KDXRIDER.NET

New member here. I had my first ride on a motorcycle at 9 months old on Dad's 87 KDX 200. I have very fond memories of growing up around that bike, and I am firmly convinced that the KDX is the best off-road motorcycle ever made. Not the fastest, not the best handling, not the lightest, not really the best at anything……but the best overall package. These things are incredible to plonk around on, have great potential as a serious bike, and are damn near bulletproof. I got my own KDX in 2001…A lightly used '97 200. Had that for a couple years and eventually replaced it with a KTM 250, and have been on KTMs ever since. My sister wanted to get into riding a while back and we found her a '98 KDX 200. She rode it for a few years, but parked it when her first child was born 4 years ago. It has been sitting ever since. She could use the money, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for these bikes so I decided to buy it from her. I will keep my current KTM 250 as my race bike….not sure what I'll use this KDX for yet but what the heck, I need a good project anyway.

As to the bike….It was never given much in the way of maintenance. This was probably both a good and a bad thing. I'm a believer that no maintenance can sometimes be better than bad maintenance. At least it doesn’t have a bunch of stripped bolts, mismatched parts, a poorly fitted air filter , etc. She put a lot of hours on the bike at first, but it was all putt-putting around. She probably had hundreds of low speed tip-overs, but it's never been seriously wadded up. One of the radiators is twisted a bit and the subframe is a little tweaked, but it's otherwise pretty straight. (I wish these had a replaceable subframe like modern bikes, I'm going to be SOL if I can't get the subframe straightened out). Despite my insistence that she drain the carb before putting it away, it has been sitting with stale gas in it for 4 years. I spent a few hours cleaning the carb this weekend and got it running. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it seems to run pretty strong. The bike has an FMF pipe and silencer (not sure which pipe, but I'll replace it anyway) and for what it is…seems to run really well. The engine is very smooth but a little noisy…..Probably just KIPS rattle. I tinkered with the jetting a bit and got it running cleanly, so now I have to decide what to do with it.

I intend to do a full frame-off rebuild. I'll tear it down and check for signs of rod play and main bearing slop. If needed I'll tear it the rest of the way down and rebuild the lower end, but I expect I'll be able to get away with just a top end rebuild and PV cleaning. I'll have the frame and swingarm powdercoated, and repair or replace anything needed along the way. Bearings, brakes, plastic, misc nuts and bolts, etc. Cosmetically, part of me wants to restore back to 100% original. Purple seat cover, green frame, neon graphics and all. The other part of me wants to go more modern and have the frame done in silver, black seat cover, and OEM graphics from a newer model. Parts availability may make the decision for me. Not sure where I can find a set of NOS 1998 graphics, seat cover, tool bag, etc. I'll start cruising on ebay soon.

Then I need to decide what to use it for. If I spend the effort (and money) to do all this, I'll be hesitant to ride it offroad much if at all. I don’t need another dirt bike anyway, so I may plate the bike and use it to mess around the back roads with. We go camping a lot so I'm thinking it would be fun to tool around State Parks with. The bike has also been lowered roughly 2". This was great for her, and may actually be nice if I turn it into a street-going bike. It handles goofy offroad with it's lowered stance, but it may be nice with a set of supermoto wheels/tires.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and see if you guys had any recommendations for good parts resources. Rocky Mountain has most original stuff still available, but original parts can be pricey. I'll probably have over $3k in this bike by the time I'm done, and then if I'm lucky it will be worth $1800. I'm not doing this as an investment, but I'd still like to keep cost down if possible. I also welcome any ideas for what direction I should take the project
Thanks!

Welcome. We need pictures!

Welcome to the forums. Thanks for sharing your cool sorry with us.

hey Brian , what length are the dog bones which give 2 " of lowering ? eye to eye.
thanks mark

I used to have so much fun breaking the law riding my trail only 97 KDX200 on the road to the car wash after trail rides. So much that I turned it into a road legal supermoto setup... and I kinda wish I wouldn't have.

It's a lot of fun in slow canyons and in the city under 50mph. After that it's as annoying as a screaming toddler in the back seat with the noise and the lack of power, regardless of gearing, isn't going to make the bike worth riding above 50 mph. I've found it's blew a lot more seals (and recently a crank) due to the stress that road speeds put on the bike. When it was a trail bike I changed the oil and tires. Now everything is going bad and getting expensive.

I've spent about $1,500 on making it street legal and on a sumo setup and I could easily drop another $700-1000 on suspension to get it just "alright" at the track (I've done a couple track days now). If I had to do it over again I would leave it alone and buy a yz/wr450 supermoto somebody already dumped a ton of money into and is now selling for $2,ooo. They were all over the place near fall. Keep your eyes open and they'll pop up. The KDX is fun on the trails and it's a blast to drive on the road for a few seconds but it wears off fairly quickly.

If you do turn it into a road bike do the USD fork swap. It makes a huge difference!

If you need any advice let me know. I spent a lot of time and money to be underwhelmed on my first legal ride. It'd be nice to see somebody else with the same problems I'm having around here.

All this said there's nothing quite as satisfying as wheelying away from every stop, literally smoking everybody behind you. That certainly will never get old.