modern-ish KDX 200 / 250's

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Is there anyone who's familiar with these bikes?

I'm thinking of buying something about 1997 vintage, and all the 250's I've found so far are not road registerable. Did Australia not get a compliant model?

Cheers

[LWC82PE]

around the early/mid 90's we had complianced KDX250's They had steel tanks. Also the early/mid 80's one had complianced 250's aswell with blinkers etc.

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Cheers mate, guess i'm looking for a 200 then if i want something more recent

[LWC82PE]

All the 80's ones had plastic tanks. Its was just those early 90's 250s that got a bit of critisim for being a bit heavy and more trail orientated than they previously were. They were not really bad. I think the 250's were stopped in about 94. A 97ish 200 would be pretty good though. You can put 220 kits in them.

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Yeah, I've been reading a couple or Dirt Bike magazines from back in 97, and they were pretty keen on the 200. The 220 kit got a good mention, and the FMF pipe apprently made a big difference too.

Cheers

[AjayVMX]

I had a 1991 KDX250 which had several mods, including the USA model plastic tank.  I had it for a long time, about 7 years and it never missed a beat untill near the end when it finally required a bottom end bearing (but it still ran with the worn bearing until I notived some movement during a normal top end maintenance!  It was a great bike and ferociously fast.  It was slightly heavy, but no heavier than an XR400 which was called the "vunderbike" of the period.

[dalesween]

Kawasaki sold the kdx220 as a model you could buy off the shop floor back then aswell as their 200.The 220 had a few reliability probs as the ports were left a bit rough at the factory and if they wer,nt cleaned up before use a bit of piston damage could occur.That aside both models wre brilliant in the bush.

[Nathan S]

Are you bike-stalking me, Hairdo?  I started a similar thread on endurobiketalk only a few weeks ago - a few of the blokes supplied some useful links for background reading on the last generation KDX200.
http://endurobiketalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=889.0

Realistically, I suspect that my next 'modern' will be a newer KDX200 or a WR200, as they're basically the last of the 2-stroke trail-bikes (as opposed to full-blown enduro bikes). The WRs seem to be holding their value really well, making the KDXes look like a bargain. I actually started looking for a DT200R, but they're all over-priced to the poop-house and were inferior to even the 89~95 KDX...
Funnily enough, early KTM200s can be had for less money than any of them, but are a 'harder core' dirt bike (with all the good and bad that brings with it).

Nobody I've spoken to, other than AJ, seems to have much love for the water-cooled KDX250. Admittedly, most of them haven't owned/lived with them like AJ has - but only most.
The general complaints are that they're fat, slow (in stock, derestricted form), and top heavy.
Sounds bad for a 250 2-stroke, but when you compare it to an XR400 then maybe its not so bad.... 

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Are you bike-stalking me, Hairdo?

don't look out your back window!


I've been weighing up the pro's and con's of the bikes you mentioned, and I keep coming back to the KDX. There was a really nice low K's one that sold on ebay up here over Christmas for $1700. Had all the FMF gear, and looked pretty much new.

Let me know what you find.

[AjayVMX]

Nobody I've spoken to, other than AJ, seems to have much love for the water-cooled KDX250. Admittedly, most of them haven't owned/lived with them like AJ has - but only most.
The general complaints are that they're fat, slow (in stock, derestricted form), and top heavy.
Sounds bad for a 250 2-stroke, but when you compare it to an XR400 then maybe its not so bad.... 

Yes, mine was fairly heavily modified (derestricted) and was the 1991 model, which had premix fuel and was harder core than the subsequent versions.  Funnily enough, I ended up putting the old (extremely heavy) stock pipe back on mine after a short period, as the SPSS pipe the previous owner had put on it made the bike very hard to ride (rediculously powerful) in the bush.  With the stock pipe, the CDI mod (disable the enginer rev limiter) and suspension sorting, the bike became a heavier KX250 and very pleasant to motor around in the bush.  By the way mine was the bike which was tested in ADB (but prior to me owning it) at the time.

And yes, it was better than an XR400 in every department.  Lighter, faster, steered better, had better suspension.  We did a side by side comparion of the "new" XR400 one day and the XR owner was very surprised, to say the least!

When I eventually sold it, I moved to a later model KDX200 (around 1998) and of course, they were/are just awesome trail bikes.

Of course the biggest mistake I ever made was to evenually sell the last KDX200 I had and buy the KTM200.  I never made it to the end of the first ride on the KTM...

[Lozza]

The KDX 200 is tunable but the DT/WR 200 have serious potential, they both acan rev their nuts off as they have a balance shaft and a 6 speed box. The DT/WR both have DC/DC CDI and a servo YPVS which makes the latest generation programable cdi's (going to stick a 34mm RGV carb with the air solenoids )a bolt on affair, allowing you to dial in as much bottom,mid or top end power as you want.DT is hampered by the small reed cage the WR is more tunable.
The KDX has some potential got one going quite well with a usefull boost in bottom end and about 1000rpm extra on top.
All of the 200's are great bikes and vastly underrated

[AjayVMX]

A spent years as a trail boss on my KDX200, never had much trouble holding up the following punters.  So they are definitely NOT slow. 

All they really need is a Pro Circuit or DG pipe and and alloy silencer and a port cleanup IMHO.  I also used to run Boyeson reeds, but I don't think they added much in overall performance, just cleaner off the bottom.

[Davey Crocket]

I had a WR200 for a few years, awesome trail bike, sold it to get one of those new XR400's, faaarrrk, biggest bike mistake of my life, kept telling myself just spend another $500 and that ill fix it...... another $500...... and another $500, had the trillion dollar XR400 and it was still a peice of shite!!!!. I have never crashed so much in my life than when I had that bike...... something good always comes out of something bad.......sold it and bought my first Husaberg, had em ever since. Morale of this story is.......dont ever beleive what the seppo's say when a new bike comes out!!!!.....too much advertising influence there I think.

[DR]

Paul what you really need is a nice used 1 of these..10 years old now so they're vintage the prices should be reasonable too



I love my suzuki's and have never ridden an RMX to know what they go like but I have ridden 1 of these and I can't imagine the RMX would hold a candle to it..they fairly rip!!

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  probably more bike than I need / should be allowed anywhere near

I rode a KTM 530 the other weekend, I can see why the orange bikes are popular!