Thoughts on temperature/general lubrication questions

Hello to all,
My '87 Interstate seems to run a little on the hot side (here in CA everything does). The gauge in town reads about 2/3 toward the hot and then the fan kicks on. I've never owned a water cooled bike, so this could be normal? The good news is.. the fan comes on. I'm going to wait until October to pull it apart for a full maintenance including timing belts and radiator hoses. Should I put a lower temp thermostat in? or am I just paranoid now that I have a temp gauge to obsess over? Now on to other stuff- What weight of oil is recommended? the manual just says 4 stroke Honda. Everything else in my life uses Castrol 10/40. I want to lube up the rear splines, do I have to buy the magic Honda stuff? I'm sorry for all the questions. I will be digging more into this site and try to solve my other questions. Thanks in advance for any input on these matters. :thanks:

Welcome to CGW. For your location, water temp and oil viscosity seem right. You want to use a spline lube sparingly, it tends to have throw excess lube out, but use a good water resistant at least with a Moly 45 base and you should be good.

3/4 is where mine kicks in as well and so it did with my old sensor and so I have heard others say the same where theirs kicks in..In normal temps in So Cal mine would rarely come on except in heavy stop and go it would kick in regularly, something like freeway jams but always cooled it down to 1/2 gauge. think your just worried like I was but don`t ignore off it either..my temp sensor sensor died once and went beyond 3/4 but never in the red..wasn't sure how long that went on, I got comfortable with it just working.
Guard dog moly 525 seems well regarded for spline lube, lots of choices for rear spline lube out there.
Oil for me is just a quality diesel rated oil, your dont want friction modifiers with a wet clutch, 15/40 is the weight.

Welcome from Oz

Welcome to the fun. :hi:

1200s do run hotter it seems ...the radiator is smaller than the 1000 or 1100 radiators ....so I'd watch it ...on the plus side coolant flow is 12 percent more on 1200s.....welcome to classic

Welcome to the Forum and enjoy!

Thanks to all for the good info! Greatly appreciated. Really enjoying the bike and this forum. There are not many 30 plus year old bikes that are so well supported (and reliable). We are the caretakers of these ancient machines. They truly are the "gold standard" for touring motorcycles.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=195495#p195495:36mlbikw said:

'87GWTraveler » Today, 12:58 pm[/url]":36mlbikw]
... We are the caretakers of these ancient machines...

Click to expand...

Ancient!? I'm not sure I like the sound of that. :smilie_happy:

Actually, "Classic" does sound a little better.

But, we are still their caretakers. It is sobering, in many cases, to see them being handed off to the next generation by those who nursed them along so far. May they continue to receive the attention they need and deserve!

Sadly, :crying: not very likely. :nea: