KDX weight real

[terminatr]

What is the real dry weight of the KDX?

Bikez.com says KDX 200 is about 220 pounds, almost the same as an XR 200.

I have both of these bikes, and the KDX feels 50 pounds heavier. When I position the bikes on the trailer, I use my muscle to life the rear wheel up and swing the back of the bike to the side. I can do that maneuver easily on my XR200. But I can't on the KDX. I have to bounce on the suspension and use the rebound to life it. Just curious the real weight is.

[chkdx]

Well, I can tell you what the real wet weight is. I very carefully weighed my '99 220 with a full tank of gas, ready to start a ride: dead on 250 pounds. Assuming it holds 11 liters of gas per the FSM, that's 2.9 gallons x 6.5 lbs per gallon = 19 lbs of gas.

250 - 19 = 231 lbs ready to ride with no gas. My bike is stock except for a PC 2 pipe, and this was with the stock silencer in place. No skid plate, no pipe guard. It's heavier than I thought it'd be.

[terminatr]

Thanks for info. I guess the KDX is so much taller than the XR. The height makes it few very heavy.

[SS109]

My '90 E-series came in at 238 with 1 gallon of fuel in the tank and ready to ride.

[rbates9]

http://kdxrider.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=11738

[tommyd]

My 95 weighed 249 with close to a full stock tank(guesstimating with my larger than stock Clarke tank).
No hand guards, no toolkit. Aluminum skid, frame guards near pegs, IMS pegs. FMF fatty with stock silencer.
Aftermarket rear fender with no tail light. Seal savers instead of sexy purple fork boots.
Regular old air in tires without a moisture trap on compressor , but not much moisture here.
Rear tire was pretty worn out with riding buddies spare front tube installed and forgotten about... until I re-replaced it later.
Front tire had average wear.
No mud on bike due to lack of moisture mentioned previously.

[billie_morini]

Well, I can tell you what the real wet weight is. I very carefully weighed my '99 220 with a full tank of gas, ready to start a ride: dead on 250 pounds. Assuming it holds 11 liters of gas per the FSM, that's 2.9 gallons x 6.5 lbs per gallon = 19 lbs of gas.

250 - 19 = 231 lbs ready to ride with no gas. My bike is stock except for a PC 2 pipe, and this was with the stock silencer in place. No skid plate, no pipe guard. It's heavier than I thought it'd be.

I'm fortunate enough to have both a KDX 220 and DRZ 400S. The KDX is 60 to 65 pounds lighter than the DRZ. It is much easier to load and lift. As I grow older & weaker with age, I ride the KDX more.

[Chuck78]

I don't know if I fully posted the whole list, but it's possible to drop 10-1/2 up to about 17-1/2 lbs off of the KDX, but about 5.5 lbs of that is in spending what was $900-1300 in a full titanium hardware kit, and that's after shopping around extensively trying to find best prices on everything, and that's including a KX front axle in titanium, KX500 titanium swingarm bolt which is the same as the KDX, KX titanium linkage bolts, etc. including exhaust weight savings of I recall about 4.5 lbs with aftermarket. Also including ditching the stock clunker kickstand and putting on a proper enduro kickstand with a custom bracket. 93 KX shifter and 95 and up KX brake pedal conversion to save 1 lb total switching to the aluminum components. You could shop just a hair off the rear of the seat subframe and that extra odd hanger piece that's welded on to the rear right seat stay below the muffler connection area. Fork swaps are one of the biggest weight savers as well as the exhaust. The stock forks are the heaviest thing you could fit to this bike, almost any for you would upgrade to is a minimum of one or two pounds lighter up to 4.5 lb lighter. Running a YZ250 two-stroke aluminum steering stem and triple clamp and matching 125 or 250 forks, or a Honda CRF250X fork and triple clamp with its aluminum steering stem, or a 2002-2005 KX 48mm KYB open chamber fork swap can save up to 4.5 lbs going up significantly in fork tube diameter and rigidity.

Running a fast wearing aluminum rear sprocket or running the fancy Dirt Tricks ultralight steel sprockets can save considerable weight, or a rental TwinRing aluminum sprocket with steel outer ring is the third lightest a bit cheaper than the fancy Dirt Tricks KX sprockets $119-137 ish vs $89 Renthal TwinRing vs $60-$80 for the lightest option but fastest replacement interval on aluminum sprockets. The steel sprockets are quite heavy. You can also shop around for the lightest Renthal or DID, RK etc o-ring chain. I won't compromise by going to an unsealed chain.
A lot of this is offset by adding a regulator rectifier, handlebar bag or trunk bag, and guards, pipe guard / skid plate, and radiator guards. But you still come out substantially ahead. YZ titanium foot pegs can be shaved down and fit to the KDX after drilling a hole for the KDX foot peg pin spring. More weight savings.

Going over my head and Hard Enduro terrain skill level capabilities I often find my bike in a precarious position on its side on a steep precarious hillside, which is what caused me to look into weight savings to an extreme degree...

If I get some down time and remember, I'll try and cut and paste that list here.

[Chuck78]

It seems as if the stock KDX with all fluids except for gasoline comes in at around 234lbs, so perhaps the quoted factory spec dry weight is not including any fluids whatsoever.
This is about the same weight as an early Honda CRF250 or 96-03 last gen XR250 4-stroke, although the weight is carried up higher on the KDX, so making it lighter weight will make it feel the same weight as those bikes although the KDX handling once moving down the trail with the engine internals spinning is definitely much better than the four strokes due to the lack of gyroscopic effect from being a two-stroke without camshaft valves and cam causing additional gyroscopic effect to resist changing of direction of the bike.

[billie_morini]

Hi, Chuck. I actually went the other way with my KDX. I added 6 lbs by installing an electric starter & battery!

[JimmyB]

With some of the options many do.

[KDXGarage]

1995+ USA KDX is around 233 pounds in stock form with no fuel.

[Chuck78]

1995+ USA KDX is around 233 pounds in stock form with no fuel.

In trying to estimate what shock spring rate I may need for my '97 KX125/KDX220R hybrid build, I was searching for real world actual weights of these KX125 & KX250 models, 1994-2002.

Over on ThumperTalk, I'd found that the KX250, while having a slightly lighter & more slender frame, seat subframe, seat, and fuel tank vs our '95-'06 KDX's, totaling around 5.5lbs lighter, with it's larger more robust (heavier) engine, comes in at around 230lbs ready to ride minus fuel, despite an advertised weight of 213lbs...
Subtract KDX exhaust weight difference vs stock KX, KDX lighting, + 1lbs heavier shifter & brake pedals, & they're virtually the same on a scale.

A familiar and very helpful individual we may be acquainted with chimed in on ThumperTalk, as well as a few others:

Throw it up on a scale. I think you will find it much closer to 230 than 213.

Dry weight does not equal the weight of the bike without fuel, just in case you didn't know that. Dry weight usually means nothing to anyone who is going to actually ride a bike. The weight on a scale without fuel is a fairly common accepted "true weight" method. A 2005 Dirt Bike magazine had many weights posted of various bikes. 220-ish to 230-ish was the weight of KX250's from the last 20 years.

My 1998 kx250 weighs 213lbs dry.

Only in the sales brochure. The weight minus gas is around 230 pounds.

So this all tracks, advertised dry weights are 10-20lbs lighter generally (with no fluids whatsoever, and then some generous understating on top of that) versus actual weight with no fuel. 193lbs KX125 models seem to weigh in closer to 208lbs-213lbs real world weights with no fuel but otherwise ready to ride.

I do know that the 1999-ish aluminum frame CR250R certainly feels like a hefty pig of a bike when standing still or picking it up off the ground, even more top heavy than the '95-'06 KDX, despite it's thoroughbred motocross racer build... Similarly, once moving, that weight is for the most part not noticed, until you have to pick it up when it's dropped...

Interestingly enough, the published weight for the 1997 - 2001 Honda CR250R aluminum frame models is 213.8lbs, while the general consensus on Thumper Talk seems to have been that they weigh in close to 230 lbs.... "236lbs with spark arrestor, bark busters, aftermarket pipe, carbon fiber pipe guard, +1.0 gallons of fuel" on the scales according to one owner, who said his standard KTM 250SX weighed on same scales came in at 219lbs.

This goes to illustrate what I have witnessed from wrenching on KTM bikes. Absolutely everything on the bike is made of thinner metal in order to shave a little bit of weight everywhere possible. It's not often you see a Japanese frame broken, but I have seen a lot of late model KTM frames broken, late model paper thin KTM swing arms with holes punched in the side of them from rock damage... As I learned when replacing "sloppy wheel bearings," which turned out to be perfectly good, if a careless amateur DIY ("DYI" = Do Yourself In) mechanic presses the wheel bearings into a KTM hub slightly crooked, you will very easily elongate and ovalize the hub shell permanently, ruining it to where the bearings are no longer a press fit.... The engine cases are even thinner metal as witnessed by the gasket surfaces on them being thinner than the Japanese bikes. All of the engine fasteners are microsized and ultra fine thread pitch which very easily strip out, requiring it threat repair kits which are not readily available at most parts stores....

I feel the KTM materials thickness benefits them both in that they come out as the lightest bikes on the market as well as KTM having to use less in the way of raw materials to produce their bikes.... Somehow they still have mismanaged a way their company and their bike quality in the past 7 years...





There is great benefit to the construction and design of the Japanese bikes versus the race spec almost throw away model more fragile Austrian bikes' ultra-thin materials design.


tbc...

[Chuck78]

All that being said, one can shave some weight from a KDX pretty readily up to 10 or even 17 lbs depending on how far you take it.
The forks and exhaust are the biggest and easiest things to save weight on with the KDX... There's 6.0lbs-7.0lbs (modern closed chamber forks and triples) up to 10 lbs (KYB 48mm open chamber or KLX300 or KX 43mm open chamber forks and triples) weight savings to be had right there...
Trail Tech Billet aluminum kickstand, '93 KX aluminum shifter & '95+ KX aluminum brake pedal conversions, KX aluminum kickstart lever conversion, KX500 titanium swingarm pivot and linkage bolts (these are some of the largest steel bolts on the bike), as well as custom-made billet aluminum suspension link pull rods to match the thickness of the KX linkage bolts (actually finding the 1994 - 2001 KX 125/250 titanium linkage bolt versions will fit a little better and are slightly narrower).

KLX650R billet aluminum 115mm pull rods / suspension links are only 2.5 mm longer than stock KDX 112.5 steel links, and lower the bike about .650", which comes in handy if you are doing an upgraded shock in the form of a Showa DRZ400SM or '98-'04 RM125 shock shortened to about 433mm (8mm longer than stock KDX), to match the longer travel and taller height of a modern Fork swap, albeit the 50 mm shock does way more than the 44 mm KDX shock, although you can get a modern Showa ultralight silicon-chrome steel spring from Diverse Spring which will bring it back to the stock KDX shock weight.
Or just stay with the KDX shock and make your own billet 7000-series aluminum suspension links @ 112.5mm or 112mm or 111.5mm to boost up the rear end ever so slightly so you don't have to lower the upgraded forks quite as much.
There are also RCS (Renton Coil Spring) titanium shock springs available, but at great cost, $500 unless you can find a used one. The Diverse Mfg ultralight steel springs are $129, money better spent unless you are really going all out. I picked up a used RCS titanium 4.9 kg spring for $200.... I don't see myself buying the titanium versions new unless I get rich. The shock spring is a fairly centralized area where you can shave a fair bit of noticeable weight though.

After the larger items and easier items have been swapped out for weight saving versions, you can begin replacing all of the M10 and M8 fasteners on the bike with titanium fasteners and where applicable, aluminum nuts... It's a 1.5 thread pitch instead of 1.25, but there are titanium M10-105mm engine mount bolts that are the exact size aside from the thread pitch difference as the KDX lower mid and lower front engine mount bolts.... Start with a larger fasteners and work your way down as budget allows. All of the triple clamp hardware and Fork pinch bolt clamp hardware, brake caliper mounting bolts and brake pad retaining pins in titanium, you can even find an assortment of various brake caliper pistons in titanium from Factory Image Racing dealers in Europe, to even break bleeder fittings in titanium. Although the weight down low on the bike is not felt or perceived as much as weight of high on the bike like the forks and exhaust, reducing unsprung weight has great benefits with the handling of the bike.

Yamaha YZ foot pegs and shock springs came and titanium versions somewhere around the late 2000s and early 2010s, and are significantly lighter than a stock foot peg, although the titanium that Yamaha used was a bit on the brittle side and both the foot pegs have a reputation of breaking and crashes, as well as the coil springs having a reputation of cracking especially if you don't have the correct fittings on the ends of the springs as far as the spring seat interface goes to allow them to very freely rotate and not have the end of the coil contacting the portion of the coil directly above it and causing a stress point to break at.
The Yamaha YZ/WR footpegs can be pretty easily modified to fit a KDX frame and a 1996 and earlier KX frame by grinding about 1 mm off of the portion that rests against the frame, and narrowing the portion that slides into the foot peg bracket accordingly. Then you must drill a hole for the KDX foot peg spring. You can buy aftermarket pegs that fit these also, in titanium. 2015 and earlier KTM pegs are a direct fit for a 1997-2005 KX frame, and the YZ pegs can be modified in the same fashion to fit the KX frames of that era by taking just 1 mm or so off of the portion that rests against the frame, the width is not needing to be modified on the KX frames, point being, depending on the construction of the KTM peg, some of those could be modified to fit the KDX frame and 96 and earlier KX frame also, but not all, it has to be a solid metal construction where the peg pin goes through in order to be able to be modified, unlike the YZ peg format.
Titanium foot peg pins are available as well...
Heck, you could even buy a set of KX/KDX titanium cylinder head studs and nuts. I have not found the same for the base gasket studs, however. Being that there are only four of them, it might be best to stick with the properties of steel for that application.

I'll have to dig up my list of KDX weight savings parts again, as I'm sure I have missed a few areas, but this covers the bulk of it.
Going all out with some KYB open chamber forks, making the aluminum steering stem from the donor triples work with the KDX frame, and full titanium hardware everywhere possible, ditching the clunky heavy stock KDX kickstand for no kickstand or a YZ Trail Tech Billet kickstand, it's really possible to shave up to 17lbs off the KDX's weight. If you do the same treatment to a KDX hybrid, you can drop as much as 21 lbs total vs a similarly equipped KDX200H/220R in it's stock chassis.