daveinva
New member
Weather was nice today so I had plenty of time to putz around the bike in the driveway for some routine maintenance and cleaning. Tightening bolts, removing tupperware, checking hoses/wires/connections, etc., etc.
The good news? Everything seems to be in tip-top shape. I was somewhat motivated to do this inspection by all the recent stories here at SL about bad hoses and the like. While I still unfortunately have relatively low mileage on my RS (only ~16K... wish I could ride more!!), the bike's over two years old, so I wanted to make sure nothing's rotting or anything. Nope, all good!
The bad news? OHGODWHEREDIDMYCOOLANTGO??? :shocked:
If you separate the coolant reservoir into thirds at the minimum and maximum fill lines, I had only a *sixth* of the reservoir full... not even up to the minimum fill line! I checked it a little while back, it all seemed okay, and I try to keep it topped off, but as all Spyder owners frustratingly know, it can be next to impossible to tell how much coolant's in that tank just by looking through the frunk. Thankfully, with all the side tupperware off today, it was easy to see how little coolant I had left.
Now, here's the crazy part: nothing's leaking, nothing's cracked. I've never had any coolant on the driveway, and I don't recall any pooled under the bike when I park at work. :dontknow:
The only thing I can guess-- other than perhaps I was just a moron and had misread how full the reservoir was the last time I checked it-- is that I may not have tightened the cap all the way the last time I topped it off, and so the coolant boiled off/evaporated/was siphoned off by thirsty hobos. Who knows?
All I *do* know is that I'm glad I checked it before something really annoying, or worse, happened out on the road.
So, moral of my story: if you're having trouble checking your coolant reservoir through your frunk, it's only a couple minutes more to remove the tupperware to get a good look at it, and know for sure if you're low. :thumbup:
The good news? Everything seems to be in tip-top shape. I was somewhat motivated to do this inspection by all the recent stories here at SL about bad hoses and the like. While I still unfortunately have relatively low mileage on my RS (only ~16K... wish I could ride more!!), the bike's over two years old, so I wanted to make sure nothing's rotting or anything. Nope, all good!
The bad news? OHGODWHEREDIDMYCOOLANTGO??? :shocked:
If you separate the coolant reservoir into thirds at the minimum and maximum fill lines, I had only a *sixth* of the reservoir full... not even up to the minimum fill line! I checked it a little while back, it all seemed okay, and I try to keep it topped off, but as all Spyder owners frustratingly know, it can be next to impossible to tell how much coolant's in that tank just by looking through the frunk. Thankfully, with all the side tupperware off today, it was easy to see how little coolant I had left.
Now, here's the crazy part: nothing's leaking, nothing's cracked. I've never had any coolant on the driveway, and I don't recall any pooled under the bike when I park at work. :dontknow:
The only thing I can guess-- other than perhaps I was just a moron and had misread how full the reservoir was the last time I checked it-- is that I may not have tightened the cap all the way the last time I topped it off, and so the coolant boiled off/evaporated/was siphoned off by thirsty hobos. Who knows?
All I *do* know is that I'm glad I checked it before something really annoying, or worse, happened out on the road.
So, moral of my story: if you're having trouble checking your coolant reservoir through your frunk, it's only a couple minutes more to remove the tupperware to get a good look at it, and know for sure if you're low. :thumbup:
