pars wrote:
> The thermostat is still orginal. But I'm kinda leery about replacing
> it. I've had past situations where the new thermostat didn't work. I
> wouldn't want to throw out a perfectly good one (that's proven itself)
> for a defective one.

if you buy oem, there's really very little chance of that.

> The radiator has seen 280,000km and the fins are
> beatup to hell and almost flat across the board.

that makes it a good candidate! especially in this situation where it's
working ok whole driving, but overheating while stationary.

> Even thow, the engine
> bay is huge for such a small engine (very airy), so even a bad rad is
> probably still ok.

bay size has nothing to do with it. there's just no way the surface of
the block can dissipate sufficient heat to keep the motor cool. think
about how many times the surface area of a finned motorcycle cylinder
compares to that of an unfinned cylinder. the ratio is something like
100:1.

> But, I'll have to keep an eye on it when the weather
> starts to get realy hot.

sure, but an ounce of prevention [thermostat, clean rad, maybe rad cap]
is a damned sight cheaper than a few thousand dollars of cure!