metric!

 

It may be because the TC-88 engine had something like a 50% increase in cooling fin area. This, of course, would allow more heat to be transferred to the air which is what you are probably feeling. Another thing I occasionally see is where someone is concerned about the oil temperatures being higher on a twin cam versus evo. This is a result of the TC design using oil to help cool the pistons-more heat is being transferred to the oil, the engine is not necessarily running hotter.