Leaderboard

My "mental failure mode" with this wasn't by leaving it off, but rather by leaving it on. I was running along at 70 mph and the temp kept hanging around 220 and wouldn't come down. Climbing hills it headed toward 230 and I was thinking 'WTF is going wrong . . . am I having a thermostat failure?? I'm going more than fast enough to cool this thing off." Then it suddenly hit me - I had left the fan running. No need to call me an idiot - I spent the next few hours doing that over and over. It just took once though to teach me my lesson.

I have been approached about the idea of a manual fan control that would allow you to: Turn the fan on early turn the fan off (to reduce power draw) allow normal mode Another feature requested would be indicator lights that would show: What status is selected If the fan is turned off but the bike wants it on (blinking LED etc)...could even be audible alarm What I am trying to determine is if there is interest in this on a wider scale. I have never felt the need to change how my fan operates but i spend little time in heavy traffic and I don't do track days or other cases that are different. My bike rarely runs hot although I have considered a manual "on" switch for the summer in the past. Another outstanding question is....self powered or bike powered. I could personally go either way...the default operaton (even with the unit off) would be for the fan to operate as normal....so no harm if the battery dies on a self powered unit. Feedback?

Yes - the fan moves air from the outside of the fairing through to the area in front of the engine. IMO the auto-shutoff at around 30 mph or so would be trick feature and big plus for such a kit.

I found it makes a huge difference. I noticed in stop light traffic, if you get the fan to started and start in motion, the fan pretty much cancels natural airflow. By turning the fan off at speeds above 25=30 mph, the cooling system works much better. I made a module that uses a freq counter to trigger a relay to kill the fan once speed is above 25-30 mph. I also have found that running a little richer mixture in gears 1-4 goes a long way in keeping things cool. I also think a series reg helps also, less heat generated.

+1 I would have to have a idiot light to remind me its ON ...

I did this as a DIY mod last year, but not for power draw issues. I used a single pole, double throw switch and wired it in with the thermo switch. I use it to get ahead of the temperature curve and keep the engine from building as much heat when I know I'm going to be idling or riding very slowly. Then when I get going I can switch it off a while and then when things stabilize switch it back to normal mode. If I do get in to the 230+ degree range, as soon as I get moving at 30 to 35 mph I switch the fan off and the temp comes down more rapidly without the fan fighting the airflow. I had purchased a VTR fan blade to make that swap, but having installed this switch I'm not sure I will - this works very well - better than I expected. Since I installed this I've had no temperature issues at all. What was suggested in the OP, an indicator light, would be very helpful. I tried to source a waterproof rocker switch that was illuminated, but couldn't fine one small enough to fit on my 6th gen where I wanted it. I'm accustomed to keeping up on switch configs, but on one occasion I forgot what "mode" it was in, and some sort of indicator, maybe a red and green LED (red = "no fan" and green = "fan operating" or similar) on the cockpit panel or something would be quite helpful. I positioned the switch on the left inner upper cowl panel next to the tank - though that's where the front ABS pump resides on a 6th gen, and getting a switch in there was tight. For non-ABS bikes there would be plenty of room in that location.

Fan on early in traffic is the only thing I'm after but too lazy to sort it at the moment... On the power draw - the VFR uses a shunt reg, the alternator runs full tilt all the time and excess power is drawn off by the RR as heat - running more farkles is beneficial to the system as it reduces the load on the RR...

I could see the want to turn the fan on early for those people who do get stuck in traffic and want the fan constantly running instead of clicking on and off as it may. Otherwise no. I know that there are some systems that are tandem with an electric water pump, so that when you turn the ignition off, it will keep the pump and fan running for a determined amount of time. But I could only really see that in a track bike.