2015 GSA LC Question

[jolly green giant]

One week old GSA LC and fired it up in the garage for a few minutes as the weather was not ideal for a ride. After switching it off noticed droplets of water coming out from under the silencer's cover. Perhaps condensation, is this normal?

Another thing, wanted to measure the bike's seat height and had someone hold it vertical, off the centre stand, while I measured the height at both ends of the forward seat. Seat set to HIGH at both ends, suspension set to rider only and ESA to Normal. The height came only up to 890 at the forward end to 900 at the rear end. So where does one find the seat height of 910mm.

 

[Johanndn]

When you adjust suspension, it obviously adjusts the height as well. Think it also depends on what tyres you have on?

 

[jolly green giant]

Anakee III

 

[Matty589]

Droplets could be moisture from your last ride or even the valet if you haven't ridden it. The end cap has a channel between it and the silencer which often stores water and drips long after a ride, as does the top of the cap. It could be something else but I wouldn't be worried about water from the silencer. From the coolant tank or radiators, maybe...
Not sure about seat height, my lowered GSA is meant to be 84cm on low but feels about an inch lower than the regular GS I had (meant to be 85cm on low).

 

[(RIP) Tunneruk]

The last thing you should do is start it up and run it for a few minutes. Either start it up and ride it somewhere or leave it alone. Having it idle from cold for a couple of minutes will do far more harm than good ..... Anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about!

 

[Beemerman59]

Yep, all that lovely water in the engine......

 

[jolly green giant]

Thanks for the advice boys, much appreciated.

 

[madmechanic]

Boy's ? Boy's I thought GS riders were MEN

 

[stephen.stallebrass]

The last thing you should do is start it up and run it for a few minutes. Either start it up and ride it somewhere or leave it alone. Having it idle from cold for a couple of minutes will do far more harm than good ..... Anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about!

Why is that?

 

[Davey B]

I suspect because for every gallon of fuel burnt, it blows out nearly a gallon of water. When the engine is hot, this is as a gas, when cold it will be bigger water droplets. These will no doubt remain in parts of the engine/exhaust.
This was why in the 70s and 80s all those fellers who paint mild steel car exhausts with exhaust paint were wasting their time, they rotted from the inside out due to the water.

 

[madmartin]

I suspect because for every gallon of fuel burnt, it blows out nearly a gallon of water. When the engine is hot, this is as a gas, when cold it will be bigger water droplets. These will no doubt remain in parts of the engine/exhaust.
This was why in the 70s and 80s all those fellers who paint mild steel car exhausts with exhaust paint were wasting their time, they rotted from the inside out due to the water.

Products of combustion(poc's).... for every 1xlitre of gas burnt,produces 1xlitre of water vapour when combustion takes place at sea level=0 bar./20.9% oxygen.
Not only water vapour but lots of nasty acids and other gases ,co. co2 .h. to name a few.

 

[(RIP) Tunneruk]

Why is that?

I suspect because for every gallon of fuel burnt, it blows out nearly a gallon of water. When the engine is hot, this is as a gas, when cold it will be bigger water droplets. These will no doubt remain in parts of the engine/exhaust.
This was why in the 70s and 80s all those fellers who paint mild steel car exhausts with exhaust paint were wasting their time, they rotted from the inside out due to the water.

Products of combustion(poc's).... for every 1xlitre of gas burnt,produces 1xlitre of water vapour when combustion takes place at sea level=0 bar./20.9% oxygen.
Not only water vapour but lots of nasty acids and other gases ,co. co2 .h. to name a few.

What they said!

What you're essentially doing is filling your exhaust and cat up with moisture ...... worse than this is the condensation build up that you create in the crank case. Oil takes a long time to reach full operating temperature. At idle you're probably looking at about 25 minutes. This crank case condensation becomes acidic and therefore corrosive. If you're going to start the bike, ride it and get it up to full operating temperature, if you can't do that then you're better not starting it at all!

 

[stephen.stallebrass]

Very interesting. Thanks.

 

[(RIP) Tunneruk]

Very interesting. Thanks.

Happy to help fella!

 

[Engineer]

running an LC at tick over for a couple of minutes (2) isn't going to do it any harm, the hottest bits of the engine are water cooled after all but I wouldn't let it run all the way up to operating temp without having some air cooling too.

Never had condensation in the oil even on an air-cooled 1200 but used to get it on my Ducati Monster so always took that for a long enough run to 'boil off' condensation visible in the oil inspection window before putting the bike away.

 

[trancey]

Mine has sat in the garage since 23/12/14, never even started it. Too little opportunity so far and poor weather, thought I'd be better off letting it stand, tried my new Canbus Optimate once and all looks good.