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Took the '96 KDX200 out for a ride in the mud last week. Ran great, no problems. When I got home my son took it for a ride around the block to knock some of the dried mud off of it and it quit half way around the block. My son couldn't start start it and pushed it home. Thinking it was a fouled plug, we let it cool off and changed the plug. The bike started but wont idle. If you twist the throttle quickly it boggs and stalls. You can slowly get the RPMs up by gradually opening the throttle. When you try to ride it the bike sputters and lurches and has no power until the speed picks up. The power seems OK in the upper RPMs. I took the carb off and cleaned it, although it was cleaned just a few weeks ago. After reassembly, there was no change in the way the bike ran. I need some suggestions.

Sounds like a dirty pilot jet....

Thats exactly what I thought. I think I'll try cleaning it again.

Use a guitar string to run through it. I had the same problem with my brothers bike.... I thought I had cleaned it real well until I ran a guitar string through it and all this crap came out.....

I cleaned the carb again, borrowed a guitar string from my neighbor. No change. The bike starts and runs rough, spits and sputters when trying to pull away from a stop. I need some suggestions.

Reeds!

It's fixed, running good again! I took the reeds out this morning and they looked perfect. While I had the tank off, I decided to drain the tank, pull and clean the petcock. nothing looked abnormal here either. I put fresh premix back in the tank. I changed the plug again, even though I just put a new plug in. When I got it back together, It fired on the first kick an ran great! I'm not sure if the problem was in the plug, the fuel, or the petcock since I changed all three. My money is on the plug. I know its not unheard of to get a "bad" new plug. I think bad fuel is the least likely. I've been using the fuel in the same container for a couple week with no problems. The petcock could have been a problem but there was no obvious defect. Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what the problem was? I'm just glad I got the bike running good again. This bike is very special to me. It belonged to my brother who died ain a motorcyle accident in 99 and was left to me in his will. I just passed it down to my 13yo. Together we have vowed to do whatever it takes to keep it running, and ride the wheels off it whenever we get the chance, just like my brother would have wanted us to.

It is pretty much unheard of getting a bad plug if your running a NGK. They have a "perfect" QA record.

My bet would be on the petcocks fuel delivery....

Put the plug back in it and see what it does. Easy enough. If I had to lay my money down and bet I would say that the plug wire didn't get pushed down good and it was jumping enough to run just not well.

I'd planned on putting the plug back in to see if I can replicate the problem. I wanted to do it yesterday, but my son wanted to leave well enough alone for the time being. He didn't want anything to spoil the moment. The spark plug wire was suspected early on. The boot had become separated from the wire about a month ago. I examined and reconnected the plug wire to the boot Saturday afternoon but the problem remained, unchanged. I suppose changing the plug yesterday could have improved all the connections, wire to boot and boot to plug.