Warm Pillion Rack

[Bio]

So, I may be overreacting a bit on this, but I figure it's better to look silly and make sure it's nothing...

Today I rode home in a light rain with my day bag strapped on the bare pillion rack. When I got into the garage at home, I noticed a warm engine/plastic smell. I figured brakes or engine were just warm and it was normal. But I came back out to the garage about 10 minutes later and the smell was still lingering.

I happened to brush my hand on the plastic pillion rack when securing my straps for the night and noticed the exhaust side of the rack and the factory grab handle on the exhaust side were noticeably warm to the touch. Not hot, but definitely warmer than I would have thought. The exhaust and plastic exhaust cover were both cool to the touch as ever, but the grab handle and pillion surface were very warm.

Is this normal in any way? If not, I can only think there may be a short that was warming up that area, or maybe an exhaust leak? As I said, I might just be succumbing to 'new baby' syndrome and making a mountain out of it, but thought I'd be sure rather than sorry.

 

[Koinz]

Never noticed that before, but maybe the plastic retains the heat longer from the radiating heat of the muffler.
The electrical to the back of the bike is pretty minimal. Led brake lights and turn signals so I can't imagine anything getting warm there.

I assume you have a stock muffler. Isn't that one piece all the way to swing arm connection?

Put a nice steel Altrider rack on it and be done with it.

 

[tomatocity]

Not directly related but related to exhaust heat.

Original Tenere was a 2012. Current Tenere is a 2015.

2012: installed the Lower Left Side Case Bracket. I mounts under the Left Passenger Peg Bracket and I did NOT notice a heat shield behind this bracket.
2015: installed the Lower Left Side Case Bracket. I mounts under the Left Passenger Peg Bracket and I DID find a heat shield behind this bracket.

Guessing there is a heat problem with the Exhaust Pipe heating up the passenger peg bracket. Got to wonder if the heat could affect other parts.

Did you have side cases mounted that might channel heat up to the grab rails?

 

[Bio]

It's really strange. I rode it this morning and noticed no heat at all on the rack or handle.

I DID notice that the smell seems to be coming from the well behind the headlights. It's a warm electrical plastic smell. I noticed it about half way to work when I stopped to gas up. When I got to work, there was no smell at all.


Wondering if it might be the headlight recall? I bought this 2013 just a month or so ago and have a hair of 1000 miles on it so far. I would guess that a dealership would perform the warranty/recall work before selling the bike, but I could be wrong? (see: http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=10776.0)

 

[Koinz]

The dealer should be able to tell you if the recall was performed from the S/N of the bike. I think there was also some identifying marks they had to do on the bike to make sure it was done. The small headlight harness wiring is a heavier gauge wire to minimize the resistance in the wiring,. The problem was that the Headlight connector would get too hot and get deformed resulting in a bad connection to the headlight.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Twist the light covers off and shine a light in there, it gets pretty obvious when things are getting hot in there. The black headlight connector gets pretty distorted. Surprisingly, it did seem like it was the right hand connector more often than not.

 

[Bio]

Just hopped out and checked. No obvious damage to the headlight connectors behind the covers. I checked around looking for loose/melted cables, but don't see anything in the fork well. Is there a method for knowing if my headlights have been done? I see the R1 wires are connected differently so you can tell easier. Is the Tenere the same way?

 

[Bio]

Reviving this as I have new info that might help someone tell me if I'm insane or not. ::012::



The warm pillion rack has happened a couple of times again, but not every ride, which is weird. Yesterday, it was still very warm about ten minutes after getting home, so I went to work. I took the plastic cover off the pillion area to investigate. It seems that the top-most attachment point for my stock exhaust is the culprit. It is getting very hot and warming the subframe and the pillion plastic box.

I noticed when pulling off the cover that the pillion cover has a metal lining on the exhaust side, which I can only assume is to draw heat away from a passengers legs and/or the plastic itself. The very presence of this metal liner makes me think this is something that all bikes do, but I'm just being unsettled by as a new owner?

Anyone care to chime in based on this info?




Also:

The random warm/hot plastic smell seems to be coming from under the gas tank. I put the sniffer to work each time I noticed the smell and think I've tracked it down to something in the engine/tank area. I'll have to take the bike apart a little and see, but I suspect that the sudden onset of it might have been due to the vacuum hoses and battery tender I added. One of them might be resting on something hot. We'll have to see once I lift the tank.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Petroleum products can give off a warm smell as they cook off as well. Keep an eye out for an oil leak too.