Motorcycle Repair: cooling system 2003 honda shadow ace, honda shadow ace, 2003 honda shadow ace

Question
chris, i bought the bike used. i haven't owned a bike before. the bottom radiator hose was leaking,replaced with oem part. when i pulled old one off about a half to a gallon of antifreeze came out. after replacing hose, reservoir was still full. i took for a ride about 5 miles and fan never came on. I haven't had bike long enough to know when fan kicks in or if coolant only circulates when it needs to or if maybe water pump is the problem. reservoir is still full and i know more antifreeze came out than is still in the bike. please help,David

Answer
Hi David.
 That reservoir is an overflow tank.  You still need to fill the system from the radiator filler cap, just like on a car.  If the fan fails to kick on after a few minutes, then either there is a problem with the fan or fan circuit (not likely in this case), or the radiator and cooling system isn't filled properly.

Make sure that the system is full and take the bike out again.  DO NOT use the reservoir as your guage for the system being full.

Good luck.
FALCON