WR250R - Will it overheat on tight single track??

I live in the northeast and I'm considering purchasing a WR250R for riding tight single track trails. The last trail bike I owned was a KTM 450-EXC. I had alot of trouble with the KTM overheating in places where your speed is below 5 mph and there is very little air movement thru the radiators. I installed a fan which helped but I still had times where it would ocassionally overheat. A few of my friends with air cooled bikes never had this problem.
I'm wondering how the WR250R will do in these types of conditions. Is it prone to overheat or does the fan provide enough cooling? Does engine ice help? From everything I've read about the WRR it sounds really nice bike but I do worry about buying another water cooled bike.
Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated!

Well the difference with air cooled bikes is that there is no sensor or anything which tells you when the bike is getting too hot. And at such low speeds, an air cooled bike WILL over heat. Unless you are running a very underpowered air cooled engine (producing a lot less hp than its potential you might be ok), but generally, at those speeds they will over heat resulting in loss in power.

You say you added a fan to the ktm 450exc? does this mean it doens't have a fan stock?? thats interesting...

Personally I never had problems with the wr250 overheating. However in the hot summer days the fan will be continually on in slow riding (like tight city riding), but warning light never came on.

Maybe also take a look at this thread https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/t6778-overheating-with-flatland-radiator-guard?highlight=overheating

My KTM didn't have a sensor either. The only way you'd know the bike was too hot was when water came gushing out of the radiators! Not a good feeling when you're a few miles back in the woods!! The bike didn't come stock with a fan, it was a $100 accessary. Not sure if thats still true on the the newer models.

Any other thoughts?

I've done tight single track on mine in 100 degree heat. Haven't had it overflow yet. The little fan stays on though.

Wow, that sounds promising. I would expect the fan to run especially at slow speeds. Thanks for posting.

Anyone else?

I ride a lot of slow, tight, technical singletrack and it is often over 100 here in Oklahoma. 20k+ miles on mine and I've never had an overheating issue.

Great, thanks!!

I can't understand why the wr250r/x would have any more inclination to overheat under such situations than any other water cooled single.

There is a fan and a reasonable sized radiator.

Since the overall tuning of the bike isn't pushing any crazy limits I'd think it'd be less inclined than bikes like KTM's.

motokid wrote:

I can't understand why the wr250r/x would have any more inclination to overheat under such situations than any other water cooled single.

There is a fan and a reasonable sized radiator.

Since the overall tuning of the bike isn't pushing any crazy limits I'd think it'd be less inclined than bikes like KTM's.

A lot of the 4t singles do overheat. Models with two radiators as opposed to our one!. Its one of the major gripes people have about them over using a two stroke for the woods (2-strokes aren't prone to it, my 500 never dreams of getting hot) The reason for it though is because most of them do not have a fan and they run higher compression than we do.
When I first got the WR I was surprised at the single radiator but it does seem to get the job done quite well, but it does quickly call out for help from the fan when the going gets slow so I can assume if it didn't have a fan like most dirt bikes, it would overheat ASAP.

i can get the fan to turn on but not boil over.

I've never had mine overheat on trails, single track in 100+ degree heat included. I overheated, but the bike was fine.

Same here. The fan runs and then stops as soon as I can get some 2nd. gear velocity. Never any problems.

My wife is new to riding and I have been following her around the tight SW Pa woods. She is still really slow. The fan comes on almost immediately but no overheating.

I have a bigger rear sprocket just for tight tech single track. No matter how hard I push it or bog it or crawl it the little machine never overheats.

Absolutely the most reliable street legal dirt bike in the world.

I agree with oicO. i ride in 90-100F weather and have never had a problem. The fan does come on pretty quick but never had a boil over. I'm sure it would if the fan failed but I haven't heard about too many issues with the fan on the forum. i'd like to be smug when I have to wait for my buddies' bikes (KTM's and YZ's) to cool off but it sucks for everyone. I just feel sorry for the people who don't know any better....haha.

I did 100+ miles yesterday. Twenty were first gear, OMG rock crawling. Temp was about 90. The bike did better than I did. Much as I try, I just can't kill the sucker.

Thanks again for all the replies. You guys have convinced me that this shouldnt be an issue. Now I just need to find myself a nice used WRR in NY!

use allofcraigs.com and search the northeast. You should be able to find some nice WRR's.

I recently changed out my coolant for Engine Ice and it actually seems to have helped. After installing a radiator guard my fan was running a lot (more than usual) and I was getting major heat on my right leg. It is less now with the new coolant. Worth the expense in my opinion if you ride in hot weather or tight trails.