Possible/Worth to add a fan?

So, I know my bike (82 KZ1100 Spectre) is air-cooled, but since I live in the city and I frequently use it to commute, I spend a LOT of time in traffic. Lane-splitting is technically illegal, as is riding in the breakdown lane.

Is it possible (or even worth it?) to find a fan, maybe from a similar watercooled model (which one?) and mount it on my crash bars - possibly hook it up to a manual switch on the handlebars so I only turn it on while in traffic?
Would this even really give me adequate cooling for moderate traffic?

Without a temp guage, how else am I supposed to know when the bike is too hot?

~A

An oil coller would help some.

FWIW, the oil pan from a GPz1100 should be a direct bolt on, and you'd just need to fab up a bracket to mount the cooler from it to your bike - functional, and your bike will look like it came stock with it.

Possibly a stupid question, but, I know pretty much jack about actual repair:
Does that kind of setup also require any additional pumps or anything? If not, how would it really assist when idling in traffic?
~A

Nope, no pumps needed. The connections are coming out of the oil galleys from the the bikes oil pump and go to the oil cooler. However and oil cooler is like the bike's engine and needs constant flowing air also, so I would add the fan to the mix, one of those small computer cooling fans and put it in front of the oil cooler. You might need 2 of those! I like your idea of the fan and I have been thinking the same thing!

A friend of mine put 2 computer fans (4"x4", I think) in front of his oil cooler on his FJ1200. He said it made a difference in the temp of the engine but he did not have a oil temp gauge so perhaps it only made him feel better.

I never seen it before or heard of it. I just made that up or rather say, just thought of it in like 2 seconds

I was thinking something quite larger than a computer fan, in my head (like a radiator fan from a different water cooled bike!)

slickware wrote:

I was thinking something quite larger than a computer fan, in my head (like a radiator fan from a different water cooled bike!)

I'd think for the time/energy in mounting it, you'd want to go this way. I don't think a computer fan would pull enough air through it to make any difference at all. Something like an FZR fan as they can be had pretty cheap. Then if you got really creative you could switch to a muzzy aluminum blade set up.

Sorry for being a total noob, but what's an FZR, and what's a muzzy?
The parts for the GPZ I can probably find, but I don't have a clue what to look for when searching for non-standard/aftermarket parts.

~A

I'm not a noob and not even I know what those things are! FZR...... sounds like one of those new yamahas

and muzzy, wasn't he the big furry thing that teaches French and Spanish to children?
haha

My 1 cent worth: Computer fans are cheap, but aren't they 110 volts? Also I don't think they are weather-proof. My water cooled Vulcan has a fan, it is hooked up to a thermostat, it can come on even if the motor isn't running. If you were going to retro-fit a fan, would you just hook it up to run full time, or put a manual switch on it, or what?
Oh yeah, and I don't know Muzzy neither. :pinch: