This thread is more for the owners on here that actually ride their bikes and put on some higher mileage. If you don't ride much or only do ride in pristine conditions of perfect temperatures and relative humidity without the chance of rain, then you can skip this one.. If this offends you, you really should get out and ride more..
If you ride in all types of weather and conditions after a period of time the finely finned radiator we have on our bike will loose its efficiency for cooling the motor.
Sure its important to have a radiator guard on the bike to make sure you have some protection from stones and debris, and a fender extender to compliment the rad guard, but now that alot of the bikes are 5 years old with some reaching towards 100K miles, something that is easily overlooked is the condition of the
outside of the radiator.
I pulled my radiator guard off today because I could visibly see alot of black dirt and bug pieces stuck in the very fine fins throughout the entire radiator. Since the radiator is made of bare untreated aluminum I used a good cleaner you can pick up at your local NAPA Dealer....
If you find your bike in the same situation, cover the back of the front fender with a rag and (
outside or at the car wash) spray it liberally into all the fins of the radiatior. There is a mild phospheric acid in the cleaner and will foam and cook the dirt off of the entire exchanger surface..Do NOT breathe the fumes from this chemical action! Leave it on for 5 minutes or so... no more than 10.. Rinse and flush with semi hi pressure water... be extremely careful not to use too much pressure that would bend the fins of the rad. You can also use compressed air from a distance to blow out the excess water out when finished.
Re-install your rad guard and you are good to go..
I would wash thru my radiatior at the car wash every now and then, but this product, though I wouldn't use it often, really brightens up and cleans the metal to make your radiator have its maximum cooling efficiency again.. It was noticeable on the dash running one level lower than before, on average... and taking much longer to rise in temperature. It also cooled down much faster once moving again.
You can see how intricate and small the fin/tube passages are on our bikes radiatior..
Clean as new!
JJ