mhpcto
2Strokes4Ever
I have the '07 F4 1000R. Beautiful, great handler, great power. By far the biggest problems is overheating. At ambient temps of 80 degrees and above it will overheat if you go slower than 40mph - forget stopping. When they decided to pack a 1000cc engine in the frame and body work designed for a 750, they completely neglected to update the cooling system.
They added a lower radiator but that sits right in front of the hot exhaust pipes and probably does more harm than good.
The body work is too tight and there is not enough air-flow through the radiator at low speeds.
MV released an updated water pump (larger impeller) a couple of years after I bought the bike, which I installed and also did following additional mods trying to cure the overheating problem:
1. aftermarket fan blades (metal instead of plastic - the plastic ones actually melt) for slightly better air-flow
2. fan controller with temperature sensor to control the upper and lower radiator fans to activate them much earlier than the stock settings (one kicks in at 85 and the other at 90 celsius). Stock settings are useless. By the time the fans kick in, you only have about 90 seconds before you hit 107 celsius at a stop
3. removed the catalytic converter (slightly better exhaust gas flow)
4. different coolant mixtures for added heat transfer
It all helps a bit, but does not change the fundamental problem of low speed overheating at even moderate ambient temps. Ambient temps over 90 basically means you leave the bike in the garage. The high coolant temperatures, frequent overheating (any temps above 100 celsius) and the resulting pressure in the system has blown my stock radiator three times. Every time I get that fixed, I loose a bit more radiator surface. Sooner or later it will need to get replaced.
I typically commute from Santa Cruz over Hwy9 . All the way to Boulder Creek it's touch'n'go and I typically run at close to, or above, boiling - basically 30-40mph traffic. Once you open it up, it will still run hot (85-95 celsius) but if you keep her in the 70-90 mph range, you're golden. Just don't get stuck at a stop light in Saratoga for too long or you'll hit the magic 107 celsius and it's time to shut her down.
Unsuitable if you have to drive in city traffic.
Oh yeah - there is an Italian made racing radiator that, instead of two radiators (upper and lower) is a single unit using the entire frontal area, that would probably work pretty well if fitted with fans ... but it's a cool 3000 Euro.
