Whats up guys..
Haven't been on in a long long time. Working and riding too much. I just ran into a problem and was wondering if you guys have any ideas to get me back in the trails.. The other day I went riding and the next day I noticed coolent on the floor of my shed. I traced it out and found that I had punctured a very small hole in the bottom of the longer coolent hose. It was at the very bottom just on top of the nipple coming out by the hose clamp. I was able to just move the hose down a little and move the hose clamp up a hair to prevent the leak without pinching the hose or anything just for a temp fix till I get the new one. I added some coolent wich wasn't much to get it back up to level in the reserve. I then went riding yesterday and about 20min into the ride the bike started to back fire and loose power. when I would let go of the clutch it would start to stall and bog down but at idle and in neutral it seemed normal. I was thinking it might be over heating or something. It wasn't loosing fluid so I couldn't figure anything out and had to get a tow home. Then when i got home the bike started running fine after it cooled off. just now today I started her up warmed her up and went for a lil blast in the drive way. It was running fine but I noticed it seemed like the engine was getting hotter than usual. I let it run for a little longer just standing in neutral and then the little coolent red light on the controls turned red for the first time. I just shut her down right away. I'm working on it right now and just hope You guys could throw some ideas my way.

I just spent alot of time going over everything. The only thing I noticed is that the actual radiotor was really low with fluid. I don"t think it was filling from the reserve because it never losted that much from the reserve and im thinking the day I ripped the hose I could of lost alot of coolent and still rode for awhile without noticing, I checked the manual and it said if the bike overheats it could cause severe damage. Any clue of what kind of severe damage can happen from overheating?. I filled it up tryed it out and the overheat light wasn't going on but as soon as I got in gear and release the clutch the bike just starts bogging down and just not performing right.
Thanks
The Kids Gotta Ride

 

If any one has any ideas on the problem, I'd really apreciate any thought's. I really want to avoid going to the shop if I could.

 

Make sure you have enough coolant in the engine. When you lose coolant and fill the bottle it might need more coolant and the system needs to be purged of air or burped as the say. The thermostat when stuck closed will overheat an engine in five to ten minutes even if all else is good. check the oil for mixing of coolant and oil indicating a bad seal in the water pump or busted head gasket. have you noticed any smoke coming out of the pipe. If it is overheating does the fan come on at all. Is the water pump spinning. The hose running from the coolant reservoir to the radiator can be clogged and the engine cannot draw coolant when needed if the level inside the engine is low. In my last couple of cooling system checks I would top off the coolant bottle and the radiator and run th bike for about fifteen minutes without the radiator cap, if the pump is working and the thermostat is good when it opens it will swallow the coolant/wter mix from the radiator into the engine and burp air bubbles, at this point top off radiator and repeat until level is constant. CAUTION if the thermostat of pump is not working water will spit out of the radiator when it boils so Proceed at your own risk and be very carefull. Avoid staring directly into the radiator !!!

I hope I shed some light on the subject to help with your problem.

 

Sorry you asked what type of damage if the engine overheats.

Burned head gasket. Will allow compression into cooling system or coolant into cylinder

Warped head. Will no longer seal and leak some coolant or compression.

SEize the piston to the cylinder.

Those are some of things that can happen..