1990 KDX 200 suspension

johng723 said:

Hey Guys, I have a '90 kdx200 and I hear a lot of people talking about changing the front suspension by adding a heavier weight spring as well as the race tech fork emulators. My question is, do these options make that big of a difference? I'm 5'11 170 lbs and most ride trails/woods with friends with a few small jumps here and there. Not sure if I should go for those upgrades or not so if anyone has any opinions on them please let me know! Thanks! :cool:

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I had a '90 kdx200 and put in emulators and stiffer springs. It made a HUGE improvement. The bike was far better in the whoops (the stiffer springs help here) and in the rocks and roots (the emulators allow much faster movement).

If you plan to keep the bike, spend the money and upgrade the supension.

johng723 said:

Hey Guys, I have a '90 kdx200 and I hear a lot of people talking about changing the front suspension by adding a heavier weight spring as well as the race tech fork emulators. My question is, do these options make that big of a difference? I'm 5'11 170 lbs and most ride trails/woods with friends with a few small jumps here and there. Not sure if I should go for those upgrades or not so if anyone has any opinions on them please let me know! Thanks! :cool:

Click to expand...

I had a '90 kdx200 and put in emulators and stiffer springs. It made a HUGE improvement. The bike was far better in the whoops (the stiffer springs help here) and in the rocks and roots (the emulators allow much faster movement).

If you plan to keep the bike, spend the money and upgrade the supension.

I put in stiffer springs first and added the emulators later. The stiff springs alone were an excellent improvement, but the emulators made the fork much much better. BTW, I stiffened my springs by cutting off a few coils and lenghtening the spacer. Cheap and easy.

nono, emulators with cut springs, egad. for your weight get the .35 'take off' springs every takes out of their '95-ups. Fredette sells them. much better than the .29's in there now, plus you don't risk bind. Set preload for 1.5 layden sag, typically 3/4" unlayden.

I would suggest that you try to buy some stiffer fork springs first. I would suggest trying to hang out on a Honda XR400 related board and buy some Honda XR400R fork springs that are used. They are .38 or .40, which is more correct for your weight, when used with a modern amount of preload.

I would strongly suggest that you get stiffer springs and play with the fork oil weight and height before getting the emulators. By that time, you could have just bought a KX front end and be done with it.

What about KX Forks???

Before you spend money on the original forks and depending on what you are willing to spend, you might want to consider upgrading to Upside Down (USD) forks from a newer KX250 or KX125. Try doing some searching on this site and other KDXRIDER sites including that Auction Site to see if you want to make the effort. The USD forks are far superior than the stock forks even if you put new springs and emulaters in them ie no under hang, precise steering, adjustable rebound and compression, and revalving potential. I've done the USD fork swap on a newer KDX and it was not that difficult there are many "how to's" out there on the web. I believe I've read of at least one fork swap that has been done to an '89' KDX200.
Good Luck and Have Fun :nod:

By the time you buy KX forks, re spring and revalve them you are looking at a lot of $$ and labor to put into a '90 KDX. When it was a 5 year old bike, maybe that made more sense, but it is almost 17 years old now.

It's a nice trail bike and the stock fork is certainly its weakest link. The emulators do make a huge improvement, but yeah, they cost some $.

If money is an object, I would say buy a used pair of stiffer springs or cut your stock fork springs (free) and save your money for your next bike - one with modern suspension and more power.

If you cut your springs, measure the gaps and make sure you won't get coil bind. My buddy and myself logged many miles on '90 and '89 KDXs with cut springs and emulators.

We put the emulators in ourselves. It is a bit of a PITA the first time you do it, so if you go that route it would not hurt to find out if there is a shop in your area that could do it for a reasonable fee. In the old days, some Cycle Gear shops were authorized RT installers.