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If a person could put an oil cooler on their bike or fans for the cylinders (like love jugs), which is better? IIRC, an oil cooler with a fan lowers the oil temp by about 20 degrees. The fans for the cylinders cool the cylinders and heads but I don't recall if they lower oil temperature.
I run an ultracool oil cooler on my 124 twin cam. Does the job really well. I was going to get fans but I don't need them. Cooler is between the down tubes, has two fans and a thermostat. It actives at 210 degrees oil temp.
I have wards fans on my twin cam and replaced my air temp gage with an oil temp gage. The sensor for the gage is at the bottom of the pan so we can debate if it is an accurate read or not.
That said, my oil temps run around 200F and seldom get over 220F unless in long stretches of stop and go traffic or really hard mountain riding. On a hot day I will see a spike in temps after getting off the interstate while sitting at a light on the ramp but the fans keep the temps from spiking.
A big difference is as soon as I start moving the temps drop quickly. Before the fans, it would take a long time for the temps to drop.
A fan assisted oil cooler should give similar results. Anything to get the heat away from the oil.
air movement across the engine always helps cool it, that is why all small engines as lawn mowers, chain saws etc have fins on the flywheel to move air across the head and cylinder.
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Oil cooler vs. Fans for cylinder
