The performance of your scooter or motorbike largely depends on how the mechanism of lowering the temperature of engine heat works. Proper and consistent cooling to dissipate the engine heat in scooters mainly depends on air cooling while in the case of high-performance bikes, liquid cooling is preferred. In scooters, the engine casing is partially enclosed and requires a forced airflow mechanism as discussed below.
Air-cooled mechanism
The working of the air-cooled engine is very natural, simple and requires no additional device or setup. Air-cooled engines use natural air as a cooling agent to remove the engine heat when the bike/scooter is moving. Here, the outer engine casing has “fins” which increase the surface area, allowing an easy air passage by dissipating the heat faster.
Fan-cooled scooters
Scooters and some bike models have their engine enclosed by the body of the vehicle which reduces the influx of natural air for engine cooling. In such vehicles, there is a fan, powered by the engine that sucks air through the internal engine body and sometimes also through the fins. This type of fan-based cooling is known as “forced air cooling”.
Air-cooling is cost-effective and requires a constant flow of air to cool the internal parts. This means air-cooled scooters/motorcycles are fully dependent on the outside air for cooling, which often creates inconsistent levels of cooling. It becomes harder to cool the engine when you are stopping on a traffic signal or riding at a low pace. This model of cooling is not suitable for high-performance bikes which have high engine revolutions and requires more heat dissipation.
Air-cooling or Fan-cooling is the best cooling mode for low capacity engines such as scooters which run at low revolutions and radiate less heat. Air cooling also best suited for cruisers when they run at low engine revolutions. Air-cooling in scooters/motorcycles require no additional maintenance and are cheaper compared to the liquid cooling mechanism.
