FE/FC FE 501 (non S) getting hot

Went out in a group of 8 bikes yesterday and had a mixed bag of riding. Some fast roads, two track, dead end logging roads and bush wacking. I was the only one to boil over. This by far is teh easiest to overheat bike I have owned. I have a bout 225 miles on a 2015. This was the first day I have ridden the bike with temps in the 80's. Tight Singletrack would have been out of the question!

Does anybody else have an easy to overheat FE501? Solution?

Is the fan working?

Running strong and often

I was worried about that when I switched to the 4 stroke from my 2 stroke. Are you running the stock radiator fins or aftermarket radiator gaurds? I heard people say the aluminum radiator gaurds dont direct air good enough.

My 500 exc is the hottest running bike I've ever had. And that's with an open exhaust and a jd tuner to richen it up. I run the Evans coolant. The fan runs constantly in the tight stuff but it hasn't boiled. For grins you should check the oil screens to make sure that they're clear. Also look at the sight glass to see if you can notice the oil circulating.

Here it's always hot as we have no winter, on my 14 the fan comes on a bit when going slow but never had it boil over.
What map is in it? They run lean on the US map so get your dealer to load the EU map.
Otherwise get the samco hose kit to eliminate the thermostat and run some decent coolant like the evans or similar.

I will be putting some Evans coolant in as well as getting the Euro Map. Sure hope that helps or riding singletrack could be a pain.

Coolant/EU Map for sure.

Other things to consider:
1. It will loosen up a bit as it breaks in and run a bit cooler (in my experience)
2. Add a manual fan switch to get out ahead of the rising temps
3. Motion Pro makes an add-on overflow bottle so at least your boilover ends up back in the bike and not on the ground

Yes these big 500 KTM Motors run hot. I pretty much re worked the entire cooling system on my 2015 Fe 501 s short of doing a thermostat removal. So far my mods are working so well that thermostat delete will wait till next year. I've had several rides now in 100-plus degree temperatures with no boil overs. Going to a propylene glycol performance coolant and running a high pressure 29 pound cap helped tremendously. I was able to purchase Engine Ice Honda small engine shop here in town. I agree with the above comment. The fans on these bikes should be manually controlled. I wired mine from the battery through a fuse and a toggle switch. It runs pretty much all the time once the bike is warmed up. It makes sense that the fan should run more often and not only after the bike is almost too hot. On most race cars the cooling fans run continuously. I took all this R&D to the next step and added a second cooling fan to the left side radiator it's a SPAL fan almost identical to the stock unit. I purchased it from Summit Racing USA it was about one-third the price of what you pay for a similar fan from KTM or Husqvarna.

The fans are there for a good reason hearing your fan run is a good thing it means it's doing its job I think it should run more often which is why I wired mine to a manual toggle switch. Aluminum radiator guards should not affect air flow hardly at all. Especially if your fan is working

I purchased some Evans coolant but have yet to put it in.

I was out on a little road ride through town the other day. Stop light to stop light and felt like I should have shut the bike off at each light. Got home and parked the bike. When I woke up in the morning there was a puddle of coolant under the bike. It appears as though it was boil over that was caught in the skid plate. The day before I was out teaching my nephew to ride. 1st gear at idle using no clutch with air temps at about 70 and I had to shut it down every mile or so and let it cool off.

Before I change coolant and cap should I be looking deeper into other potential issues?

Coo

Cooks end. I believe your fe 501 does not have a coolant thermostat like the s models so you can move past that. On my bike which had only about 2500 miles Thermo switch that controls the electric fan quit working. The part was $60 from KTM after a little research I decided to not replace the thermal switch but rather wired the fan directly to the battery through a fuse and a toggle switch on the side of the headlight shell. In the case of my bike without the fan running at all the coolant was boiling over in almost any situation which the bike was not moving briskly with air moving across the radiators much like to stop and go traffic and slow riding you speak of. I had remembered that I like head done some mild boiling over on some slow technical Trails prior to the fan quitting which prompted me to convert my van to a manual set up as well as install a high pressure cap. My logic was as follows if the bike was boiling over with the stock fan functioning as it was intended it obviously was not turning on soon enough or running often enough to keep this big five hundred cool and happy. I went to a Cycra cv4 30 psi cap. On these bikes there is no harm done by going to the higher pressure cap. In fact all this is accomplishing is keeping the coolant in your system where it needs to be to do its job at a higher temperature and pressure. If you're only losing a tiny bit of coolant occasionally it's not a concern your bike only holds a quart and a half of coolant so frequent boiling over is a concern since there's no catch tank on these bikes. one thing you need to be aware of is that you are only supposed to fill your radiators to about 10 millimeters above the cooling fins. If you top your radiators off to the base of the filler neck Honda radiator this amount of coolant will boil over every time due to the fact that your system needs room for the fluid to expand when it Heats. If you look in your owner's manual it clearly shows the proper coolant filling level. I have ridden my bike now on hundred degree days with absolutely no boil overs. I highly recommend wiring your fan to a manually controlled toggle switch! Good luck and keep cool.

If you've already purchased a propylene glycol coolant put that stuff in your bike immediately. It has a higher boiling point than the stock Ethylene glycol coolant and therefore it should reduce boil over. It's your coolant boiling that is creating the excess pressure in the cooling system.

Yes, that's not normal.
Do both radiators get hot? When sitting on the bike the left one warms up first, the right one when the thermostat opens.
The other thing is if you fill it up to the top there will be a bit leaking out on the first ride, after that it stops. When you top it up again it will do it again, so don't unless it spits out more due to a problem.