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[chdfarl]

Only with the oil and a few fittings that would need drilling and tapping. I don't know how or if the fluid movement in the motor would interact with magnetic flux if at all. You could do a few other things with water cooling too without opening up or drilling your motor.
One other thing in my last post I said only if you mount the radiator in the front of the bike but in truth you could mount it at the rear if the air was routed to the back. In that case it might be simpler to route some tubes for air flow to the motor. By the way that's the kind of stuff that I do to ICE bikes so if your in the New England/New York area or really on the east coast I'd be happy to troubleshoot any non-electronic issues that your facing with your electric motos. Particularly lightening, cooling or custom body or chassis mods.

[Doug S]

Since this thread seems to be completely hijacked already, let me try to dispel a little bit of confusion regarding air vs. liquid cooling.

First, many people believe a liquid-cooling system can dump more heat than an air-cooled system. But think about it -- ultimately, either system dumps the heat into the airstream. Liquid-cooling systems just do it at the radiator, rather than right at the heat source.

It's also commonly believed that air-cooled systems are more vulnerable than liquid-cooling systems to high ambient temperature conditions, but that's not always true. Light airplane pilots can tell you that often, air-cooled engines perform better in high temperatures than liquid-cooled engines.

In reality, the primary advantage of liquid-cooling systems is that you can bring the heat to the airstream, rather than the other way around. It's easy to design a radiator of whatever size necessary, mount it in an ideal place in the airstream, and pump the heat there using the liquid coolant. This can be a pretty considerable advantage.

A second main advantage of liquid cooling is the ability to thermostat the cooling system. That helps the motor get up to temperature faster, since you're not cooling it until it needs it. That's not especially useful for an electric motor, which doesn't have tight mechanical clearances that perform best when they're kept close to their ideal operating temperature (think sealing a combustion chamber on an ICE).

Of course, the downside of liquid cooling is extra weight, complexity and more failure points. Sometimes the design compromise makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. Obviously, Brammo went one way, Zero went another. Personally, I think the Zero design meets the needs of the vehicle at a lower cost, lower weight, and lower failure rate.

[chdfarl]

There is no confusion I feel the same way in regards to electrical system cooling but the Zeros could use some air flow to the motor like I said.
And the Zeros seem to be the bikes that are overheating. (the enertias did overheat too due to the same lack of air flow)

In Of course, the downside of liquid cooling is extra weight, complexity and more failure points. Sometimes the design compromise makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. Obviously, Brammo went one way, Zero went another. Personally, I think the Zero design meets the needs of the vehicle at a lower cost, lower weight, and lower failure rate.

[Doug S]

...the Zeros could use some air flow to the motor like I said.

That's certainly true if you're going to race one. The cooling on my SR is marginal for street use -- I haven't had it reduce power on me yet, but I have made the light blink by driving in excess of 75 mph on the freeway on hot San Diego days.

I wish the cooling was better on my bike -- it would only take some ductwork in the existing plastic bodywork pieces to provide much better airflow. But for my uses, which don't include racing, it's adequate as is. And I suspect that unless you're going to be racing one VERY hard, improved airflow over/through the motor would be adequate without going to a water jacket and giant radiator.

[Patrick Truchon]

Just stumbled on a youtube video where the racer seems to have done that: 

Here are some screenshots.  There seems to be a fan at the intake, but I wonder if that's necessary.

[rayivers]

For dry condtions above 15mph or so, I wonder if replacing the FX skid plate with a longer/wider one spaced 1/4" or so off the frame bottom and curving up around the rear motor fins to just below the swingarm crossmember might help.  That front heat sink traps and channels a lot of air, it would be cool to shoot it up along the back of the motor - and maybe the front too, if some holes were drilled in the right places.

Ray

[chdfarl]

Just stumbled on a youtube video where the racer seems to have done that: 

Here are some screenshots.  There seems to be a fan at the intake, but I wonder if that's necessary.

Cool (HaHa cool cooling I wasn't even trying)  the video shows it at around 1:00 but that tube is only pointing at the top couple inches of the fins. Not what I meant but that is the very basic concept. The fan looks like a "vortex" intake thingamajig that they put on auto intakes to swirl the air going in the motor. Its not likely of use. Ill gladly build a duct for free for one person that emails me the diameter of the motor at the top and bottom of the fins. Or If your in of around New England.

[Richard230]

That looks a lot like what Zero did with their 2011 models to cool the motor, except they pulled the air from behind the rear of the seat (through a hole in the rear fairing) and used a fan to force the air into the open motor to help keep it cool.

[chdfarl]

I seriously doubt that setup cools anything besides the top fins and the fan is an obstruction to the natural air flow.