Selkirk Engine Armor

[Chadx]

...small trimming on backside of Selkirk plastic to clear yeti

From conversation with Marc and from looking at all the builds on the Selkirk website, the Selkirk rear side plastic is intended to overlap the snowbike kit. All the way up to the belt drive on that side and overlap the snowbike kit side panel on the non-drive side. No doubt one can trim it though so they sit further in if one prefers that look or it may be required since there is some variance in the provided panels. I plan on leaving mine (see the first two pictures in this thread). Will monitor it for rubbing on the yeti finish, though, and cut shorter if that occurs.

I did notice, in the above pics, that I didn't tuck the left side upper panel tab under the YZ side numberplate which I will do when I put the side panels back on. Those small tabs, on various panels and depending on bike, are intended to tuck under something. I'd just slapped them on for a quick picture then took them back off. Going to try to get out for the very first break in run today (just some trail out and back to stretch chain and track) and planned on leaving the side panels in the trailer. Really nice feature they go off and on so quick and no messing with bungee cords or rubber ties like my previous engine blanket.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

I just finished buttoning up my selkirk installation. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the manufacturing of the product and how well thought out it is. I had a few issues with my install that are not due to the manufacturer.

1. I keep my snowbungie in my front fender, which was a problem here as you are supposed to cut your front fender in half to avoid contact with the armour. My solution was to heat up my fender and bend it away from the armour. There is a slight bit of contact now, and time will tell if this will work for me.
2. I run a rear brake pedal, not a brake lever on the bars. Unfortunately Selkirk has no provision for this so I had to modify it a bit to make it work. I haven't tested this yet and I am not sure if I am going to have a lot of interference once I get out there. Again, time will tell. I might need to take more material off

One thing I did learn by bending the armour to accommodate the rear brake lever is that the metal base bends fairly easily. My biggest concern with the system is what will happen when I hit a rock or stump or something hard. Again, time will tell, but that is my only real worry.

Can't wait to see what my engine temps do in the deep pow!

 

[MountainRider05]

I just finished buttoning up my selkirk installation. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the manufacturing of the product and how well thought out it is. I had a few issues with my install that are not due to the manufacturer.

1. I keep my snowbungie in my front fender, which was a problem here as you are supposed to cut your front fender in half to avoid contact with the armour. My solution was to heat up my fender and bend it away from the armour. There is a slight bit of contact now, and time will tell if this will work for me.
2. I run a rear brake pedal, not a brake lever on the bars. Unfortunately Selkirk has no provision for this so I had to modify it a bit to make it work. I haven't tested this yet and I am not sure if I am going to have a lot of interference once I get out there. Again, time will tell. I might need to take more material off

One thing I did learn by bending the armour to accommodate the rear brake lever is that the metal base bends fairly easily. My biggest concern with the system is what will happen when I hit a rock or stump or something hard. Again, time will tell, but that is my only real worry.

Can't wait to see what my engine temps do in the deep pow!



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what radiator braces are those?

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

what radiator braces are those?

Honestly I dont know. I bought the bike with them on it. They say KTM on them, so they might be the KTM hard parts guards?

 

[MountainRider05]

Honestly I dont know. I bought the bike with them on it. They say KTM on them, so they might be the KTM hard parts guards?

gotcha!! Still trying to decide what to do for braces.. keep the stock plastic covers or go with trail tech that Selkirk offers. And you and no issue with the Selkirk plastic shield going over the radiator guards?

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

gotcha!! Still trying to decide what to do for braces.. keep the stock plastic covers or go with trail tech that Selkirk offers. And you and no issue with the Selkirk plastic shield going over the radiator guards?

I dont know where/how you ride, but I would never have the stock plastic ones on my snowbike. I ride through the trees a LOT on my snowbike and I would be worried about a branch going through my radiator if I didnt have the metal protection.

No issues fitting the selkirk over my rad guards, in fact there is a big gap between them. I used zipties to get them closer to each other so my front fender would have more room to move.

 

[MountainRider05]

I dont know where/how you ride, but I would never have the stock plastic ones on my snowbike. I ride through the trees a LOT on my snowbike and I would be worried about a branch going through my radiator if I didnt have the metal protection.

No issues fitting the selkirk over my rad guards, in fact there is a big gap between them. I used zipties to get them closer to each other so my front fender would have more room to move.

building this bike for my dad. I def hav rad guards on my 501 and we bash trees a lot here in the PNW. But since he went with the Selkirk and the newer Ktms plastic guards are a lot better than the older flimsy one thought he could maybe get away from going with a full brace. If you look back on page 1 I posted a pic and I just don’t see how I would be able to clear braces. Had to grind a lot of the plastic

 

[Chadx]

1. I keep my snowbungie in my front fender,
2. I run a rear brake pedal, not a brake lever on the bars.

Very inventive storage spot for the snobunje.
And good work with the foot brake mod. Not many running a footbrake so reasonable that they were not considered in selkirk design. Mod looks good.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

building this bike for my dad. I def hav rad guards on my 501 and we bash trees a lot here in the PNW. But since he went with the Selkirk and the newer Ktms plastic guards are a lot better than the older flimsy one thought he could maybe get away from going with a full brace. If you look back on page 1 I posted a pic and I just don’t see how I would be able to clear braces. Had to grind a lot of the plastic

Yeah I noticed that picture and it does look like a tight fit. Honestly the plastic guards are fine for brush, but if you hit a thicker stick that acts as a spear I feel like it will just go right through the plastic of the selkirk and the stock guards. Everyone I ride with seems to rip their shrouds off with trees, so its some pretty thick stuff hitting the rads.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

Very inventive storage spot for the snobunje.
And good work with the foot brake mod. Not many running a footbrake so reasonable that they were not considered in selkirk design. Mod looks good.

Thanks - the storage spot for the snobunje I highly recommend. It makes it super easy to grab it. Especially when I am the one who is stuck, my buddies are able to pull the bunje out and hook to my ski with no messing around. Usually the front of the bike is sticking up and the back is dug in, so having the bunje at the back in a box is not very helpful.

Getting off my bike to help someone else, it is easy to just grab it on my way to pull them out.

 

[MtnMoto]

Just finished the install and a test ride with the Selkirk armor and the bike ran cold in the deep powder (120-150). I have a 2016 KTM 490, no coolant heated bars, Thermo-bob thermostat and installed the Selkirk as instructed with the heat exchanger plumbed in to the cooling system. As I expected the exchanger acts like a tunnel cooler in the deep powder. Warming the bike up in the parking lot the skid plate was very warm to the touch and the bike never warmed up past 150 with outside temps in the 20's. Bike stayed at 150 down the trail but as soon as I was in deep powder and snow was hitting the skid plate the temps dropped to 130. At times it was down to 120.

This is maybe not surprising given that the heat exchanger is directly mounted to the metal skid plate and there is a large air space between the exchanger and the bottom of the engine. There needs to be some sort of insulator between the exchanger and the skid plate or snow will suck the heat out of the skid plate/exchanger.

I disconnected the heat exchanger from the cooling system that night and kept the thermo-bob bypass installed and tested it again the next day. Outside temps that day dropped in to the teens and single digits by evening but the bike ran nice and hot. Warming up in the parking lot the bike would hit 190 and the radiator fan kicked on. Going down the trail the bike got up to 200. I stopped and pulled off the front radiator cover and one side cover and temps dropped to 170. Ran it in the deep powder and it stayed in the 160-170 range and some snow was getting in to the engine through the side that was open. I put the side cover back on but kept the radiators exposed and it would heat up to 190 on big hills and slow speeds but cooled off when moving faster and downhill.

The installation was pretty straightforward and I kept my stock plastic radiator guards on but did have to trim the bottom outer corners to make the armor fit nicely. I bored out the bolt holes in the plastic radiator covers on the armor so I could use the stock ktm bolts holding the tank plastic to the radiator guards. I like how well the armor fits the bike and covers up the entire engine, even up the back side. The armor works well to keep snow off of the engine but the exchanger does not work well for the conditions that I ride in most often (deep powder). I will most likely have to remove both side panels for trail riding and then put them on for the deeper snow. Now I have to figure out a good solution for storing the side panels.

 

[needpowder]

Interesting to know though that the heat exchanger is significant. That will be awesome in the spring it seems like. Maybe there’s a way you can just put an on off valve to the exchanger in place? Or put another thermostat in line with it? I haven’t exactly seen how they are plumbed.

 

[Chadx]

The heat exchanger is plumbed on the bypass circuit. Selkirk does sell a heat exchanger bypass that you can plumb to bypass the heat exchanger.

 

[Chadx]

Just finished the install and a test ride with the Selkirk armor and the bike ran cold in the deep powder (120-150)...

I ran my 2020 yz450f this weekend and suffered the same. Could not build heat. Ran similar off-trail temps as you. I could see i was getting way too much snow into the radiators and into the grates through the upper selkirk side panels. Gave Marc some input and talking through some solutions. It needs to be sealed up significantly more to keep out the snow and retain heat as next step. Will see how that works.

Last resort will be to re-plumb and put heat exchanger on thermostat-open circuit rather than bypass circuit. Hoping it won't come to that so will start with temporarily covering radiators completely as I've had on all previous builds. Will also cover side grates completely somehow just to test. Just needs some fine tuning as expected so no big deal. Will get it all figured out.

 

[00Tundra]

Well this is not what I want to hear. After placing an order for one for my YZ450fx.

 

[Chadx]

It'll be good. Just need some tweaks as expected with any new product and with so many different makes/models of bikes, different snowbike kits and, more importantly, snow conditions from region to region and day to day. In the end, the key will be adjustability, which Selkirk is largely there. The hard part is them having to account for all of those things PLUS the end user. If they buttoned things up too much, then you'd have users that don't watch their temps or don't even have a temp gauge and are constantly overheating, or worse, burn down an engine. The typical user watches all that and makes adjustments as they ride, but Selkirk has to worry about those that don't.

The Yamahas tend to run cold with the various stock maps; hoping a leaner fuel and advanced ignition map, that I just loaded, will help build more heat, but I know I still need to be way more sealed up. Will experiment on the next ride and keep in communication with Marc who, as always, communicates great and very open to suggestions and getting real world feedback to keep advancing this kit. It's very close to where I personally need it for my bike and conditions. For my build, I just need the extremes to be more extreme. Meaning, when all panels on and sealed up for powder, it needs to be more sealed up. And then still have the ability to open it up for the trail ride in and out.

The compromise will come with storing the panels. For me, that would be in a pelican air 1485 (in and out of my pack would be less ideal) so that limits the size of the panels. I don't think the grates are needed on the upper side panels. I'd like to try those being totally covered. Then let the radiators do their job...and me do my job of covering and uncovering the radiators at the appropriate time throughout the day and conditions. That served me well on previous builds, but it will be fun to make adjustments and figure out what works best for this new bike compared to my previous ones.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

Well this all sounds kind of disappointing to be honest. I am about to do my maiden voyage on the bike tomorrow and I had an expectation that the temps would stay in the warm zone even in the deep powder. I guess I will bring some duct tape to cover the radiators.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

Chad, did you and Marc float the idea of insulating the head exchanger? Maybe something like this on the bottom side would take away some of the shock of the snow hitting it:

Strips

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[Chadx]

Chad, did you and Marc float the idea of insulating the head exchanger? Maybe something like this on the bottom side would take away some of the shock of the snow hitting it:

Similar to your idea, he had a thought about floating it. The heat exchanger is bolted to the lower engine surround (for yamaha and honda) and skidplate for ktm. By floating it, i mean putting some washers between the heat exchanger and it's mounting point to lift it off the surface so less heat sink effect from the mounting surface and the heat exchanger still doing the job of keeping snow melted under the shroud. I am hoping to make time to look everything over and think through the direction i want to go this week or weekend.

 

[AllHatNoCattle]

Similar to your idea, he had a thought about floating it. The heat exchanger is bolted to the lower engine surround (for yamaha and honda) and skidplate for ktm. By floating it, i mean putting some washers between the heat exchanger and it's mounting point to lift it off the surface so less heat sink effect from the mounting surface and the heat exchanger still doing the job of keeping snow melted under the shroud. I am hoping to make time to look everything over and think through the direction i want to go this week or weekend.

Yeah that idea makes sense. Seems like a simple way to isolate the exchanger a bit.

I guess we will have to experiment with different solutions and see what works best. Adding some washers between the exchanger and skid plate seems like an easy thing to try, and easy to reverse as well.