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TGTech Posted: Mar 30 2005, 02:55 AM


KTMTalk Member


Posts: 26
Vermilion, OH
Member No.: 34581
Joined: 29-March 05



I had the distinct pleasure of being one of the first people to have a KDX 200, even before there was one. In the early part of 1981, Jack Penton was running an enduro team for Kawasaki, under the name True Sport Development, out of one of the old Penton buildings in Lorain, Ohio. We were using the KDX 175's for part of the team, and at one point, the Japanese engineers asked us why there were 175cc engines being sold in the US, when the class for them in American enduros, was up to 200cc. We explained that most of the development of 175s, had come from Europe, where in the ISDT, there was a 175 class, thus that displacement.

After a few months, we received a package from KHI (Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the Japanese company; KMC, Kawasaki Motors Corporation is the American company) that contained a number of cylinders and heads that fit the KDX 175 bottom ends. The cylinders were made such that when coupled with the stroke of the 175, the engines displaced 197cc.

We installed them on some of our bikes and used the stock pipes and carburetors in the Trask Mountain ISDT qualifier. The bikes just worked OK, because they were still using what we thought, was a configuration that way over square, and it just didn't have the bottom end that an enduro machine needed. We were also using the other 175 parts, and that just didn't make for an ideal setup.

I wrote a report on the performance, and suggested that they make the engine closer to square, make a pipe specifically for the displacement, and perhaps a bigger carburetor.

In the summer of 1982, I got a call from the R&D technicians and was asked to meet them in Telluride, Colorado, for some testing. When I arrived, there was the prototype of the 1983 KDX 200. Not only had they done what I had suggested with the bore and stroke, but they had also reconfigured the transmission to the ratios that I had suggested in another report that I'd written about the gear spacing of the engines.

The new 'box worked so well, that we didn't even test the gearbox that they'd developed on their own. There were some other things that they did that we had suggested as a result of the the True Sport program. perhaps the most notable, was the side stand positioning.

In that era, the Japanese machines all had their side stand mounts welded to the frame, right behing the foot peg. When the swing arm was compressed, that left the side stand hanging out in nowhere, ready to be bashed by every rock, stump and rut. Late in our program, we had been using the KX swing arms, and I fabricated some aluminum brackets that we welded to the Swing arm, a la European bikes, and never had another bent up side stand. That 1983 prototype, had the side stand welded to the swingarm.

Finally, I have to agree with you folks that have said that it is one of the easiest bikes ever to ride. It was designed specifically to appeal to a very broad audience, and in my opinion, they hit the mark.

Dane

Hey, awesome! Thanks for posting that!

That was great!

My side stands mounts to the frame behind the footpeg not on the swingarm. Hmmmm...

Well...your an Aussie and didn't bitch!

"a la European bikes, and never had another bent up side stand"

I've got one