Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: MOTORCYCLES IN TRAFFIC OVERHEATING, cool, heat

Question
CAN MOTORCYCLES SIT IN RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC LIKE CARS?  DO MOTORCYCLES LANE SPLIT BECAUSE THEY ARE UNABLE TO SIT IN TRAFFIC BECAUSE THEY WILL ALWAYS OVERHEAT.  ARE ALL MOTORCYCLES UNABLE TO SIT IN RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC?

Answer
Liquid-cooled motorcycles can sit in traffic like cars, air-cooled motorcycles don't care for it, and they can overheat if they sit running too long. They need relatively cooler air blowing across the cyclinders to cool (movement of at least 10 mph or so).

If you have a radiator on your bike, you're generally okay. But if your bike is air-cooled, try to avoid it.

In places where lane splitting is legal, there's probably some factor of overheating people are trying to avoid, especially in the olden days when most bikes were air cooled, but nowadays mostly riders split lanes to ease traffic congestion.

Pat