1986 kdx 200 suspension

[scott mcgourley]

Just bought a beat up 1986 kdx 200. I intend to race it in Vintage B class. The suspension is totally toast. Oil leaking out....High time never serviced probably....DONE. So my question is, what would be my best bet???? Can I put KX forks on this model? I need to have drum brakes in the front to qualify for my series. Or who would you recommend to send it out to, get new springs and rebuild and or revalve??? Does revalving this old tech make sense?????? Finally, what the hell do the air valves do on the top of the shock!!!!!

[dfeckel]

The air valve on the shock is to charge the shock with nitrogen. Once the shock is properly charged, don't let it out!

You could probably find some drum-braked KX forks from the early 80's that would slide into your triples. I do not know what year would work. Otherwise, you're looking at the whole steering stem swap to make another front end work.

These damper rod forks are really tunable with just spring rate, oil height, and oil weight. I think you can fit a Race Tech gold valve in there somehow to get a tunable shim stack. At least that's my understanding. I could be way off.

[KDXGarage]

Look up Race Tech Gold Valve Emulators.

On the front suspension (forks), the air valves are (in modern terms), just there to bleed the air from the forks.

[smrobertsfamily]

I too have one(an 87) that I race in evo B hare scrambles and just serviced the stock suspension and was impressed by it a lot . Much much better than the PE250 I has before however, I've got springs and gold valves coming for it now.
A friend of mine races one with me had it sprung and gold valves done says it was like knight and day.
Good luck

[hbgod]

86 kdx didnt have front drums..... and on my 86 kdx i have the front suspension off my 86 kx125 but thats also disks.... doesnt look like the rear shock will fit tho.