All 2st who needs coolant?

just got back from a 3-day trip to little naches. it's much lower than where we ride in the summer, so i wasn't surprised to get some pinging and hot running initially. i gradually richened up the jetting, and it nearly went away, but i was still getting some decel knock and stuff. while driving home i thought i otta check the coolant. it took about 20-25 oz.

i guess i'm not really in the habit of checking coolant, since my other bikes only get coolant when i drain it to put a new top end in. i guess i better check it after the next ride and see if it's going anywhere. wouldn't be surprised if i cooked a head gasket or something. at least the radiator hoses didn't melt. so either i don't ride hard, or there was enough coolant in there to keep the motor from catching on fire. doh.

well, i feel a little better, tho i'm still perplexed. i cleaned up the bike today and changed the tranny oil (no sign of coolant contamination), set the jetting back to idaho specs and ran around the neighborhood for a few mins. compression feels strong as ever. no sign of coolant in the exhaust, and after 5 mins of riding, no change in the coolant level of the radiator. Perhaps I got off easy this time.

I guess i'll bring it along with the 200 for this weekend's big birthday ride and run around a couple hours on sunday and then check everything again and see if there's any coolant loss. At this point, i can only assume that i must either have a very very slow coolant leak of some kind, or that i boiled the bike over a few times without even noticing it. Admittedly, since i checked the coolant before idaho city I raced it 2 days in horrifying mud, and then rode 2 long days in the mountain carrying a chainsaw up steepazz idaho hills, but there was no sign of strange behavior that i can recall on those rides. Also, these bikes (2009 wr300) are not exactly known for boiling over, and I'm not exactly known for boiling bikes.

The only other quirk about this bike is it seems to make everyone i ride with go quite a bit slower. Not sure why that is, but it's quite consistent, in races and in trailrides. weird.

My buddy has lost his coolant twice. Once one a hot day in the mtn's and he never knew there was a problem until the o-rings melted in the head and we happened to smell it. The second time wasn't quite as dramatic as the o-rings survived.

Bike is still hauling around today on that same piston, rings and cylinder. 2 strokes are tough!

"

Now that's funny or..............
Maybe you're spraying a coolant cloud behind you and nobody can see where they're going??? That would explain a lot.... Maybe we could test the theory? I'll follow you on any trail you like up in Stanley 9/3-6 or better yet I'll ride your bike too see if it has the same effect on you???????????????

hmm. i don't think my bike would slow you down, esp not on stanley's easy wide-open freeway trails.

I'm just looking for any excuse to try your bike... I got Husky fever

update

so yesterday i rode 50 miles of luscious idaho singletrack, including some steep ugly rocky climbs, and the bike was still chock full of coolant at the end and everything worked great. I guess i must have just boiled it over in the epic mud races at idaho city this year and never checked it after that. what a 'tard.

more update, i rode 100 miles saturday and another 60 sunday. afterwards i checked the coolant. it took only a tablespoon or 2 to be over the radiator fins.

However.... when putting the radiator cap back on, i noticed that it's got a pretty hard spot about 1/4" before it's all the way on. I wonder if i didn't fully tighten the cap before and that's where all the coolant gradually went.

Hopefully, that is all it is. My 250 was a little low a while back and has been fine since. ??
Funny how we can get a little lazy about checking things when they are never low, then a reminder comes along and it's back to checking things that are never low again.

There are some reminders that can really effect your discretionary spending though.