2012 WR 450 Cold Start Issues

Not sure if you have a choke, but thats all it takes for my KTM. if my battery dies from the cold I Open the choke and a few kicks it fires up. without that choke I would be kicking for hours...

Turn the idle RPM up to the upper limit, then use the kick starter instead E start for the first start of the day. One hard swift kick at - 20 celsius maybe 2-3 with the cold start button pulled. Most of the time that is not needed if the idle is cranked up high enough. A switch to switch the headlight of during normal operations will allow the batterie to charge better for more reliable E start operations. E start on the 2012 WR just simply sucks I used the kickstart most of the time. E start was my only complaint on the 2012 Wr450.
Yamaha never stepped up to making it better same starter as on the 250 where it works great just cranks over slightly to slow for the 450 to start reliable.

I have a '13 wr 450 and it's the same. From what I understand you have to take it to the dealer and have the co setting adjusted to 8-10. They come stock at like 1-2 I guess which is too lean. I have found that kicking it while using the e-start works. I plan on installing a pad heater on mine though.

My roommate has one he rides in the summer and starts hard no matter what temp they need the idle fixed at the dealership he's just runs a quarter tank of race fuel to richen the mix up a little seems to work and you can get a battery that's 200 cca instead of 120 on the stock battery wish I could rember which one it is though