Hey!! Michigander here.

[HeidiB]

Greetings!
Bought an 01 KDX 220 for our son and want to get him schooled on his new bike. Heard this was the place to be, so here I am.

[Indawoods]

Welcome aboard Heidi! Glad ya found us...

[KDX Butterfly]

You definitely found the right place. Watch out for sarcasm, or better yet, beat it!

[fuzzy]

Welcome!

[HeidiB]

Thanks for the welcomes everyone!

[HeidiB]

You definitely found the right place. Watch out for sarcasm, or better yet, beat it!

I did notice some sarcasm out there. I can oblige. HeHe

[canyncarvr]

What's with all this about 'sarcasm' all of a sudden?

Did someone learn a new word in screwl this week?

Let me know when the vocab lessons get to satire, chide, cynicism, and facts. Only then will I expect to sense that anyone knows the difference between 'em.


You have undoubtedly heard about OEM 220 pistons? Hopefully that's not what's in an '01..but if you don't know it might be good to check. Pop the head off and take a look-see.

Welcome to the nicest, warmest, and fuzziest (see...he even said Welcome!) biking site there is. NOT like summ'a those thumping other places........

[HeidiB]

Thanks canyncarvr. I am unaware of the OEM piston. I better start doing my home work on that.

[canyncarvr]

The 220 piston has casting flaws that make it weak. It tends to come apart, and sometimes the collateral damage is extensive. Some get by with a 'top-end', some have to buy cases. I'm sure some junk the bike it happened to.

The safest side to be on is to take the OEM out of the bike sooner than later. Another 'some' input, but indeed some have done that before their brandy-new off-the-showroom-floor bike was ridden. That could be considered extreme, but the fact is you never know when it's going to grenade.

There's a 'fact' floating around that says only highly modifed bikes have a problem with the OEM piston. That is not a true fact. Bone stock bikes have blowed up.

Take the head off. An OEM piston will be stamped with an alpha character, usually an A, B, or C. OEM alpha designations do go to G, but you won't likely find something like that.

There may have been some documentation of visibile differences on the exhaust port side of the piston between OEM and (fer example) Wiseco. I don't recall that offhand. I know the pin oiling setup isn't the same...but you can't SEE that with just the head off. If you find something regarding exhaust port side differences, you could check those out with the pipe off..and not have to take the head off at all.

Surely your son's bike has had a top-end maintenance performed at least once since '01. Maybe whoever did it knew what they were doing...maybe not.

A lot of blather to edge you toward checking it out...at least. You could well save a lot of hassle and $$$.

[HeidiB]

Wow pertinent information I'm so thankful to now know!! Muchos Gracias!

The guy we bought the bike from said he didn't think it had 400 miles on it. It looked showrom new to us. So it's got the stock piston in it. He never did anything to the bike except make it street legal.

The odd thing is the extra container for antifreeze (words escape me for the correct terminology) was empty when we bought it. Hubby filled it, rode a weekend, and empty again. Is this normal?

[HeidiB]

Here's the bike. I likes it a lot!

[img][img]http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa4/ ... 220001.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][img]http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa4/ ... 220003.jpg[/img][/img]

[fuzzy]

Yeah, that's pretty normal....Lotsa people just remove the coolant recovery tank.