MOPED ARMY

There isn't really a bunch of ambient air, the sensor is clamped between the cylinder head and the plug. There is some ambient air, but it will only cool the sensor about as much as your cylinder head would cool your engine if you cut all the fins off. get it?

I think they're mostly a security blanket, but they can help you when you're tuning. For example, I noticed when I retarded my timing, I ran a whole 30 degrees cooler overall. The temp gauge helped me there. (edited)

Redundant thread is redundant. 'which gauge should i get' 'why do i need one' 'why does mine suck' 'why did it break'

The 400 measurement has been found to blow up mopeds. Why question it?

The sensor goes Under the spark plug, and its made of metal. Air blowing by the sensor? no

Huh, I got an egt on my moped, and its kinda a $80 sucky pile till I get my tuning fixed up.

zzzzz

CHT is a good way to find out the head temperature once the metal has been heat soaked. EGT is a lot more instantaneous reading of what is working (or not) right now.

Analog self powered ones are the way to go. Also get some bugs for them or pieces of pinstripe tape to mark the temperature data points you want to watch out for, that way you dont have to actually read the gauge, just glance if the needle is pointed where it should be. Also rotate the gauge so that 'normal' is needle pointing straight up.

I've only seized one time without detonation before hand, it was due to a leaky base gasket. I doubt even a head temp sensor would of helped since the leak wasn't enough to lean the mix out enough to detonate, it was just enough to cause the corner of the piston not to get oil. Also a head temp sensor will read different on every bike even if the temp inside the combustion chamber was to be the same. Also you want the combustion chamber to be as hot as possible to minimize combustion heat(pressure) loss aka maximizing thermal efficiency, it's why new cars run hotter than old ones. So many factors come into play that setting a number for max temp is almost impossible and doing so will only lead you to making less the max power or into detonation and not showing up on the gauge until it's too late. My point being there is one sure fire way to check if too hot(detonating). Hit the kill switch. and it's free!

yeah because cutting the spark, and therefore loss of combustion heat, will somehow make the bike run hotter.... nice logic.

just take my advice. Hit the kill switch while maintaining wot and if it pops loudly from the exhaust your head pipe is too hot and therefore your engine is nearly too hot, or you have an exhaust gasket leak. If it doesn't smoothly decelerate but instead stumbles for a moment and then slows down you're into detonation. If it continues to run until you also close the throttle you're into preignition. This has never let me down and has made it where I can raise the compression to just detonate on 87 and then I'll throw 91 in it. Like a night and day power difference. I bet a lot of people with head temp gauges are detonating and don't even know it. In fact I'd bet on it due to all the people saying they can only to go wot for a short time before their temp spikes<that's detonation showing itself on the slow to react gauge but a little damage is always done in the form of scuffing from the oil being burnt off the cylinder walls. You should be able to blast wot all day long without the temp spiking(detonation), if not you just got an engine that'll slowly eat itself. or don't listen i dont care

I think you accidentally confused what I said with the whole shutting the throttle going down a hill debate and posted before you realized your mistake and are now making shit up so you don't sound stupid. Trying to save face is not an excuse to be a jackass...or maybe you are just that stupid. (edited)

ha someone's cranky!

nerdy has a point...if you're running suuuper hot it would probably be a better idea to choke and kill it to prevent any funny business

Choke it!

finally, someone that uses their brain.

(edited)