[rc514789]

HI guys I'm new to this site. I just got my 02 RC51 March 26th. I love it, so much torque and so good handling. But I have a couple questions. First of all when I give it quite a bit of throttle below 4 grand it shakes pretty bad. I don't know if thats just cuz its a twin and thats how it runs. It still accelerated good but I don't know. Secondly, my girlfriend and I were riding for about half an hour and when we stopped she noticed that my back tire was wet. So looked under the bike and it was anti freeze, it came out the overflow tube. The temp. guage said it was at 229 degrees f. I let the bike cool down for a while and when I started riding again, it rose quickly and eventually stayed around 225, no matter how fast I was going. But when I stopped I could here that both the fans were goin and the temp guage was going down but as soon as I started riding again it started rising . Help???

[rokitt51]

As far as the shaking goes, it is the 2 big ones being better than 4 small ones thing. Just like a big 4, when it isnt in the power say 20 mph in 6th, same shaking happens. As far as the temp, give the ssytem a good burp and also ensure that the coolant cap is on secure. Other than that, the bike should be quite trouble free.

[Rigor]

Originally Posted by rc514789

HI guys I'm new to this site. I just got my 02 RC51 March 26th. I love it, so much torque and so good handling. But I have a couple questions. First of all when I give it quite a bit of throttle below 4 grand it shakes pretty bad. I don't know if thats just cuz its a twin and thats how it runs. It still accelerated good but I don't know. Secondly, my girlfriend and I were riding for about half an hour and when we stopped she noticed that my back tire was wet. So looked under the bike and it was anti freeze, it came out the overflow tube. The temp. guage said it was at 229 degrees f. I let the bike cool down for a while and when I started riding again, it rose quickly and eventually stayed around 225, no matter how fast I was going. But when I stopped I could here that both the fans were goin and the temp guage was going down but as soon as I started riding again it started rising . Help???

It's not a Hardly Davidsen.....it doesn't like to be lugged in higher gears, at 4K. Invest in a power commander and a lot of the jerkiness in the low end will disappear. It's normal and there's nothing to worry about. It's a twin, as stated, but the MAPping from the factory leaves you a little lean in the midranges and causes a lot of what you're feeling. Do the flapper mod as well to reduce that. Changing your gearing from the stock 16/40 to 15/41-42 will help with that too.

The RC51 inherantly runs hot. Nothing to worry about. Letting it sit and cool will do nothing. If the fans are running, you're fine. There are a few things you can do to help, like reversing the fan polarity, Moriwaki fins and changing to Engine Ice, or Water-Wetter, as long as you don't need antifreeze qualities.

If you search around, you can read plenty of ideas to improve the temp situation. As long as it's not bubbling into the overflow reservoir, you're fine.

[HiLi_Psyclez]

like rigor said try some engine ice coolant, i was surprised how well it worked my fan hardly comes on anymore bike runs id say an average of 15-20 degrees cooler

[fastfifty1]

Hey my bike was doing the same thing and would run around 220 on the highway and 230 in traffic..I rode it all last year like that, then I was going to do the air filter mod and the bike happend to have K&N's...So then I was going to clean them and found out that they had foam inserts in them...So I removed them and now the bike runs 170's and 190 in traffic.... So check the air filters and see if they are stock..that is better if they are than K&N's any way...