Phew, its so hot down under in Oz

Sydneysider · Nov 22, 2009

Gday everyone, I went for a Sunday ride this afternoon and about 1 and a half hours into riding, my bike conked out.. Luckily I wasnt too far from home but I tell you as I was coming back I was sweating like I never sweated before in the searing heat, and its not even summer yet..
Today it reached 41C or 106F, highest temperature for spring since 1982 here in hot old Sydney!
When I checked it, I found out it was the magneto, the coil on the white wire side had melted and shorted. Have any of you guys ridden in such hot weather like ours and got a problem with the coils melting?

BarelyAWake · Nov 22, 2009

o.o

NO sympathy here as it's the onset of the evil winter

But to address yer mag - no, it must have been the short that caused the melt... I'm pretty sure that if it was hot enough to melt the mag you woulda melted first

Sydneysider · Nov 22, 2009

Too right BA, but I reckon it did melt the insulation of the coils which would have caused the short coz Ive been riding since January with the same motor and had no problems at all with the motor until today. I really had a gut feeling that something was gonna go wrong as I was riding 'cause the winds from the desert felt like I was riding into a giant oven.. I didnt melt completely but you know Id prefer the evil winter than a bloody scorcher anyday

BarelyAWake · Nov 22, 2009

Well - tis tru that nothings for certain with these Chinese engines, for all we know they insulated it with rendered goat fat lol

Sydneysider · Nov 22, 2009

BarelyAWake said:
Well - tis tru that nothings for certain with these Chinese engines, for all we know they insulated it with rendered goat fat lol

wouldnt be suprised if they did something like that.. can be nasty sometimes but theyre cheap, when you order a kit its a lucky dip as they say

azbill · Nov 22, 2009

I have ridden thousands of miles in the desert heat here (110+)
the worse damage was turning the jug 'bronze', never had any mag related issues !

Sydneysider · Nov 22, 2009

Probably high speed could be a factor in hot weather.. a 2 stroke can easily get hot especially in high range temperature at high revs. Im amazed at how hot it gets in your neck of the woods (or deserts lol) Bill, though Im curious to know what speed you average in such climate, today I averaged about 25mi/hr..

Maxvision · Nov 22, 2009

Sydneysider said:
I really had a gut feeling that something was gonna go wrong as I was riding 'cause the winds from the desert felt like I was riding into a giant oven

Heh, I remember that feeling. Was riding a Triumph 750 in the Palm Springs, CA. desert one summer with my GF of the back. Seemed like the faster we went, the hotter it got. The motor couldn't release enough heat off the fins and was getting so hot it started bogging down. Luckily we weren't too far from home yet.

Nashville Kat · Nov 22, 2009

The old air cooled VW bug engines performance seemed to vary more in range of temp. Even though they always ran, it seemed often different in hot or cold somehow.

On the other hand, my Ford Festiva (Kia) has a water cooled motor that is stronger, quieter, got better mileage and held more cargo, It has 272,000 miles on it now, without a rebuild, and I still drive it in the summer.

and never once overheated, even in the 115 degree typical heat of the Needles CA desert.

I'm fond of saying that it should have become as popular as the VW, but it was preceded by the Rabbit (I had several) which was a less dependable car with bad oil seals.

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Phew, its so hot down under in Oz

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