A little info here to help in understanding the problem... Goldwings are water cooled, and have six cylinder engines about the same size as a Toyota Corolla car... 1.8 Liters.. They have radiators on each side of the front cowlings... The air comes into the front behind the front tire and flows over the top of the engine compartment and then out thru these radiators...
The width of the cowling is supposed to keep the boiling hot air off of the rider..... But, in the summer time you can't stand this air if it is 85 or more outside...
Various aftermarket suppliers have made plexiglass flaps to deflect this heat... I have never liked the looks of these flaps, and have resisted putting them on the bike.... But I have also boiled in city traffic... If you sit still for more than a minute, the internal fan comes on and cools the radiators with the resulting adverse effect on you as a rider..
Club member Rik is in the advertising specialty business and had the idea to make thicker and heavier flaps... Using Baker Built hardware kits that were available in the aftermarket, he has this alternative that he sells from his home...
I ran onto Rik in the Valle Del Oro Country Store last week.... We went to his home on Monday to select the correct parts and pieces from his inventory and assembled and installed them over the last two days...
There are wings on each side, but they are identical with exception of a right and left side... They still look like something added that doesn't belong... but perhaps those radiators won't cook me so bad..
They kind of look worse to the rider, as all the brackets and hardware are on the inside... but at least they are chrome.. It requires drilling 4, 5/8 ths inch holes in the plastic trim... So taking them back off would leave large unsightly damage, which makes them on there to stay...
This project has been off and on for the last several days... Otherwise, we have just been hanging out and enjoying our warmer than the rest of the country's weather..
We barbecued some pork steaks and fried hash browns with cheese on the Webber grill Tuesday evening... Since some folks don't care for food pictures when they can't pull up a chair and share, I'll leave it to your imagination..
Rick, we have a little webber Spirit 210 two burner house model here in Mesa... Its bigger than a Q but not by much in grilling surface...
Retired Rod
I hope the radiator flaps do their job - I can imagine how uncomfortable it would be to stop in traffic and get hit with hot air. I can just visualize the pork steaks and hash browns with cheese - no picture necessary!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures. Makes a little more sense to me now. Sure hope they do the job. Headed back to AJ tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI'd have loved to see the pics of the pork steaks and hash browns cooked on the Weber Q. Hope those flaps do the job on your Goldwing.
ReplyDeleteRod, those flaps don't look bad especially when one realizes what they accomplish ..... Thanks for the link on Al's blog .....great information....... Dinner sounded good !!!!
ReplyDeleteYou'd see a grown many cry if I had to drill holes in my Gold Wing!
ReplyDelete