Decided to see what passed for 9:00 on my D1 temp gauge. I normally run 8:00 -8:30. Blocked rad of warmed up truck with cardboard and waited, and waited, it finally climbed on up to the point my pucker factor kicked in. 228 F at 9:00, got to 235-237 F and it started to move up slightly off 9:00. 237 F and I run a 180F stat! Shot radiator top hose spot on brass radiator, showed almost 260F!

Removed cardboard before it ignited, changed Depends, everything back to normal.

So if you are driving around above 9:00 it is maybe a little warmer than you want to be! Gauge is built to lull you to thinking everything is OK. But running eleveated temp for long time can't be good.

 

Great info! We need to organize all the collective wisdom on these forums into a wiki or some other alternative. It could be an incredibly valuable resource. I was always very impressed with the Ninja 250 wiki here: Ninja250 Howto - Ninja250Wiki

I can't stress how much of a difference this resource made during my brief ownership.

 

Yes but it's a 250

 

I can assure you it was more than enough to get me killed when revving to 15k RPM

 

I had a 1973 Yamaha 500 when I was in the Navy. When I first bought it, I used to wind each gear to 5000 and shift like the owners manual said. I took it in for the first tune-up. The mechanic called me back and wanted to talk to me. He said it was carboned up and needed to be blown out and asked me about how I drove it.

I told him I used the shift points in the owners manual. and pulled it out to show him. He asked what speed I got from each gear - I told him 20 mph per gear. He said let me see that owners manual, which he promptly threw in his trash barrel.

He then said - that is for those little Jap Fu*kers. He said, when you leave here, wind first gear up to about 7500 rpm's, then power shift into second and rev it up to around 9000 rpm's. That's how you ride these damn things. The tach went to 12,000, yellow line was 10,500.

When I did what he said, It was running about 100mph in 3rd gear. It was a five speed.

 

RD-500?

Awesome bikes....used to have one cafe'd-racer style. You were riding that thing like a pansy, two-smokes are meant to be rev'd in the higher zone (where the power is at).

Sheit....I used to rev my RVF400 to over 14k (on the track)!....no speedo...hehe.

 

Mine was a four stroke twin with four valves per cylinder. Had square heads and side by side twin instead of a v-twin like a harley. Had upswept pipes like a Cafe Racer but looked like a smaller version of a sportster frame except for the square cylinders.

Smaller version of the Yamaha 650 street bike cruiser. Later they came out with the Virago with a driveshaft. The four valves per cylinder gave it a nice power band from about 6000 to 10,000 rpms. Cruised nice for a midsize.

 

"He then said - that is for those little Jap Fu*kers."

Last time I checked, Yamaha is still Japanese. TX500's were ahead of their time (Head design). 50hp from 500cc four stroke was excellent for the era.

If you ever had the 500cc two stroke Yamaha (RZ500 V4!) and sold it, it was the mistake of a lifetime. They are one of the rarest and most valuable Jap bikes on the planet.

Had many two stroke twins and triples over the years, even an RE-5 rotary - wish I had kept them all!

 

Yamaha is definitely Japanese. He was talking about how they typically ride.

Like the Virago. And the Suzuki, especially tghe big road bikes. Saw the new Honda V twin. It is awesome. Loved my 280 ZX Datsun. The inline six was awesome. Got over 300,000 miles from it before the bottom rusted out of the car and then the engine got erratic, so I traded it for a Volvo 240.

I sold the Yamaha to a friend with 35,000 miles on it. He traded it for a Suzuki Cavalcade. When he got older and did not ride it anymore, he offered to give it to me, but my new wife did not want me to have another motorcycle. It was pristine but she was not agreeable, sure do miss her.....

 

You need a new temp sensor for your dash gauge Buzz, when the temp probe gets covered in scale, lime, calcium, etc. all of that crud acts like insulation and you cant get a proper reading.
I bet if you pulled out your dash temp sensor you would find it covered like a sunken ship in coral.
Do not confuse that one with the one for the ECU, which is what your scanner reads, that one is next to the t-stat on the intake manifold.

On a side note, I found a new engine fan for you.