Fairwell to Air-cooled engines?

[HikerToo_imp]

bumped into this on Facebook.
http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/why...ir-cooling

[rboe]

A couple points:
Tooling wears out with use; I'd like to know how many times Yamaha has had to redo the tooling for the SR-400. A second question; how long of a production run can you get out of your typical tooling?

Emissions is not just a US thing, the Euro Zone has very strict regs and they are getting stricter. Even China has seen the light and is starting the light and enforce standards they had on the books but have over looked so they could fire up their economy. At some point the whole world will be on the same page - if we live long enough and if the oil supply lasts that long.

Right now a lawn mower engine pollutes more in one typical mowing than a modern car does going from Phoenix to Flagstaff - about 120 miles.

[Firstfour_imp]

bumped into this on Facebook.
http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/why...ir-cooling

Glad I got my CB before it was too late.

[gossman_imp]

Writer doesn't have a clue. Suzuki Boulevards are water cooled, not air cooled, I know because I owned one. Engineering a NEW large displacement air cooled takes a bit more work for sure, after owning the CB for little more than a month I can tell you it is pretty quiet, again something that the author is wrong about. That article is just a summation of a person's bias, not based on fact.

[rboe]

Well the water jacket does attenuate sound and it is used to control the over all acoustic signature of a machine (Europe has done wonders with diesel motors in this regard) so I'd give him a pass on that one. I missed where he said the Boulevards are air cooled; I read a different bike (checked the article again and he used the blanket term Boulevard and I'm pretty sure he was talking about the S-40 - clear as mud ).

I really can't ride my Griso without ear plugs (it also has an oil cooler with special attention on oil flow in the heads); she is just a loud bike. The Honda CB is much quieter and for in town riding ear plugs could be optional. I've done it, it's OK but I still prefer using them. To be fair to the Griso; she is tuned to be louder at the pipe and I think the valve train, using screw adjustment, is naturally louder than the shim under bucket affair. The Griso creates a lot of noise just from the heads alone.

The CB1100 is liquid cooled (oil is circulated around the sparkplugs) so our motors are a bit of a hybrid when it comes to cooling. Now it would be very interesting to compare our CB1100 to the water cooled CB1300 or the older 919 (I rode one once, impressive motor and quiet).
I'll add that I wish my XR650L had an oil cooled head. That sucker runs too hot. Especially in Phoenix.

[Henrik_imp]

I too think the noise argument is not really one. Ultimately it is possible to make a water cooled engine quieter than an air cooled one, but there are so many other things that impact this aspect. I remember my Ducati ST2, which was a water cooled 944cc engine, as being mechanically very noisy. The desmo valve system and especially the dry clutch made quite a racket, and a friend used to refer to it as the stone crusher. At the end of the day, it will always be the exhaust pipes, or lack thereof, that make the most noise on a bike.

The CB11? By far the most silent bike I have ever owned...

[the Ferret]

Yea stand next to a Duc with a dry clutch and you want to yell to the owner " quick turn it off, something's wrong with your bike" lol

[rboe]

Dry clutches are an acquired taste. I had one on the Quota. Never got used to it. But a lot of guys I ride with love the sound. The probably like crying babies too.

[The Spaceman_imp]

There was a good discussion on the Honda "Designer's Talk" pages about their decision to build the CB air-cooled. They felt it had to be if it were going to be the bike they wanted it to be. IIRC, it's the first air-cooled bike they've built in 20 years.

Since this can of worms is open, how about dragging out the 2-stroke vs. 4-stroke debate?

[the Ferret]

Dry clutches are an acquired taste. I had one on the Quota. Never got used to it. But a lot of guys I ride with love the sound. The probably like crying babies too.

Well, that had me laughing uncontrollably, lol .