2009 grand vista fan?

[ophelia]

I think you've given a good answer to jimmymcmullen's original question of the beginning of the thread about why his fan never turns on. Unfortunately he also didn't get a reply to his later question about where the fan and the radiator were located.

But maybe that isn't the original question of this thread. Perhaps there is more to the thread that we are discussing.

mrbios made an observation about ineffective fan cooling and asked and why his fan stays on when he turns his kill switch to stop but leaves the ignition on temporarily.

Let us recall it:

I find the fan to not be very effective on my 2005 GV with 10K miles.  When it comes on it tends to stay on until I get moving.  I have good cooling and usually run between 2-3 / 5 bars.  Other motorcycles and my car in it's prime needed only 30 to 60 seconds to lower the temp and turn off where the GV 250 fan runs a lot and does little.  If you turn the motor off with the kill switch while the fan is running it keeps running - what's the point with no fluid able to circulate?

You gave a very good suggestion about cleaning out the radiator and using fresh coolant to have optimal engine temperatures with minimal use of the fan.

To his question about kill switch fan operation, your answer is that that feature isn't a feature. The bike is not meant to be shut down with the kill switch and left to idle under ordinary circumstances. Fair enough.

I offer an explanation for the GV's fan kill switch behaviour and suggest that this non-feature could be useful in some limited situations, where the bike may be overheating and the fan left on to help cool the coolant before possibly limping to the next service station for coolant or service. Is that not a rational advantage?

If the battery is fully charged after a nice long ride and the battery has an extra surface charge built up, is there still a considerable unnecessary discharge needed to operate the fan?

Is this off-topic, or still in the spirit of the fan behaviour thread? 

[windwheeler]

Yes, the subject is related to the G/V fan, as mr.bios questioned why the fan keeps on running (my answer in a nutshell: not the best technical shut down procedure).  This is why the subject got much more wide, and this is normal and typical in any forum thread.

I think you give especially scooter batteries too much "confidence".  They are very small in capacity, and if they are a bit of age you can damage/drain them very quickly.  I have learned over the more than 4 decades of riding, that one should ALWAYS fully respect the limited capacity of any battery, and not take the "best situation" for granted, rather the worst. Also, no matter if you think it is fully charged after a ride, it may have perfect Voltage, but Voltage is not the issue, it is Amp-hrs capacity remaining to operate the system, starter,  fan, lights, or sometimes all at the same time.

Let's say for any reason the bike does not like to start "as usual" (bad fuel, it fell over, etc...) and it is hot outside, wouldn't you not want to have ALL the possible battery capacity to get it back running again, especially when with a Grand Vista you can't push-start?  So, here we come to my opposition of using the kill switch: if in hot weather the fan keeps on running, one talks to a neighbor, and the lights are still on, and at the same time one holds the brake lever (which activates the more power consuming brake light); doing this for a minute a weaker/older battery has probably used up already quite some capacity for really "nothing". If one goes click, click (kill - ignition switch), I have no problem, but why not use ONE switch (except your argument for programming the brain for an emergency situation; but for how long do you need to program? years?).... 

I have seen with my own eyes exactly the above example  mentioned and then the rider wondered why his Cruiser did not start and the battery had not enough capacity.  I agree with you, a newer healthy battery wouldn't have much issue with it, but use of "capacity" is also ONE factor in "life expectancy" of the battery.   The less stress on the battery during its life, the longer it lasts.  FYI: I just yesterday replaced a battery that had perfect Voltage but NO capacity any longer. (cranking amps)...  it was 11 years old when it "quit".  With that said, I think I have done something right