How do I know? '96 KDX200

How do I know how if I am tuned correctly and putting out the power that I should? Because I don't think I am. This is my first dirtbike, however I have riden several different other bikes. And the bike is running great, but just doesn't seem to really get and **** like I would think a 200 would. I would say it's equal to a CRF230 that I have riden. A little quicker and has a better top speed because of the 6th gear. But the front end only likes to lift up in 1st gear and it needs to work for it in second. No chance for third.l I get a little bit of hesitation on the throttle, but I can't tell if that the fact it's a 2 stroke and I am used to a 4 stroke. When I turned the Air needle in it caused the hesitation to get worse. It's running best at 2 turns out on the air needle and on the second from bottom clip on the needle. The spark plug was a little bit kind of wet with oil when I took it out, so I cleaned it up (have not tried replacing it yet). I am getting some smoke in the exhaust. I cleaned and oiled the air filter and repacked the stock silencer. I checked the power valve and everything seems to be moving freely. If I could guess the bike seems to run out of top end, and hesitate at low end. It's got a Dyno Port Pipe on it. The main jet appeared to be a 152 when I looked (however the last number was hard to read, so it could be the original 155). I want to aks you guys if you think I should try to get leaner or richer jets. My bottom end ran better when I leaned it out, is it possible that I am rich on bottom and lean on top and should get a smaller pilot and bigger main? What does it sound like to you guys? I run 32:1 and tried 50:1 without any noticable difference (still a little smoke in the exhaust) and I am about 200lbs, is this just how the bike performs or do I need jetting? Thanks for the advice. Sorry for the long post.

Well I am the needle and air screw were they are working best (I've been messing with them for a while). I raised the needle on clip position from the center. (Second clip position from the bottom). I am going to try to a richer main jet and see what that does. At the same time, I'll grab some new reeds, I think that they'll probably help a lot. As far as gearing is concerned I am going to leave it alone, I think if I can get this motor as peppy as it should be it'll be perfect for me. The bike runs great, ALWAYS starts first kick, I love it, I just gotta get these jets down. Thanks for the reply.

santod said:

what needle are you using?

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I believe it is the original

Another question I got is about surfacing the cylinder head. I was wondering if there is any reason why I couldn't have the head surface for a little higher compression, I've done this before on an old RT180 and it worked great, I didn't want to tear nothing a part before I got some opinions. If it can be surfaced, how much should I go? Also this wouldn't be an extreme amount, I wouldn't want to change anything to much to worry about pinging or anything like that, I would just like to do this for a little extra power, that will save me some money since I could just have a friend mill it for me for free.

Thanks

Great, I am going to check to see what my gearing is, I believe the top end was rebuild within the last 3 years and has very little ride time on it, I know the previous onwer ran only golden spectrum threr it, and did not ride it very hard (the few times he rode it). I will check the compression, what should it be at, and also is there a particular way to check the compression on a 2 stroke? I'm am positive that it has decent compression. I think the reeds will be my first thing to replace. Then try a few different jets. I'll let you know what I figure out. Thanks for the replies!