pauldan@hou2e.UUCP (P.SAUNDERS) (03/29/85)
>The bikes I currently have, a 1984 VF700 Sabre and a 1980 CX500 DeLuxe, >are both water cooled, this is one area in which I can find no advantage, >they both get just as hot as air cooled bikes, they're heavier and there >is no noticable performance gain compared to similar air cooled bikes. > >Why water cooled ? > >Bob Palin, zehntel!varian!bob The advantage of water-cooling an engine is that a water-cooled engine will operate within a small, fixed temperature range under essentially all conditions; hence, the engine can be designed for this temperature (tolerances), and more importantly, after running for a half-hour uphill, the water-cooled engine will still be within it's temp range, while the air-cooled one will be heating up and losing power. A secondary advantage of water-cooling is that the water jacket in the engine case tends to damp vibration and cut down on engine noise. Hers's a disadvantage of water-cooling that you didn't mention: since the engine runs cool, the rider runs hot! I noticed that on my 1984 VF700 Sabre, every time the temp gauge reaches it's upper limit and the thermostat kicks in, I get a blast of warm air on the front of my legs from the radiator. Nice on cool days, not so nice when it's in the 70's or more. Dan Masi AT&T Bell Laboratories allegra!ark2!dan