Cycle World Service

CYCLE WORLD SERVICE

Keeping your Kaw cool

I have a 1980 Kawasaki 1300 and use it to pull a large Cycle Kamp trailer. I’ve also experienced overheating problems while doing so. A call to Kawasaki received the response, “We’re not surprised; the bike wasn’t built to pull a trailer.” My Gold Wing had run borderline hot but never boiled while pulling

the same trailer, but I wanted to keep the Kawasaki.

Here’s how I solved the problem. I bought a small add-on cooler intended for an RV from J.C. Whitney. Then I pulled the Kawasaki radiator off and drilled two holes in it, one at the aluminum tank at the bottom, the other in the aluminum tank at the top. Next I found some aluminum tubing the right size and welded it in the holes. After doing that, I mounted the J.C. Whitney cooler in front of the radiator and plumbed it into the tubes. That cured the overheating problems.

Bob Colley Cypress, California

Yours is a fairly involved but functional solution to an overheating problem. There are other liquid-cooled motorcycles out there that provide marginal cooling under really extreme conditions (Honda 750 V-Fours and rKawasaki 900 Ninjas, for example). If anyone else has found a creative solution to these problems, we’d like to hear about it so we could publish it in a future Service column.

Plexiglass tips

I saw your article on cutting plexiglass in the April, 1984 Cycle World, and have a few things to add. After you’re done cutting, you can use progressively finer grades of sandpaper and then rubbing compound to make the edges crystal-clear. Also, regular automotive paste wax does a great job of keeping the shield clear and shiny.

Pat Maloney Canonsburg, Pennsylvania