| Author | Message | ||
     Snowhownd |
Not sure how many of you notice this (hopefully this hasn't already been discussed in length), but when you turn off your bike on a hot day and your fan keeps running - everyone in the neighborhood looks at you, etc, etc. If you turn your ignition back on and then off again, viola! fan turns off. I know Buell obviously designed the fan to stay on for a good reason, so I know that it probably isn't a good thing to do... but how bad do you think it is to just let the rear cylinder cool slowly on it's own? I have no problem with the fan running when the bike is running - my race pipe drowns that sound out, and obviously with the engine running heat will continue to rise with no fan - but just sitting there after the engine is off - is slow (not fan assisted) cooling okay for those times when you just DON'T want your fan to run??? | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Well, from talks at the factory, the fan is an integral, and important part of the design of the bike. It allows the rear head (mostly, it's ducted to cool the front also) to cool to keep the oil that is pooled in there from baking. This will help the longevity of the engine. Also, it will take a long time to cool on it's own, since the head is hidden and dosnt really have a good way to allow the heat to escape on it's own. Who cares what people think, if you wanted to blend in, you wouldnt have purchased a Buell. | ||
| 12r |
The fan is cool  I like the way it goes to full power when I switch off after a good ride and drowns out those lame tinkling noises from other bikes. Everyone knows when 12R is in the house and I wouldn't have it any other way  | ||
| Teeps |
This is funny, I have the opposite complaint. I don't like the fan howling, like wolves at the moon, when I'm cruising down P.C.H. @ 45~50mph. I kind of like the interest the fan creates when I park at the Rock Store. | ||
| Glitch |
It's not a fan, it's the After-Cooler. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Overcooked oil in the heads is BAD JUJU! Leave the fan running or sell the bike. It would be inhumane to kill your bike by doing the fan cycle trick. | ||
| Froggy |
I only do the trick if I need to talk for a minute like stopping at a security gate or something. In those cases the bike is running again shortly after so there is little if any harm to the oil / bike. | ||
| Firebolteric_ma |
Mamma Always says.... | ||
| Snackbar64 |
My fan will cut back on even if I do your trick. | ||
| Davegess |
that fan is running for a very good reason. when the engine is turned off oil remains in the heads for quite a while. The rear head, because it is so covered up will "cook" that oil in just a few minutes. The temperature of the oil remaining in the head will exceed it design parameters very quickly and you will end up with oil that simply is not capable of lubricating your engine properly. It can happen fast so the first few minutes after shutdown are the important ones. So don't do the trick, you will likely be very sorry. | ||
| Tintin74 |
Same as Snackbar64 on my 05 XB9R. It's still not the hottest part of the year, and I remember last year the fan kicked in while I was waiting at the traffic lights. What I do now is that I stop the engine to have the fan kick in at traffic lights on my commute (since I can tell whether they're going to take a long time or not from experience). I heard this was bad for the plugs though... For those who want to keep it from kicking in while riding around 45MPH, I guess the right side scoop is a must have. | ||
| Djkaplan |
I wonder what keeps oil in other bikes from cooking ('coking' is the correct term, I believe) when you turn the engine off. They have oil in the heads - without coolant flowing, they just sit there and get hot too. | ||
| Spatten1 |
I don't think the liquid cooled bikes ever get hot enough to cook the oil. My guess is that the rear cylinder on the XB is just too buried to radiate heat to atmosphere well enough when the bike stops moving. | ||
| Davegess |
Spatten1 has got it right. A liquid cooled engine can get too hot for the oil but I think it would be an overheating situation. The XB engine is designed with that fan in mind so it would be pretty hard to overheat as long as the fan can run and move air. It is really a matter of keeping one very hot spot below critical temps. | ||
| Olinxb12r |
Bad idea. If the fan is on you should leave it running. If you get the bike hot enough the oil will boil in the rear cylinder, and that won't be good for your trusty Buell. Tell the people that give you funny looks that the bike is such a beast it needs extra cooling off time after you shut it down. | ||
| Nasty73z |
Standard operating engine temperature on the Buells is 320-380 *F (reading from rear head I believe), I can almost gaurantee that no liquid cooled bike is that high. It runs hot, it needs the fan. All you fan haters need to QYB. | ||
| Tunes |
What I like best about the fan running when I park is, folks tell me I left the key on! Then the look on their face, the looks I get when the fan steps down and I'm not near the bike. Also, I can't count the number of conversations started 'cause of the fan... oopps sorry, After-Cooler. (I love that!) I get worried when the fan doesn't come on. | ||
| M1combat |
The achilis (sp?) tendon of the HD engine has always been the rear head baking oil... Buell solved it. Don't circumvent that... | ||
| 07xb12scg |
It's not the fan, it's the turbo spooling down... | ||
| Bake |
Rewind, sounds like an old VCR. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
I have always called my fan the Hair Dryer. Makes people laugh... One benefit I have noticed with the fan is it helps cool the underseat area. Recently after ride I removed the seat to check my battery connections. I loosened one to clean some gunk off it. Obviously the fan quit. Man did it get hot under there quick. Definitely enough to shorten battery life. | ||
| 147db |
The fan is an important part of the cooling system, leave it run... It works for you! ;) | ||
| Fookinbueller |
I can just Barely make out that the fan is running when the motor is on... it doesn't bother me in the least when it howls after I shut it down... it's foolish to shut the fan off prematurely... oil coking is a very bad thing... | ||
| Rocksham |
It's not a fan, it's a hand warmer... | ||
| Beachbuell |
Buy a GSXR then you won't have the "fan" noise. | ||
| Swordsman |
I like the fan... think of it as a jet engine winding down! Love the "WTF is that?" looks from people at the gas pump. ~SM | ||
| Xbullet |
tell 'em yer bike is a top secret prototype. the "after-cooler" is neccessary since it converts ordinary pump gas into enriched uranium. without the aftercooler you are riding a nuclear weapon..... that wouldn't go over too well, would it?  | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I tell folks "They're the gyrostabilizers winding down. Without them, the torque from the engine would slam me down on the left side of the bike. You do not want to be around when one of these fails!" | ||
| Mtch |
after my accident in france, with the XB lying on its side in the road, the only sound was the fan running, and a guy trying to turn it off because he thought the bike was going to blow up or something. it wasn't funny at the time, but is now  | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
i tell every one that it has a built in leaf blower, and it is clearing my parking spot.... | ||
| Xbullet |
this fits right in there with "hey, you got a headlight out." | ||
| Mtch |
"Do you need a license to drive a hovercraft?" | ||
| Busterx |
I love my fan, makes everyone look and of course there are the "your bike is running" thing. A few of my friends were on a ride and mine was running when a Harley guy walked by and asked if I got a batch of bad rice because my bike wouldn't shut off.....What a tool, I told him to look at the side of the bike, he saw the HD sticker and said OH I didn't see that. I get mad when I shut it off and the fan Doesn't come on  | ||
| Pokinatcha |
Same here, I'm dissapointed when my fan doesn't come on. I've been using amsoil for the past couple thousand miles, that cut my fan running alot so maybe the fan haters could try that if not already running syn oil. But i'm sure you all thought of that already. |
