First bike in 30 years
Posted: 09:42 pm Aug 05 2013
When I was a kid I wanted a dirtbike in a bad way. My father bought us (my older brother and I) a well used Honda CT70. I know the CT70 is a classic, but to a 12 year old it just didn't compare to the XL100's our buddies were cruising around on.
Fast forward 30 years and now my son is 12 and he wanted a dirtbike. I found him a slightly used Kawasaki KLX140L and he's been bugging me to go riding nearly every day since. So - perfect excuse to buy myself a new bike. And after cruising the classifieds for a while, I spotted a 2006 KDX200 for sale. I'd never heard of a KDX200 before - a bit of research later and I realize that the KDX is the perfect type of hybrid I'm looking for - a bike built for the trails but one that has the traditional appeal of a 2 stroke. Well I missed out on the 2006 KDX200 - by the time I realized what kind of a find it was I called the guy and it was already sold for close to his full asking price. Missed opportunity I thought! I couldn't find anything else like it - so I was back to looking at thumpers like the ever popular CRF230F and TTR-230 - I gave up on the hope of finding another 2 stroke (I toyed with the idea of buying a YZ250 which were in decent supply and adding a flywheel and some other mods to make it trail worthy) and made a couple of offers. Just as I was about to close a deal on a crf230f I spotted a 2004 KDX220r for sale. What luck! It was missing a few non-critical pieces (kickstand, chain guide) but certainly had potential - and the price was right.
So I joined the ranks of KDX owner. And inspired by fellow kdxrider members like rick albert, I set about adding a few upgrades to my bike to get it trail ready.
Here's the before pic:
And here are the after pics. I've added a Trailtech kickstand (hypermotard version as I read a lot of folks found the standard one a bit too long), Fredette Chain Guide, Maier rear fender, Works Connection frameguards, Polisport Halo Headlight, Sealsaver fork protectors, I stripped the paint off the FMF Gnarley pipe and polished it and the PowerCore 2 silencer (and repacked it), replaced some missing rubber mounts, o-rings and put everything back together:
Having a ball out on the trails, me with my KDX and my son with his KLX140L. I'm sure it won't be too long before he's asking for an upgrade, or wanting to try my bike!
The more time I put into the bike the more things I want to do to it! It's almost as much fun in the garage as out on the trails.
Colin
Fast forward 30 years and now my son is 12 and he wanted a dirtbike. I found him a slightly used Kawasaki KLX140L and he's been bugging me to go riding nearly every day since. So - perfect excuse to buy myself a new bike. And after cruising the classifieds for a while, I spotted a 2006 KDX200 for sale. I'd never heard of a KDX200 before - a bit of research later and I realize that the KDX is the perfect type of hybrid I'm looking for - a bike built for the trails but one that has the traditional appeal of a 2 stroke. Well I missed out on the 2006 KDX200 - by the time I realized what kind of a find it was I called the guy and it was already sold for close to his full asking price. Missed opportunity I thought! I couldn't find anything else like it - so I was back to looking at thumpers like the ever popular CRF230F and TTR-230 - I gave up on the hope of finding another 2 stroke (I toyed with the idea of buying a YZ250 which were in decent supply and adding a flywheel and some other mods to make it trail worthy) and made a couple of offers. Just as I was about to close a deal on a crf230f I spotted a 2004 KDX220r for sale. What luck! It was missing a few non-critical pieces (kickstand, chain guide) but certainly had potential - and the price was right.
So I joined the ranks of KDX owner. And inspired by fellow kdxrider members like rick albert, I set about adding a few upgrades to my bike to get it trail ready.
Here's the before pic:
And here are the after pics. I've added a Trailtech kickstand (hypermotard version as I read a lot of folks found the standard one a bit too long), Fredette Chain Guide, Maier rear fender, Works Connection frameguards, Polisport Halo Headlight, Sealsaver fork protectors, I stripped the paint off the FMF Gnarley pipe and polished it and the PowerCore 2 silencer (and repacked it), replaced some missing rubber mounts, o-rings and put everything back together:
Having a ball out on the trails, me with my KDX and my son with his KLX140L. I'm sure it won't be too long before he's asking for an upgrade, or wanting to try my bike!
The more time I put into the bike the more things I want to do to it! It's almost as much fun in the garage as out on the trails.
Colin
