Finally riding my KDX

[Joburble]

Well I finally got to go riding today after nearly a year recovering from injury, and I finally got to ride my new to me KDX200. Although I have bought a few different parts to go on the bike I decided to keep it stock for my first ride. I must say that allround I was quite impressed, and the motor has a bit more go than I thought it would. Now I see why people love them so much. It has enough power to get you out of trouble, but not enough to get you in trouble, what a great mix. However I discovered that the tires that come standard on this bike are not too flash for anything other than hard pack, a little wet clay and oh where did the traction go. I can see I will have to do some suspension work and dialing in to make the suspension better as I seem to feel every little bump, and I am used to my last bike (KLX450R) soaking up major bumps effortlessly. I assume the shim stack mod will stop every little bump being sent to me as a gift from the front end.
All in all I had a great day riding a great bike that I think will keep me well entertained for quite some time. I know this is a bit of a nothing post but I am just so happy to be riding again, however I think I was the slowest guy there, oh well.

Go the KDX.

 

[julien_d]

Excellent, good for you!!

The suspension is definitely lacking in stock form. Nothing you can't take care of though. The engine is quite impressive isn't it? Great bikes!

J.

 

[sr5bidder]

great to hear you finally got on her, indeed the shimstack mod will help alot I was getting beat up for 8 months before I did mine so I really noticed and appreiciated the mod... well take it easy and who cares if your slow take your time and recover the rest of the way (in your head)

 

[SVandal]

Congrats! It does have enough to get you into trouble, but you may need to stop paying attention for a bit while twisting the throttle to do that. Overall though a great bike to ride!

 

[Porkchop]

Congrats on getting back at it, What was the extent of your injury? Take it easy & good luck, Porkchop :cool:

 

[Joburble]

My injury was a partially torn lateral collateral ligament, partially torn medial collateral ligament and completely torn anterior cruciate ligament and seriously damaged confidence. Sr5bidder is right, just have to mend my head now.

 

[Porkchop]

Ouch! That reminds me of when I was 19, acl good bye, 4 surgeries to date, 1 for the repair, the other 3 for minor tune ups. Knee working ok for now, trail riding only, no mx or big air. Happy to walk let alone ride! Thank god for good, high quality knee braces, I will not ride with out them. Where in NZ, are you? Good luck
Auckland I see...

 

[Joburble]

I am in Auckland. I bought myself some asterisk knee braces (not cheap), but I just can't get them to fit me comfortably, they are the right size and there is nothing wrong with them, go figure, must have funny shaped legs. On Sunday I wore a locally made sports brace and it worked great, it even hit the extension stops pretty hard during a river crossing, without it I may have re-injured my knee. I may just get another one for my other knee and sell my asterisks unless I can make them work better for me with a bit of fine tuning. Like you Porkchop I am still happy to be walking not just because of my knee, but because I broke my back when I was 26 when I landed hard from a jump I should have taken at half the speed. Ah, the foolishness of youth.

 

[In come tacks]

Yeah, the over-emphasized approach! Let's see what happens if I take that in the next gear... Most of us have done it, and it's always so much fun before the event. But my injury was due to weather, the long grass I was in was too wet still. I simply charged a turn and the bike threw me at the ground flying out of the turn. It was kinda like the luge incident. I tried to roll, but that didn't work at all. The jumps have caused me some wrecks, but you never know when your bike will suddenly disagree with you.

 

[Joburble]

Did an 80k trail ride last week and during the last 40k I got some of my mojo back. Just loved passing some of those new 4 strokes. Pretty neat passing 20 stuck guys on a wet rutted clay hill on the now deleted old tech, under powered, under sprung KDX, man I love this bike! Could have done with a bit more power in the really soft dunes though, having said that, the KDX did not get stuck like so many other bikes did. No hotstart equipment and endless kicking needed either :cool:

 

[Tom68]

Did an 80k trail ride last week and during the last 40k I got some of my mojo back. Just loved passing some of those new 4 strokes. Pretty neat passing 20 stuck guys on a wet rutted clay hill on the now deleted old tech, under powered, under sprung KDX, man I love this bike! Could have done with a bit more power in the really soft dunes though, having said that, the KDX did not get stuck like so many other bikes did. No hotstart equipment and endless kicking needed either :cool:

Only thing better than a new bike is passing a heap of new bikes with an old one.

 

[SS109]

Dunes? Did you say dunes? The KDX definately isn't a bike built for sand dunes but, hey, whatever gets the job done! :rotfl:

 

[reepicheep]

Thats two of us in the "decided they needed a lighter dirt bike while looking up at the inside of an MRI machine! :)".

I'm still really liking my Continental Gelande Sports. Big knobs, good grip on both rocks and mud, and they are holding up reasonably well. The knobs are starting to get a little rounded, but the tire still trucks up muddy hills.

 

[Joburble]

Dunes? Did you say dunes?

Ummm.... yes I did say dunes. Only a couple of kilometers of dunes in the ride and I must admit I had to give it death to get through. A friend on a KDX200 felt sorry for his bike too. Poor little bikes. Once you get enough speed up the bike planes on top of the sand ok, it's just a bit of a mission getting it up there. I think I managed to get it to pull 3rd or 4th, but it would not have pulled the next gear. Must be time for me to put the FMF gnarly woods pipe on. On a side note I have started using the No-Toil filter oil and cleaning system, seems good so far.
Tires/Tyres, I am using a new Metzler MC4 on the back and the standard Dunlop on the front that I will be changing for a 'Pirelli Scorpion Extra' soon. The Metzler rear seems pretty good but boy does it dislike rocks (kills the tire pretty quick).
Where I ride in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand we can get just about every surface except snow in a single trail ride. The one I just did had hard pack, wet clay, deep dunes, rocks, mud, gravel, grass, a wet sand beach section and even a small patch of bog marsh. Also included was the added bonus of travelling road blocks (known as quad bikes) who insisted on going slow on the twisty sections and then tried as hard as they could to beat you on the easy open stuff so they could hold you up again on the next single track section, and in straight line drag race those big quads are fast and hard to pass. Grrr!!!