I am proud to say that I am a new member of the KDX community. My wife wanted a bike so we just bought a '99 200. I took it out yesterday and rode in one of the national forest. The bike is a load of fun. It pulls hill very nicely with a smooth power band that is very tractible. The bike came with a Dyno port pipe and silencer. The previous owner also gave the stock pipe and silencer which I put back on to mellow it out for the wife while she is learning to ride. I took it up and down the street one time with the Dyno port and it definitly is faster with that pipe verses stock. The suspension is stock and soft on the forks but is great on the trails. It soaked up the rocks/roots with no problem and seemed to float down the trail. Much more compliant trail bike than my YZ426. If my wife can catch on to riding I think she will love it. We went out in a pasture and she did good for her first time. The only problem was she kept killing it and ended up kick statrting the bike 30-40 times. She was wore out after all the kicking. Anyhow this is my(our) first Kawa and I love it :) It seems to be a great begginer bike that with a couple mods can be turned into a full on race machine, woods weapon.
New KDX owner
- Thread starter Byrd Man
- Start date
Canadian Dave
Super Power AssClown
- Apr 28, 1999
- 1,202
- 0
Welcome to JustKDX Mrs and Mr. Byrd Man
ride_red_15
Uhhh...
- Oct 14, 2001
- 575
- 0
welcome to the world of KDX! now go bust some bark !
Congrats to the two of you ;)
One thing I do suggest you do asap, is get the suspension sorted out. Front is for a person about 130lb, and rear 170lb (something like that in any case). With your wife learning, it really will pay to set up her bike for her, especially if you want her to carry on with it.
How tall is she? If she's struggling with the height, consider longer dogbones (do a search for threads on this, there are many). One more thing, she won't be doing any long rides for a while, so don't fill the tank right up - it really does make a difference when you dump it. Make sure she also knows the right way to pick the bike up, so she doesn't wear herself out (not always possible, but it usually is).
One thing I've found help me with confidence on the bike, is working on it a bit myself. (admittedly I rarely touch it these days, but I'm generally confident enough to know what's wrong if something is - not always sure what the heck to do about it though). Just basic things like changing oil, air filter & knowing how to change a spark plug is a great start.
I hope that gives you a few ideas & get your wife to join DRN - the more women harrassing you guys the better ;) lol
Also, check out Cindy Gross's page about learning to ride
http://cindygross.tripod.com/dirtbike.htm
One thing I do suggest you do asap, is get the suspension sorted out. Front is for a person about 130lb, and rear 170lb (something like that in any case). With your wife learning, it really will pay to set up her bike for her, especially if you want her to carry on with it.
How tall is she? If she's struggling with the height, consider longer dogbones (do a search for threads on this, there are many). One more thing, she won't be doing any long rides for a while, so don't fill the tank right up - it really does make a difference when you dump it. Make sure she also knows the right way to pick the bike up, so she doesn't wear herself out (not always possible, but it usually is).
One thing I've found help me with confidence on the bike, is working on it a bit myself. (admittedly I rarely touch it these days, but I'm generally confident enough to know what's wrong if something is - not always sure what the heck to do about it though). Just basic things like changing oil, air filter & knowing how to change a spark plug is a great start.
I hope that gives you a few ideas & get your wife to join DRN - the more women harrassing you guys the better ;) lol
Also, check out Cindy Gross's page about learning to ride
http://cindygross.tripod.com/dirtbike.htm
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks for the tips Michelle. My wife is 6ft1 so she fits the bike pretty well. She weighs 140lbs. The bike seems to be right for her. Cindy's web page is just just the kind of advice we need. I'll get my wife to read it, it seems that she gets mad at me when I try and tell her how to do it :p . She was really frustrated when she kept stalling the bike and said she was mad at herself, but she took it out on me:think Thanks
