April 4, 2004. Lebanon, Missouri. On a cool afternoon at a Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship race, I found myself sprinting down a creek bed, attempting to maneuver around another rider. With water flying high into the air and limited vision, I noticed a rather large fallen tree hanging several feet into the creek and directly in my path. Flying by in 4th gear, I had no other option than to brace for impact. As luck would have it, the end of the tree caught the radiator shroud. The shroud was yanked out of its lower mount and the tree branch left nothing but a piece of wood wedged between the frame and my kickstarter. Or so I thought.
What actually happened is shown in the photo below. The radiator was braced by a thin bracket on the rear facing side but was sorely inadequate for such an impact. The radiator was destroyed.
Radiator guards were created to prevent destruction of a key component of the cooling system. Due to their location, radiators are highly susceptible to damage. At Lebanon, I experienced a frontal, catastrophic impact. Radiators can also be damaged from side impacts. Usually this is a result of a crash. I have tried several types of radiator guards over the years, some better than others in protecting from the various types of impact.
The Works Connection guards on my KX250 were only designed to prevent the radiators from being pushed backwards upon impact. These were probably the weakest guards ever manufactured. Flatland Racing produced a better set of guards for my 2002 KTM 300MXC radiators. These were good for direct frontal impacts, but as seen in the photo below, that didn't prevent damage from side impacts. Same went for the Devol guards I added to my KX250 after the Lebanon incident.
Enduro Engineering solved the side impact problem with guards that connected directly to the radiator frame mounts. Finally, side impacts were a thing of the past and radiators maintained their rectangular shapes. I first tried the Enduro Engineering guards on my 2009 KTM 250XC. After many years of abuse, the radiators were as square as the day the bike left the showroom floor.
I continued with Enduro Engineering radiator guards for my 2016 KTM 350XC-F and my 2020 Beta 300RR. The guards don't protect from frontal impacts but are extremely effective in preventing misshapen radiators. They are a bit more complex to install, because of the mounting points. But overall, the guards are a good value.
