My inbox has been flooded with questions about the TPI bikes overheating lately.
First off, every dirt bike I have ever been around would benefit from a radiator fan if the speeds are slow and nasty. Yamaha, Honda, Beta, KTM, Husky, Sherco, Gas Gas… etc. 2 stroke and 4 stroke. This is especially true when it’s above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
I posted a video of my 2020 300 TPI pushing out coolant and people freaked out. What they don’t know is that EVERY bike I’ve seen on that trail that didn’t have a fan was over heating in that exact same spot!
If you are spinning the wheel in 1st gear chugging up a hill climb for very long, you are going to over heat the bike unless you have a fan. My trials bike has a fan on it since the speeds are always slow on those bikes.
4 strokes are notorious for for running hot and needs fans for enduro riding. 2 Strokes run cooler overall, which is one of the reasons they are the top choice for hard enduro style rides.
The more rich the fuel air mixture is, the cooler the engine runs.
If you have enough speed to shift into 2nd gear, you won’t be needing the fan, generally. Of course there are exceptions, but you get the point. I proved this out last week in Idaho with 205 miles of single track on the TPI bikes. I only had to stop 1 time to let the bike cool in 4 days of riding. All the other hill climbs, I was able to maintain enough speed to keep air going through the radiators and didn’t overheat.
Because of this, many riders will never even need a fan. If you are 2nd-5th gear in the desert, you won’t need a fan.
I currently own 3 TPI bikes and have over 115 hours on them combined. I’ve owned/tested 5 others and have more than 250 hours on them since 2018.
Yes, the TPI bikes run hotter than the carbureted bikes and this is because they run a leaner fuel/air mixture than a typical carbureted bike. I feel like it manifests itself in about 5-10 degrees overall.
In 2020 on the XC bikes, they removed the wire harness to make these fans plug and play from the factory. Apparently they don’t think any of us are using them for Hard Enduro style riding. You have to get a wire harness. I think the wire harness is still on the XC-W bikes in 2020.
Because of this, I bought the KTM Digital Radiator Fan Kit from Rocky Mountain ATV. It comes with EVERYTHING needed. I believe this is made by trail tech. This gives me the option to install a switch to turn off the fan if I want. There are less expensive options available, but this is the one I went with since I’m going to be giving this bike away to one of you.
This is a programable fan that allows me to choose what temp I want it to come on.
It will continue to run after the bike is shut off, but that just wastes battery. That is why some might install the switch. For now, I haven’t installed the switch, but we’ll see how that goes.
After installation, I did a really cool ride in Idaho and put the fan to the test. It came on repeatedly during the day and kept the bike under 190 degrees. It performed amazingly well. I was really pleased.
Since I’m tending to have more of these types of rides, I’m going to install a similar one on my 2020 250 XC TPI.
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