colour blind

[Bob]

Well I?ve had my bike for 3 months now and I?ve been thinking about changing the colour of it. It is currently the standard red and I was thinking of re-spraying it black (yeah I know!) the problem that I have is I live in a part of Australia that gets over 40 degrees (excuse my maths but well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit)  I have heard that the darker colour makes the fuel boil, as I?ve stated before I?m no mechanic but I?m assuming that boiling fuel is not a good thing.   I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this and if there was something that I could do to keep the tank cool. Of course there is nothing wrong with red and I may be saving myself a lot of money and trouble staying with the stock standard colour.

[Kenny]

  Hi Bob,
      I'm in the process of repainting one of our 83's, I'm not sure what colour I will go for maybe the same red that is part of the 83 red/white paint or a bright yellow.
    If your bike is an 83 it will have a black insulation panel on the tank lower exterior ,this along with the fuel return line from the carbs helps to keep the fuel cool. On the 82 I had with the Hannigan fairing I picked up some silver (reflective) insulation which had one sticky  side and attached it to the tank underside.
     The only time I had any tank related fuel problems was during extreme temps when fueling,and that was solved by useing the pump an a slow setting.
        Hope this works down under.
                         Cheers Ken S
                                

[Blake]

hey Bob,

I've had a wide variety of colors on my vision, and havent had a problem.  First summer i got it, it was the stock factory grey, then went to a white primer for a while, then a BRIGHT yellow, and now i have mine the stock black.  All of them have been pretty good, and i've never had fuel boil in any of them.  And now, one of my friends is currently painting the tank and bodywork a yamaha blue (i said i'd let him paint flames on it, since that was the deal-we'll see how that looks).   but concidering the color of the bike, the hottest it's ever gotten around here in Washington DC, is about upper 90's (no higher than 37C for you) but in the summer it's the average ranges between 70's on a cool day to about 95 mid summer (20C-35C).  and going in bumper to bumper traffic i've stilll never had a problem with fuel boiling.  but when you say the temp gets well over 105 (40C), i would strongly suggest going against black, if not for the fuel risk, but for the simple fact of how hot that metal is going to get.   but in the end, it simply comes down to what ever floats your boat.  if your going to be doing a lot of highway driving, black shouldnt be a problem with fuel boiling.




Blake

[Blake]

Oh hey kenny,

if you want to see what a yellow 82 with sport shark fairing (thats unfortunately black) looks like, i got pictures of mine on yahoo clubs.  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ridersofvision/

take a look under pictures, in the subfolder (before crash) i have a few pictures with the yellow bodywork, black shark fairing and engine guard.


hope this helps you out,

Blake