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Grease the bearings.
Start ebaying for a set of KX forks.
Send the carby and head off to RB for his mods.
Toss the stock reeds and get a pair of 607's.
Start shopping for a rev profile pipe.

Thats the short list

Hey Morie forgot to mention GO RIDE IT!!

yeah do morie's list after you like how it runs stock. ive been running a stock setup since may- but this winter i may add a few things.

Picked the bike up today. Pretty good drive up to PA (i'm in WV) and back. Left around 9:30 this morning and got home about 4:00 this afternoon. Initial thoughts: I'm not overly crazy about the green seat cover....seems kind of overkill, but it does look better in person than in the pictures. I'll probably get one of those Factory Effex black gripper covers. It had some sort of grease or oil on the radiator shrouds that was a real pita to get off. The big white decal on the headlight shroud is scratched up. I didn't have time to really go over it this evening, but I noticed the odometer cable is routed incorrectly. It's not even in the little keeper bracket on the front fender. There's a pin in the left handguard that is missing a keeper. You can just pop it right out. The bike appears to have been thrown together, and I wouldn't want to ride it w/o going over it w/ a fine tooth comb beforehand. It starts on the first kick though. I'm happy. It was a good price, it just needs a good checking out, which will give me something to do. I'm looking forward to personalizing it this winter.

good luck with that one!

2001 kdx 200 good bike wrote:good luck with that one!

Well, it's a new bike, w/ warranty. I just don't think the dealer prep was anything to write back home about. I'm sure what was assembled at the factory is just fine and dandy. The odometer cable was routed in front of the forks. Anyone could see it should be behind and through that little doohickey. And I need to see what kind of keeper or clip goes in that pin....and anything else I come across after a more thorough inspection.

Enjoy the bike, Stringburner - congrats!!

stringburner wrote:>|<I'm sure what was assembled at the factory is just fine and dandy.

I got a new 06 and found things from kaw that were loose. So check every thing. Then go ride. And check every thing agin.

You will enjoy it, congrats.
Tim

Congrats on the bike,

Don't discount the tear-down and lube of the rear supension/swingarm linkage. Mine was nearly dry straight from Kawasaki. One ride can damage them in that state. Others report the same thing for the steering bearings, but mine were well lubed. By that I mean they were saturated with something, but it wouldn't rightly be called grease, because the next time I checked them they looked like crap. Rusty, bumpy feeling, nastiness. The Japs use total garbage as lubricant. Don't belive me? look in your forks right now.. I can almost guarantee with zero miles that you will have pond scum in at least one of them (and I would bet the right one). The fork/steering head lube is almost moot, because if I were you I would recommend not even bothering with changing the springs in the forks, save yourself the time and go to where you need to be right off. Get some KX forks on that thing. They really are that good.

Right now you have a good starting point. Adding the mods discussed on this forum will bring you at least 100% more bike, and a good bit more safety too.

Have fun!

Rode the 200 around a little this evening. These things sure seem to not want to clean up and run crisp....of course I only rode a mile and a half or so after I let it warm up a little bit. Rerouted the odo cable properly. Noticed the headlight switch wires are just kind of hanging there (not zip tied to the bar). I hope the RB head/carb mods, rev pipe, and reed cage do some wonders, it seems a little weak. It probably needs rejetted something fierce, but i don't have enough time on it to start adjusting on it just yet. It was fun to be back on a dirt bike though.

Yeah...warm up time is around 10 minutes or so.... After that they run real crisp if jetted right for the weather.

RB mods.... Yes...they do wonderful things to the KDX.

I would check all the torque settings on it too. Probably thrown together for the sale...

Definitely going to check everything w/ a torque wrench, loctite some stuff, and grease everything that's greaseable. It was surely thrown together at the last minute, or w/o care by whoever, whenever it was done. I found the dealer checklist sheet w/ the owners manual in the toolpack on the rear fender. I'm real sure they didn't even look at it. I know they've put bikes together before, but every other bike i've bought had the sheet filled out. When I got there they said they just got it out of the crate, but I have some doubts about that too. It was kind of dusty in places like it had been sitting around. Got that cleaned up and taken care of already. I won't be riding much this winter, so I may pop the cylinder head and carb off in the next few weeks and go ahead and have them worked. I don't need it to rip like the 200exc i had, but a little waking up would please me. Gonna start watching Ebay for a late model set of usd forks and associated components too.

I got one question right quick here. I been reading, and I got through page 21 so far in "general"....On the mx rear fender swap, whatta ya'll generally do about the bend in the subframe where it acts as a support for the original fender? Leave it stick out, or hack it off? I've seen photos of them showing the ends of the subframe, and photos of them w/o it showing. General consensus?

I left mine...doesn't hurt anything and barely noticable to me. It wouldn't hurt a thing if you hacked it off... just preference I guess.....

I found a 10mm Snap-On socket wedged in between the crossbrace and one of the rear toolbag bolts awhile ago, They must have been in a BIG hurry to slap that thing together.

Indawoods wrote: It wouldn't hurt a thing if you hacked it off... just preference I guess.....

I pulled the little rubber plugs and hacked them off so they didn't show...then put the little rubber plugs back in.

I kept my rear frame legs on for wheelie bars, well not really just I figured it may save the new fender a bit when I flip her again....

quailchaser wrote:

Indawoods wrote: It wouldn't hurt a thing if you hacked it off... just preference I guess.....

I pulled the little rubber plugs and hacked them off so they didn't show...then put the little rubber plugs back in.

That's what I was thinking of too. Looks to be pretty simple.

Wanna get rid of your fender bag?

Hhhmmmmm??

Drop me a line!

I didn't see a mention of the final drive. The 200 chain/sprocket setup is garbage. You would likely be better off putting GOOD chain on the existing spockets NOW.

I think my OEM chain lasted almost a couple rides!!

I think my OEM chain lasted almost a couple rides!!

I agree about the OEM chain part, it stretches a LOT, I had to re adjust mine every ride (and I lube it every time)
But I manage to keep it for more than a year (riding 30 miles every week end)
I know some of you are going to scream at this but when I could not adjust it any more I removed 2 links and rode some more .
I just ordered a set (13 / 49) of ORH glod x ring from rocky mountains for less than 90$ (really time to get a new one, the clip on the extra link is about worn through .)

Enjoy your ride

Wilf

canyncarvr wrote:Wanna get rid of your fender bag?

Hhhmmmmm??

Drop me a line!

I didn't see a mention of the final drive. The 200 chain/sprocket setup is garbage. You would likely be better off putting GOOD chain on the existing spockets NOW.

I think my OEM chain lasted almost a couple rides!!

I'll prolly keep the bag just in case I take on a hankerin' to pop it back on....I looked on one of them OEM parts finder microfiche doohickeys what they want for them rinky dink things. $111 for an '04, and $95 for an '05~'06. The '04 has an "A" after the part number. I dunno what the difference is but they must have just lined the '04 bags w/ an extra layer of the gold they make the otherns with.

Nice to know about the chain. Maybe mine will last 3 rides. First thing is to soak off all them slingy slobbers they put on it. I done got that stuff smeared 7 ways from Sunday and I ain't rode but a mile and a half