Ambiant tempurature display?

[Uncle Hud]

Bill Lumberg posted: I just look at it as if my bike is wearing a hat, misdjudging the temp a bit on the high side. I ride below freezing fairly frequently in the winter. It's nice to know how close to the forecasted temp it really is where you're riding. Also nice to note a quick drop as an alert to hitting a front, where I might not notice in full gear.

What he said, hybridized by what FredW said ten posts ago.

If it's mid-30s and cloudy, I'll think carefully about whether bridges are already wet, or if it looks like precipitation is imminent. No worries if the sun's out, because pavement temps (including concrete) are always warmer than ambient air temperatures.

Most of our winter precip in north Georgia is sleet or freezing rain. We do get occasional snow days, but will always have twice as many days with ice. That means we usually get slippery stuff without the pretty white landscapes.

 

[rhun]

Guess one could change the sensor and see what happens. Insulate the mounting bracket to minimise heat transfer, As the sensor is a heat reostat you could experiment with various resistor values in series or parallel until it was more acruate. Also I do believe that freezing tempurature like boiling temperature changes with altitude. Drag a toe occasionally to see how slick the surface is and to see how much sand is there.

 

[08FJR4ME]

I bought a suctoin cup thermometer and stuck it to the windscreen. It was to dark on the way to work to read it. About 2/3'rd's of the the way there I heard something bounce off the gas tank.

Gone, so much for that test.

Dave

 

[BigOgre]

My honest apologies Dave but I just had a good laugh at your expense. Glad I wasn't drinking coffee or something at the moment.

 

[Fred W]

+1 - Thanks for the chuckle.

:lol:

 

[El Toro]

We had some sunshine today, and the thermometer on tha back porch said it was 38, so I hopped on the Rocket III Touring, hid behind the tall windshield, and went north and to higher elevations.

I'm glad the R3T does not know the temperature. Ignorance is bliss. If I'd known how cold it actually was, I'd not have had nearly as much fun.

 

[HotRodZilla]

How will you know the stick-on thermometer is correct? 4 guys standing together looking at their cell phones can get 4 different temperature reports. I'm asking because I really don't know: Who has the official calibrated temperature for any given area?

 

[MrZappo]

No one has the "official" temp if there is such a thing. Maybe NOAA would be the closest thing. But they only update the information hourly so that is never accurate especially in the morning when temp changes by the minute sometimes.

Most of the accurate readings feeding web pages or cell phone apps are sourced from regional airports near the city referenced. Airports have the most accurate sensing equipment as proper readings are pretty important for flying.

But, temps can vary a few degrees only a mile from the source.

And sun beating on asphalt totally changes everything as well. The only real reading is the true air temp. Actually very hard to come by without proper equipment.

How do I know this ? We'll for one I am a little crazy. And, I had to find proper temp sensors for a facility I manage. We have a sensor from a company called "rainwise" which gives us actual air temp within .1 degrees unaffected by sun.

It cost $3000.00.

You could probably call them and have one adapted for the FJR.

Or you could do like I do and live with the free one included with the bike

 

[08FJR4ME]

How do I know this ? We'll for one I am a little crazy. And, I had to find proper temp sensors for a facility I manage. We have a sensor from a company called "rainwise" which gives us actual air temp within .1 degrees unaffected by sun.

Na, not crazy but I wouldn't mind knowing why you would need to have such an expensive temp devise? But then you might have to kill me.

Dave

 

[gggGary]

Thing is air temp doesn't have much to do with ROAD temp. I have a section of road bordered by a heavy pine woods on the way to town. There can be ice there even if the pavement elsewhere is well above freezing. Relying that closely on air temp can be a dangerous practice. Pretty tough to find a "neutral" place to get a temp on any vehicle.

 

[Old Guy]

Exactly. Where is the sensor for that temperature sign? I'd have to assume it's in a shaded place with free air flow around it. But the sensor on your bike is just a couple of feet about a paved surface. It would seem logical to me that they could both be right and be a couple of degrees apart.

Like I said earlier, I've seen signs across the street from each other vary several degrees.

 

[Fred W]

Cell phones only display the temperature as reported somewhere else. They do not have any sensors inside that can measure the temperature where you are, and really that is what's important. You'd have to have an additional sensor widget and app to be able to measure local temperature.

Your best bet would be using a reasonably accurate digital or mercury thermometer (not a bimetal coil spring type) as your reference. You can even do ice bath and boiling point calibration checks of your reference, if you're truly anal. Even those will not be totally accurate, but all you really want to know is if it's within a degree or two, and which way its off.

You'd have to compare the readings when the engine is cold and in the shade. If the onboard display on the dash is only off ~ 2 degrees I'd say that's pretty damn good.

 

[El Toro]

I actually have two portable weather stations. They're made by Kestral. Here's a link to the one I purchased more recently.

https://www.allkestrel.com/products/kestrel-3500-3500nv-pocket-weather-meter?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=1274371528&gclid=CIbax9e2hdECFcO1wAod0lwC2w

You could mount this on your bike and let it measure wind speed too, and then you'd even have wind chill data at your fingertips.

I bought my first one many many years ago so that I would know how cold I was sitting in a tree stand. The wind measurement feature allowed using wind data in ballistic calculations. These units can be calibrated. I think they provide the best option for truly anal retentive weather geeks.

 

[MrZappo]

Why do I "need" such an accurate device ? We'll, firstly I won't have to kill anyone for sharing this information.

I run data centers in the Midwest with electric bills in the range of 25k to 100k per month.

Our cooling systems can drift in efficiency about 10 % in either direction depending on the outside temp. This translates to thousands of dollars saved or wasted every month.

So, the more accurate we know the true air temp, the more accurately we can tune the cooling systems to operate at their peak efficiency.

These ultra expensive sensors pay for themselves in a month.

This accuracy level is not needed in many applications but in our case it was required and we spent a year or so researching options.

If you geek out like I do sometimes, Google rainwise and check out their stuff. They are used in many applications. And some of their products are really amazing.

A little big for a bike though.

 

[Old Guy]

Why do I "need" such an accurate device ? We'll, firstly I won't have to kill anyone for sharing this information.
I run data centers in the Midwest with electric bills in the range of 25k to 100k per month.

Our cooling systems can drift in efficiency about 10 % in either direction depending on the outside temp. This translates to thousands of dollars saved or wasted every month.

So, the more accurate we know the true air temp, the more accurately we can tune the cooling systems to operate at their peak efficiency.

These ultra expensive sensors pay for themselves in a month.

This accuracy level is not needed in many applications but in our case it was required and we spent a year or so researching options.

If you geek out like I do sometimes, Google rainwise and check out their stuff. They are used in many applications. And some of their products are really amazing.

A little big for a bike though.

Maybe you could pull it on a trailer.

Thanks for the explanation; I find stuff like that pretty interesting.

 

[El Toro]

The Kestral would easily mount on your bike and it is certifiably accurate.

 

[Old Guy]

The Kestral would easily mount on your bike and it is certifiably accurate.

But will it agree with the bank signs?

 

[El Toro]

Nope. If you have two thermometers, you will never actually know the temp.

It's 41 on my back porch.

I'm off on RTE to Thai Spice in " the Boro."

 

[HotRodZilla]

Bring it down Fred. Sheesh! Seriously, I was just being facetious when I mentioned the phones. My point is, I have never seen thermometers outside that ever completely agree. Honestly, I know where the temperature reading on my cell comes from. Jeebus...It's not like I'm from Louisiana or anything.

 

[El Toro]

RTE is delicious, as usual. Thai Spice just south of the MTSU campus on Rutherford in Murfreesboro, TN is worth a ride in the cold.

And now it's 50ish for the ride home. Even girly men don't need to know the temperature when it's 50ish.