Hot?

Nice Day in Seattle yesterday.....felt like mid 70's when I was on the 405....stopped in traffic.
Looking at the first digital temp gauge I've owned.

it said 223F.

Seems kinda warm, so I got home & looked in the BIG book.
BIG book says the thermostat starts to open about 180F (~82C) and is fully open @ 203F (95C).
I could find no reference to the the temp that the fan runs. Previous owner (the Wrench) claims that it was 221F = fan ON; then cools down to 206F & fan = OFF.

Once the traffic cleared, the temp gauge dropped to 168 - 174 or so, I'm guessing everything is OK. But at 72 degrees F ambient, if I hit a 95 degree day in traffic, think there will be probs?

Also, stopped for fuel, I toggled the temp to Ambient & got 95F....no way - off by 20 degrees anyway. Heat accumulation due to being stopped?

(I spent so much time looking at the temp gauge, I almost ran out of fuel!)

TIA

That all sounds pretty normal. After the engine warms up if you stop anywhere like for gas in your example the radiant heat will give false high readings until you have been moving for a while. You will probably notice the fans running a lot if you get in the other scenario with mid 90s and stop and go traffic. Use good oil and change it often.

Ernie

Anything below 240 is fine. In PHX mine runs at over 240 a lot. The temp gauge (even if on ambient air) will start flashing when you are approaching serious trouble. Mine has done it a few times; steep evaluation climb behind slow traffic, LA rush hour in August...just pull over for 15 minutes to let it cool off. Its a design issue caused by side radiators and a fan that creates a dead zone at slow speeds. If the bike isn't moving the fan actually will cool the engine, but at slow speed it works against the incoming air.
The air temp gauge does accumulate heat when not moving, so it will read very high (and wrong) until moving again.

Your fine. I've seen mid 240's when running the crap out of it, Honda considers 250 plus as the start of the problem zone. I think it's 250 + when the temp gauge starts flashing RED.

Thanks Guys!