Stock 1995-2006 KDX part weights photos

[soup-n-sandwich]

Hi Guys,
I'm STILL in the middle of rebuilding a 2002 KDX220R. I started the project a year ago but due to all the stuff going on I never finished it...YET. During the disassembly I weighed each part on a shipping scale which is accurate to 1/2 pound. I thought you guys that are doing any work on a KDX might find this information very helpful as it will allow you to KNOW and not guess what the weights are of the stock components of the KDX.

One note here is that I purchased 2009 KX450 Kayaba fork and it's 4.8 pounds lighter than the stock fork. Both weighed with triple clamps, hardware and oil.
Sorry, the first photo of the rear fender assembly is not readable. If anyone needs this figure I could re-weigh it.

[soup-n-sandwich]

Can only submit 5 photos at a time so I'll add a new message with attachments until they are all uploaded

[soup-n-sandwich]

more

[soup-n-sandwich]

last of what I have weights for

[Chuck78]

During the disassembly I weighed each part on a shipping scale which is accurate to 1/2 pound.

One note here is that I purchased 2009 KX450 Kayaba fork and it's 4.8 pounds lighter than the stock fork. Both weighed with triple clamps, hardware and oil.

Wow, 43mm old school 1980's 1st gen design cartridge forks + triples (yes I'm referring to the 1995-2006 forks) weigh 4.8lbs MORE than a taller and much larger diameter tube size modern 48mm closed chamber fork?!?!?
That's AWESOME! THANKS FOR THE COMPARISON!!!
Heck, I might be able to get my KDX to be closer to 17lbs lighter than stock with that info, and I hadn't even considered putting the original forks on the scale. I'd been telling people I was trying to drop 15lbs off my bike to lighten it up and help to compensate for ADDING WEIGHT with skid plate, pipe guard, and a larger diameter taller modern fork swap!
I'd noted that the aluminum VStrom steering stem (same as the RM125 but taller like the KDX's) swapped into the RM125 triples was aluminum and likely quite a bit lighter than the steel KDX stock steering stem...

Out of the Showa Twin Chamber 96-98 RM125 49mm right side up forks, I'd read in reviews that the '98 was lightened up vs the 96-97, so I picked up several pairs of these very desirable woods rider forks, so I'm excited to see the difference. I'll hopefully be stripping down my '99 220 in August for a major rebuild and finally fitting the '98 RM125 forks and modern Showa shocks to it, although I think I may put all the titanium parts I've been acquiring, + some aluminum parts, onto my '97 220 that I've been riding for 4 seasons since retiring the '99 temporarily.



So the stock forks + triples with oil weigh 27.9lbs - 28.0lbs? I see both those weights in two different pictures.

[KDXGarage]

THANK YOU for showing us the weights. That is great.

I guessed horribly on all but the forks. I got them perfect. :-) I must have remembered from 19 years ago when I was shipping them back to people. :-)

Thanks again for showing all that. I was quite surprised on most of them.

That frame is a tank compared to a MX bike.

[soup-n-sandwich]

Hey guys,
Sorry for the long delay getting back on here. I guess my notifications aren't set correctly. You are very welcome. I thought "I can't be the only person that is surprised by the weights of the KDX components" The fork shocked the hell out of me too! The 48mm inverted fork from the 2009 KX250F is soooo much more beefier than the stock KDX fork but weighs almost five pounds difference!!

Guys I'm having a lot of trouble finding a machinist to do the stem mod for the fork conversion for this bike. Do you guys know of anyone to do this since Ron from RB-Designs has retired? I tried contacting Ron by email but the email server is no longer working for his website.

Any thoughts on this problem?
Chris

[soup-n-sandwich]

During the disassembly I weighed each part on a shipping scale which is accurate to 1/2 pound.

One note here is that I purchased 2009 KX450 Kayaba fork and it's 4.8 pounds lighter than the stock fork. Both weighed with triple clamps, hardware and oil.

Wow, 43mm old school 1980's 1st gen design cartridge forks + triples (yes I'm referring to the 1995-2006 forks) weigh 4.8lbs MORE than a taller and much larger diameter tube size modern 48mm closed chamber fork?!?!?
That's AWESOME! THANKS FOR THE COMPARISON!!!

Yeah that I was said to myself! I was very surprised and very happy about that. That's a big deal when trying to loose some weight on the KDX. Swapping out other steel parts like the kickstarter, brake lever and shift lever are all steel too. So you could save some weight there. Bars are steel (stock ones). I looked into a frame swap but wow is that going to be a big ordeal. The frame on the KDX is 30 pounds. Some of the alum. frames on the MX bikes are almost 10 pounds different. I think if you had the tools and time to do a fame swap with the Kayaba 48mm fork from the 2009 KX450 that would be all you need to do to make the KDX MUCH lighter than stock.

[Chuck78]

Now you've got me wondering how much a KX 125 frame weighs!
I know the stated difference between a KDX H-series and a KX125/KDX200 hybrid is only about 5 lb difference, but the fuel tank is smaller and fuel weight sits lower, as well as having a thinner seat and an aluminum seat subframe, and seat subframe rails which don't stick back nearly as far as the kdx, so I figured over half of the 5 lb weight difference was probably all just in the seat foam and seat subframe area. Now I'm wondering if most of that was actually in the fork with only maybe a pound or two in the seat foam and subframe and the dished out race spec fasteners used on the KX versus the full head fasteners mostly found on the KDX.

I've been talking about making a post on here comparing all of the weights of each component on the bike, as I went on a real deep dive last fall buying parts for my next 220 rebuild after I rebuilt the suspension linkage and felt how heavy the linkage bolts and swingarm pivot bolt were. Then I ended up buying almost an entire bike worth of fasteners short of a few internal engine bolts and a few small screws here and there, and the KDX specific rear axle which is only similar to a DRZ400 axle, and not available in titanium aftermarket since pre-covid.
Parts like exhaust swapping, KX250 or 125 kick start lever, KX shifter and brake pedals in aluminum to save an extra 1 lb, KLX 650R or KLX300R aluminum suspension link pull rods / dogbones vs KDX steel, etc... Those dog bones are effectively lowering links for a KDX,but I needed that due to swapping a longer rear shock onto my KDX.

[Chuck78]

Has anyone weighed a KX125 frame (with seat subframe) to compare to the KDX200H frame weight???

[Chuck78]

One note here is that I purchased 2009 KX450 Kayaba fork and it's 4.8 pounds lighter than the stock fork. Both weighed with triple clamps, hardware and oil.

This was really exciting to hear... I honestly figured initially that I needed to go to drastic measures to drop weight elsewhere "TO MAKE UP FOR THE ADDED WEIGHT" of larger diameter & longer forks!

I had my hopes up pretty highly... I weighed my '97 KX500 forks (a bit low on oil, leaking seals) with the added & required inverted fork brake line clamps (I MUST use my purple '96 fork guards with these & not switch to different guards & "CR brake hose routing"), as well as 1 of my pairs of '98 RM125 forks (actually the only '98 RM250 forks I have out of the lot of '98 RM Showas), & both were nearly identical at 27lbs 4oz - 27.25lbs, which isn't as drastic of weight savings @ 0.75lbs less than stock KDX as the '09 KX450F KYB's @ 23.2lbs / 4.8lbs savings...but still shaving 3/4 lbs off surprisingly!





This really makes me want to look into a pair of 2009+ KX250F Showa Twin Chamber forks in the future, knowing the more recent forks have shaved an additional 4lbs of weight vs the best of the late '90's...

'09-'10 are twin spring Showa 47mm Twin Chambers
'11-'12 are 47mm Showa SFF Type I forks with damping in one side and a single coil spring in the other. Same triples. '09-'12 triples are all compatible.
'13+ KX250F are 48mm coil spring Showa SFF Type II.

In my opinion the SFF coil spring Showas are the absolute best fork technology out there, excluding the TAC versions which are air spring ("race-only"/high maintenance in my eyes, but can be converted to coil spring to end up with a very nice fork). Less friction and stiction in the SFF design due to not having duplicates of every moving part and moving part interface... I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THE '11+ KX250F/RMZ250 SHOWA SFF WEIGH IN AT!!!!!





I'm looking at building a woods/torque ported overbored "KDX134R" ultralight woods bike out of a 95-98 KX125 (or 99-02, all those years are viable and have sharp steering and very high ground clearance), and dropping 4lbs additional off of an already featherweight full size 191lbs bike would be amazing.

Here's some $$$$ eye candy, almost a whole KDX's worth of mostly titanium hardware, a few aluminum nuts/bolts, and aluminum KX shifter and brake pedal. Old used RCS (Renton Coil Spring) Titanium shock spring for 50mm Showas. Eventually I'll make a very detailed post, probably this winter, of detailed weight savings of the titanium & other parts, MX fork conversions, etc, vs what was stock that I'll be pulling off of the KDX, including some KLX300 invetted forks I'll have for sale soon!

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Teaser - the steel KDX shifter and brake pedal alone weigh a full 1lb more than the aluminum KX versions... KX500 brake pedal is a direct fit to the KDX, as well as '93 & older KX125/250/500 shifters (same as a KX100 shifter basically).
96 grams for the '93 KX shifter
-vs-
292 grams for the KDX shifter, wow!

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If I really enjoyed the woods converted big bore/ported KX125 engine enough, I'd look into another batch of $700-$1300 worth of titanium hardware for the entire bike, but that really only saves 5.5lbs-7.5lbs, and the KX already has the lighter shorter length seat subframe and thinner lighter seat, aluminum shifter and brake pedals, etc, so there's not as many areas (vs a KDX) to shave much more weight except some Silicon Chrome steel lightweight fork and shock springs from Diverse Spring...
Worst case if I'm not fully happy with the 134cc or 139cc woods converted engine nearly well enough vs the 12.5lbs heavier & very torquey 220 engines, it'll get my spare KDX220 engine transplanted!