Radiator and Oil Cooler cowling

I hadn't got around to fitting the final part of my fairing. It is a plastic cowling or duct that fits between the radiator and oil cooler, behind the front mudguard. The air is getting cooler now we are firmly into the autumn months. I thought it would be good to try it when the heat is easiest for the cooling system to deal with.

The cowling itself is made from a different type of plastic compared to the fairing itself. It is more rigid and, I hope, heat resistant. It has an aluminium heat shield patch on the rear, corresponding to a fitted position just in front of the exhausts.

It is retained by eight screws that wind into spring clips and two M6 bolts that also secure the top of the oil cooler.

I'd bought some replacement clips from Lings as part of a larger order. I decided to use stainless self-tapping replacements for the original black screws and dabbed Waxoyl on the clips to keep corrosion at bay. The M6 bolts were also replace with stainless alternatives: in this case, button-head screws with stainless penny washers.

One thought I had was that the cowling could improve cooling by forming a dam of cool air when the bike is in motion, rather than the cool air 'escaping' through the gap between the radiator and the cooler. In slow traffic, it would be of limited value or worse, with the exhaust being unable to radiator or convect heat back out to the front of the machine. Then again, when the fan engages, it could benefit from the fact that only cool air could be drawn through the radiator rather than hot air spilling back out from the exhausts.

A short ride tonight didn't really prove anything other than that the cooling system is behaving predictably and the fan came on after idling stationary for a while. Fair enough.