KX125 Forks on 98 KDX 200

How bad can the KYB forks really be? I mean with the propper springs, and valveing is it really worth all the money to swap a diffrent front end on? I have looked at this, and thought. I mean I can get a set of custom made billet tripples for a chopper for $300, so I am sure I could swing something with a dirtbike. It's just Is it really any much better? All the fork does is flow oil through a valve with a spring squashed in the middle.

The big thing zerotect is the kdx has no rebound adjustment. Also for the big landings I do, I would be clanking those spindly forks of a kdx all the time. Until you ride a kdx with a different suspension it can be hard to realize. The bike is no longer a kdx, it is the ultimate cheater.

OK the rebound adjustment makes a lot of sense, I had a 95 buell s2 with a white power suspension and bolth compression and rebound adjustments on the shock and forks, you could click it in and really make the bike hold to the road. But whats the best swap to do?

What forks to use? Well I have to refer to a article about the 100 best bikes that was done in 98.
Kawi- 93 and up 125 and 250, paraphased qoute " This year started the kawi domination in suspension. 93 kx forks still to this day(98) would stand up well against all the modern dual-chamber super forks. Wow that sounds good for swapping to kdx.
yamaha - 92 and up forks, " it had good suspension, kind of like todays YZ's.
I am not going to go into the other manufactures since you should be able to find some kawi suspension and it is nice to stay in kawi land so parts swap ok, such as fenders and brakes.

Help tedkxkdx!
I'm having trouble getting the KDX stem onto the KX125 '96 lower triple clamp. You said to use shim but I can't find a machine shop willing to do this. They tell me that it is too close and they don't want the liability. What thickness shim stock did you use and how do you keep it in place as you press it in. I would think that it would jam up or tear or not slide in with the stem. Let me know how you did this. Photos would help. Also, I was thinking, it is a very close fit as is. Would the clip ring on the bottom and the pressing on of the lower bearing be enough to keep this all together? Thanks Loads!

I know the fit is extremely close. I had a press available to me so I did it myself. It is a small rectangular piece of tin or aluminum.. The guy who had this fork did it to his kdx so he gave me all the pieces. I just reinstalled them on my bike. my stem. Basically this metal wraps around the stem about 1/2 to 3/4, cant quite remember. When you get it on the press it seems like you can barely get it started with your fingers and then the press comes in and drives it all in. I even had to take the stem out of the lower clamp cause the wrap went too far down the stem on the first time and it was going to interfere with the bearing. The piece of metal is barely thicker than an aluminum soda can side. See if that helps, willing to talk more.

Here are options and the solution I ended up with.
1. Bore out lower triple, sleeve the stem, and press. $120 (expensive)
2. Lathe down the origional KX stem for the KDX top bearing and nut. $65 (aluminum stem could be weakened too much.)
3. Knurl the stem, and press. $60 (Steel stem very hard, might eventually tear out aluminum triple.)
4. My route: Knurl the lower triple inside. $15 (Stronger than knurling the stem, this is what my machine shop recommends and does this to aluminum pistons for the wrist pins)
Knurling reshapes the metal into ridges and valleys without removing any metal. I am assured by the machine shop folks that this will be as strong as press when used with Locktite green.

I pass this on for anyone else looking to perform a mod like this. I will report back after a few rides and let you know how it holds up.
Also, Machine shop said to shim was not a good idea, not enough room, that is when he suggested the bore and sleeve. However the bore and sleeve weakens the lower triple but impossable to tell how much.
Knurling looks like the shifter shaft coming out the engine. Spline like ridges that mate to the inside of the shifter. In this case only the triple clamp has the ridges. This method removes no metal, only reshapes and most machine shops have the tool. My shop charges $60 per hour with 1/4 hour minimum. It is so easy for him, I was only charged $15. I talked to maybe 6 or 7 machine shops and all said that there was too close tolarance to safely shim so if that is what you have, I recommend redoing.

Skipro, How do u like your new front end? Nice photo. I took off the fork slider guides, seems tough enough with out it.

I took mine out for it's first full, hard on, run last weekend. I rode so far over my head that at times I shut my eyes and screamed like a little girl, sure that I would go over the bars with the ledges and drop offs that I was slamming into. Not only did I not crash, the hits didn't even knock me around. I couldn't believe it. In one case, I was running in 4th gear about 3/4 throttle when I hit a trench about 4 and a half feet wide and 3 feet deep that I didn't see until too late. I hit the brakes,but not enough time to stop. I started to get back on the gas to jump but now I was there. The front wheel hit the opposite side of the trench about 12 inches from it's top. This where I screamed. I've done this before in dry river channels that had a wash lip and ended up over the bars. But in this case, it didn't even bottom the front suspension!! I floated through it and kept going, actually I stopped and watched my bud do the same thing. I swear, I thought I messed my pants. By the end of the day, I was riding like I never have before once I trusted my bike to handle stuff my nightmares were made of.