Continuation from the previous post.
The next hurdle was to get to the hose that sits behind the headers. Arguably this is the hose that might have gotten the worst of the heat cycles with the front facing the headers and the rear facing the hot engine block.
It took a few minutes to wiggle it out and get the new one fitted on account of a lack of space but in the end, it was done.
The last piece of the puzzle ![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-samco35.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372139d1687017282t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-samco35.jpeg)
With that, we were done with the fitment of all the hoses and this is how it looked.
Left side
Right side ![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-samco36.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372142d1687017282t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-samco36.jpeg)
And here is a photo of all the hoses that were removed.
Almost 10 years of usage, beaten up but not broken ![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-samco34.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372143d1687017282t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-samco34.jpeg)
We were about to get moving on fitting the reservoir when we noticed there was one hose left that was not replaced. This hose comes out of the water pump and connects to a metal coolant pipe. But we reached the kit but could not find a replacement hose for it.
The one that got away!
We thought we misplaced that particular hose but then we checked the number of clamps we had and we had used up all the clamps provided. Now the hose and clamps come as separate kits so there is no chance that we lost a hose as the clamp was a completely sealed kit when we opened it as opposed to the hose kit which I had opened earlier last year.
So decide to move on and that I would place an order for the OEM hose for that one alone with the clamps and also shoot a mail to Samco if not including the hose for that location was an intentional decision from their end just to be sure it was not a mistake.
Anyways. Now all that was left to do was fit the reservoir and fill up the coolant and bleed the system by doing 3-4 coolant cycles and then in the end top it up to the required levels. Took us about another 2-3 hours to do it as each time the thermostat opened and the coolant is circulated we have to cut off the engine and let the engine cool down and then repeat the process.
But after 3 hours the job was done and the reservoir was topped up. Notice how the engine ice color remains as is even after multiple cycles of the coolant have passed through the engine.
Ice ice baby! 80's and 90's kids will know
![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-samco37.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372151d1687017282t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-samco37.jpeg)
This was because we did a proper deep clean/flush of the coolant from the engine and the radiator. And this paid its dividends right away. I'll explain in further detail in the shakedown run report.
Anyways all buttoned up
A short 5 km of initial shakedown test ride was done and found no leaks. I wanted to do a longer shakedown run but it had already become 7-8 pm.
So decided to take her home and do a 500kms shakedown run early the next day as it all turned out I had to be at home in Kerala the very next day. Was it the smartest idea? Definitely not, but then again I never claim to be a smart man, so doesn't really matter.
So now let's get to the business end of things. Initial impressions and changes felt. This is where I was properly blown away.
To date, I have put on over 750kms on the bike so far and I have ridden it in almost all climatic conditions from Heavy rain to scorching heat to very heavy foggy patches and bumper-to-bumper traffic. So basically it was baptism by fire for the poor Samco hose as it went through every possible climatic variation in just 2 rides.
I'll start with a general feel of the bike and then get into a detailed breakdown of how the bike performed coolant temperature-wise with a direct before-after list.
General Impression:
The bike just runs smoother, all across the rev range up until the higher RPMs where a slight bit of vibrations have crept in. This is in no way a direct output of the Samco hose, we must not forget that we had also done many other changes including new spark plugs, intake valves were cleaned out of carbon deposits and the TB was given a proper thorough deep clean. This all contributed to the extra smoothness the R1 now has.
The most astonishing part was that I filled up the tank with 100 octane at the end of the day post collecting the bike and only 6 ltrs went in. So the rest of the 12 liters that were in was 95 octane. And I stopped at the usual pump about 40kms post-Salem towards the Coimbatore side where I always fuel up and I was surprised that the meter cut off at less than the usual amount of fuel dispensed. I was confused and I parked the bike out of the way and took out my calculator what I saw just blew me away. I just recorded 21.5kmpl on the R1. Immediately called Karthick and in a rather anti-climatic way, he was not surprised he said it was to be expected because of all the mods including the cooling system mod we had just done.
Called Xaos636 and told the same news and he called me a liar because now the R1 just gave around the same FE the blade does, I don't think he took the news well.
Anyways, I have to add that this was with riding at a slower pace of about 80kmph for a good 160-180kms in 6th gear because of the blinding rains I had ridden through and the rest of the kms until fueling was a rather constant 120kmph cruising speeds. So the output was based on best possible external factors.
So I happily filled up and rode the next batch of kms shifting at much higher rpm and at a much higher ambient temperature (it was post 9am and it started to get hot) with some hard downshifts with a lot of rev matching and overrun pops and crackles just to test what average I'd get, before all teh mods this kind of riding gave around 12kmpl at best, but this time I got around 14.8kmpl which is a clear improvement, to say the least.
![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-fullsizerender-2.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372173d1687017340t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-fullsizerender-2.jpeg)
So up until this point it has been purely highway miles with little to no traffic problems. Next refueling was done at Palakkad town and now the torture begins, rode around 80kms at noon and parked the bike. So that's about 500kms done. Then a few days later Xaos636 and me decided to meet up and do a Palakkad - Kuthiran(Tunnel blast) - Thrissur - Palakkad loop (Add a Palakkad - Calicut stretch for Xaos636) which took us through ideal conditions in the start to some high rpm rides in between to bumper to bumper traffic towards the end of the ride and this time the fuel light came on and filled up the tank and the average was still at 14.9 kmpl. So yeah. I think it's safe to say the bike post the mods have made the bike a lot smoother and now gives a better FE too. But what about the vibes at higher rpm that creep in that I said, yes, that is there and after the last refill I started to see the rpm fluctuating slightly at idle which tells me from experience that it's time to do a TB sync. This exact thing has happened to me before and it was when the TB was out of sync. I'll be getting it done soon.
![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-img_7484.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372167d1687017340t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-img_7484.jpeg)
Now let's get into exclusively the changes that Samco hoses did. So let me break it down to how the temperatures show up now versus how it was before the samco and pure engine ice combo did.
Early morning rides (4 am-7 am)
Before Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 80 degree celcius
After Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 71-75 degree celcius
Normal riding conditions
Before Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 95-99 degree celcius
After Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 85-88 degree celsius
Moderate traffic condition
Before Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 105-115 degree celcius
After Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 100-105 degree celsius
Bumper to Bumper traffic
Before Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 110-115 degree celcius
After Samco mods, avg coolant temp observed: 105-109 degree celsius
Again, this is not purely from the Samco mods, this is the Samco mods with a clean non-cross contaminated Engine Ice coolant. Engine Ice in itself claims a few degrees of drop in coolant temps and that combined with Samco has given me this top result. I fully understand it might be a bit tough to believe, heck even Xaos636 didn't believe me when I said it to him, but I gave him the R1 to ride in open conditions and even the bumper-to-bumper conditions and he got to experience the difference this combination made and he can attest to the results I have penned down here.
![Review: My Yamaha R1 (WGP 50th Anniversary Edition)-img_7497.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/superbikes-imports/2372170d1687017340t-review-my-yamaha-r1-wgp-50th-anniversary-edition-img_7497.jpeg)
Now, apart from the lower temps something else that I discovered was that in bumper-to-bumper traffic my boots do heat up and I can feel the heat radiating from the engine but unlike before I just cannot feel the heat on my thighs at all, it is lukewarm at best, what I realised was that as I had read/heard about the positives of the Samco hose before the hoses hold in the heat from the coolant pretty well as opposed to a lot of heat dissipation from the rubber coolant hoses which you feel near your legs and thighs. This has really made riding the bike in bumper-to-bumper traffic much easier than before.
Final Findings
But all of this comes at a price. I had paid around 20k INR to purchase this product from Revzilla and a friend carried it for me when he was visiting. If you want to order it directly to India add another 40 dollars in shipping and 42% of the 20k in customs duty. That realistically puts it around the high 40k mark to get the hose and clamp kit. So is it really it? Well, I have to say for the average rider, not really. Let me explain, a set of OEM hoses on average across all manufacturers would cost about less than 15k to get. I'm not counting Yamaha in because of the fact that you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting parts on time, but the rest of the manufacturers seem to be delivering parts in a reasonable period of time. Then comes the lifespan, yes Samco hoses are set for life but the OEM rubber hoses do last at least 5-6 years and an average superbike user doesn't even own these bikes for half as long(no offense meant) so shelling out a huge amount for the hose no matter how god they are is just not a good idea.
Then comes the usage part, from my honest feedback on pure highway runs even though I could see the coolant temp ran 5-8 degrees cooler I just could not feel any difference in how I felt the heat on the bike, at highway speeds you are never going to have the problem of heat radiating onto your body, that a slow speed/city traffic riding problem and for someone who only rides their Superbikes on the highway I would have to say that it just is extreme overkill.
So yeah if you look at all these factors, even though I would give the Samco hoses steller rating it is just not worth the price tag unless you can avoid paying shipping and the ridiculous customs duty and/or you own a Yamaha in India ofcourse.
Well, that's about the complete finding I had to report post the changes. I hope it wasn't a big boring report and was actually interesting to read. I have sprinkled in a few picks from the latest ride in this post, enjoy!
Fin!
Cheers
Krishna