Begenner on an 01 KX250 for trails

[pdiddy]

So a good friend of mine finally bought a dirt bike. Albeit one that we all told him not to. He has never ridden in his life. He is 22 years old, 5-5 and 120lbs (small guy). We ride trails. Tight twisty and steep. I rarely see anything above 3rd gear on my KDX.

He bought a 2001 KX250. It is actually a very nice bike. Well maintained, bearings good, good compression, all sorts of cool Devol guards, renthal bars. It runs very strong, incredible hit, wow. (Ok, so I dont ride MX bikes that often, lol)

It needs tires, a new throttle and cable, chain and sprocket set and a spark arrester.

But on to the point. He has never ridden before and this bike is geared incredibly high for what we do. It also seems to stumble right off the bottom. From searching this site, it seems like a 52 tooth rear sprocket, 13oz flywheel and boyseen reeds would be a good place to start in calming this thing down and making the gearing more suitable for tight trails. With a 52 teeth rear sprocket, would he need to replace the chain guide? Can we go bigger than 52 teeth? Is there anything else that should be done?

Thanks for the help.

 

[rickyd]

Before your friend goes out riding the tight twisty stuff, he should get comfortable w/the bike..

I ride my 01 KX250 mostly on trail, ive got a FMF Fatty pipe w/a Turbine Core sparky, V-Force reeds and a (let me go look HAHA) 49t rear sprocket.. Bike works pretty good for me, but im alot bigger than your friend, 6'1 270.. Ive got all my suspension dialed and the jetting is spot on..

Hope this helps you out,
Rick

 

[ps2112]

I have a '99 KX250 that I race MX with and do some trails. When I go trail riding I put in a 12 tooth front and leave the 49 tooth rear on. I know they say to go bigger on the rear and leave the front but for me it's easier to change the front, the chain size doesn't need to be increased and there are no worries with the chain guide. With the woods set-up I can ride it like a four stroke, just lugg it around in 2nd gear. The downside is on fire roads and such, 5th gear comes real quick and it only goes about 35-40 mph. I don't have flywheel weight but if I were to do only woods I'd add one. I'm 5'10 170lb

 

[Mike's 2003 YZ250]

WOW, only 35-40mph in 5th gear topped out because of a 12 tooth front sprocket?? Thats a huge decrease in speed, no? :think: Mike

 

[ps2112]

That's just my guesstimate. It may be faster than that I just know I get passed a lot on the fire roads :-)

 

[kx_dave]

Before your friend goes out riding the tight twisty stuff, he should get comfortable w/the bike..

I'll second that.

I bought a 00 KX250 when they came out. I left it stock but I don't really ride tight woods with it. The times I did the power was an awful lot to control and I ended up stalling the bike quite a bit. I prefer more wide-open trails where I can keep the momentum up otherwise I'd probably have bought a different bike.

I'd have your friend get used to the bike in a wide-open area before taking it out in the tight woods. From what I remember the 01 KX is not much different than my 00 in the motor department...which means it has one powerful motor! I haven't had much dirtbike experience before I got this bike, but I had already learned how to ride and had many years of mountainbike experience. Tell your buddy to take it slow at first, get used to the bike, learn throttle control (important!), and of course have fun. I had quite a few experiences where my throttle wrist moved unknowingly and the bike responded instantly...gotta watch out.

Friends have told me a flywheel weight would help mellow out my bike, but I acutally like the 'hit' and it kinda makes the riding more fun. Then again if I wanted to get into tight woods riding I'd most definitely get one.

Cheers..

 

[SuperCam]

just for learning purposes, what exactly is a flywheel?

 

[pdiddy]

Not taking him into the woods yet! LOL, he is still getting the moving forward without killing the bike thing down. I buzzed him up and down a couple of straight and wide dirt roads today. Also took him down a very simple section of trail. Only went down once, it was a very soft sandy corner. The front end washed, he tensed up, grabbed a handful the bike took an immediate right turn and he fell. No harm done.

But when we were going up and down the road, he was in 1st and I was in 3rd to keep up! The gearing on MX bikes just seems so much higher than trail bikes I have been on (KDX, XR, KTM EXC, TTR).

 

[SPD]

Another thing you might look into is a SDG gripper seat. Being new he will sit a lot. The gripper seat will help keep his butt planted. Keep him from sliding to far back on the seat.

 

[nectar]

With my 01kx250 I put on an 11oz fww which keeps wheel spin down and really helps with stalling...12tooth frt w/ 48 rear, which works good in the trails but you get into 5th gear real quick when on a fast section....factory connection off road revalve...made a word of difference....fmf gnarly pipe/pcII...this bike is pretty darn good in the woods now....not as comfortable as my kdx though...but alot more power....