Heat Spike - Should I Be Worried?

[Amorousnerdium]

Alright, yesterday I did some minor work on my bike. Oiled the clutch cable, adjusted it to reduce free play, installed led brake lights on the inside of my passenger pegs (really cool effect), checked coolant levels, painted a few scratches, and checked oil and brake fluid levels.

Afterwards, I jumped on the interstate to head home and feeling froggy since it was a nice day and no traffic, I gave it some go and stretched her legs. Ended up doing way faster than I should have for most of the six mile ride on the interstate. After dropping off the interstate and below felony speeding speeds, I cruised home the remaining few miles to my condo at posted speeds.

The whole way my temp gauge held steady at three or four bars.

Now, as soon as I pulled into the driveway, my temp gauge shot up to that fifth fat bar. So I shut it off and let her cool down.

Followed up a little later with a coolant level check and a quick ride. The normal three / four bars...

Should i be worried?

 

[DownrangeFuture]

Even though the bike is water cooled, air cooling still plays a big part of the cooling process. If you're dogging the bike at 100+ and then suddenly slow down, it'll do that. If you had the newer one with the numbered temp gauge you'd see it jump close to 20F hotter shortly after shutting the engine down. In short, even water cooled, the effectiveness of the cooling system is directly related to your speed. That's what the cooling fan helps with.

Turn the bike on and let her idle long enough to get over 200F or so. Listen for the fan to come on. Then, take a decent ride at slow to normal speeds and see what happens. Generally a problem with the cooling system shows up as a steady increase in temperatures even though you're keeping the revs low and not dogging it. Or if it only heats up when you're idling.

I'd say you just ran the piss out of her and didn't give it enough time to cool down before you hit the driveway.

 

[YamaSpeed]

I had a problem with coolant after a routine check. I took the rad cap off. sneaked a peak and put it back on. It took some muster to get the cap off. the rubber seal was actually stuck to the rad body. I thought nothing of it untill i hit the road and noticed that the temp was way up and only went down when I gained speed.

As I am quite familiar with this issue in OLD cars I knew that it was a pressure problem and likely a coolant leak. So I filled it up and went for a ride. but kept an eye on the "coolant reservoir relief tube" and sure enough. the bike was spewing coolant.

changed the rad cap (I think I damaged it it the removal for inspection) and all was well.

Rad cap is the first place I would look.

 

[Amorousnerdium]

I was thinking I ran the piss out of her... The speedo was hitting 162 mph in some areas.

Now my next question is just how far off is the speedo at high speeds? I was thinking 15-20 mph. Anyone have a closer estimate?

 

[Motogiro]

The faster you go the greater the speedo error becomes unless of course you have a healer...

 

[Norbert]

your bike is a 2006 so it's a good idea to change your coolant regardless of miles.
i did the same thing and i am glad i did....