New to me KDX where to start?

As mentioned before here, I have a new-to-me '99 KDX 220R, it's been a few years since I've been on a dirt bike so I'm a bit lost. The bike seems to be in GREAT shape and the only mods that I can see are an FMF pipe and silencer. Before I ride, I want to go through it a bit.

I'll buy a new air filter and slap it in. The one in there is foam, but is not oiled (?!?!). Back when I had a dirt bike "No Toil oil and filters just hit the market. Are they still around? Do they work as good as they seemed at the time? I're read that I should pitch the airbox lid and re-locate the electronic widget that is attached to it. Any downside to this over removing the rubber snorkel only?

The coolant looks very fresh, so I'll leave that.

The oil in the transmission looks pretty black, what should I use to replace what's there....and where the heck is the drain plug?

Assuming the suspenders are stock, where should a 200 pound guy set things for woods riding?

Sheesh! I can't even remember how much air to put in the tires! 14 lbs?

Any thing else that I am missing?

Thanks guys!

Thanks for the input guys, the bike is ready to go! I'm pretty stoked about it, I haven't been off-road for 4 years and have missed it greatly!

I've read a couple of theories on the airbox lid, toss the whole thing and pull out the snorkle only. Is there any downside to removing the entire lid? Also, I just found the part number on the FMF pipe, it's a "35" which I understand is the torque pipe. Pretty much everything I've read says this is not the right pipe for the 220. Should I worry about that at all? Most of the riding around here is tight, rocky and rooty.

Cool, thanks for your feed-back. I'm heading out tomorrow for a first ride on it.

I read the suspension tips on the Fredette site, then went out to adjust my suspension as suggested there. The rear is no problem, the pre-load seems pretty close with my bulk using up 1/3 of total travel. Compression and rebound clickers both at 12 clicks out. Things went of the rails when I moved to the front of the bike though. The small screws at the top of the fork are just plugs, not "clickers" as I thought they were, at the bottom of the fork, in the centre there is a recess, but it seems to have some kind of rubber plugging it, is this where the adjusters are?

One final question, the previous owner removed the bike's side-stand and I want to replace it. The swing-arm seems like a silly place to put the stand, are there any decent aftermarket stands that relocate it?

Thanks again for your time!

I got a chance to put some time on the KDX this weekend, I had a blast! A few observations and questions...

The riding around here is all pretty steep terrain, and densly wooded, the KDX should/will be an ideal bike for this type of riding. Many of the popular trails have washed out sections which are covered in rocks in the grapefruit to bowlng-ball size range. As mentioned previously, my last bike (5 years ago) was a big bore thumper, which was very good for the billy-goat trails around here. On the KDX I have some serious challenges learning how to ride this sort of terrain. I stalled the bike a bunch of times trying to lug my way up hills. One of my riding pals saw me struggling with this and told me to keep the revs up by fanning the clutch when the the going got slow. My first tries at this were fairly hilarious, I'd get into a tight spot the revs would drop, I'd remember to clutch it, the revs would shoot to the moon, I'd let the clutch out too fast and I would wheelie off the trail or loop it out (twice). By the end of the day I was getting better at this, but I was also getting rather worn out by this time as well! The upside of this all was that the KDX is at least 50 pounds lighter than my last dirt-bike (XR600) and so was much easier to get upright again!

On the suspension side, I found that on the rocky trails I was getting bounced around more than I like, my sense of things is that the back end is too stiff, and I need to slow down the rebound of the shock. I have both the top and bottom clickers at 12 clicks out. Whick adjustment is rebound? To slow down the rebound, do I turn the adjustment in? On steep down-hills I think I was bottoming out the fork, and the bike didn't seem to want to hold a line very well. Stiffer springs up front would keep the suspension raked out a bit more and increase stability I assume.

Overall, a very good experience with the new bike and only better as I get it sorted out!

Thank you for the feedback John, it is much appreciated. Do you have any links to jetting guides? AS I mentioned before this is my first 2 stroke dirt bike - I have plenty of 2 stroke gas RC aircraft engines, but thier carbs are very different. When you say "pilot", is this the same as a low-throttle mixture adjustment? Would that be the black screw that is on the left side of the carb body with a knurled end on it? :whoa:

I think I'll swap the couter-shaft sprocket, I never got out of 3rd around here on my 600, the 220 won't need the top end either. Beyond that I'll get the jetting checked out at the shop where I got the bike, somethings take me four times as long and cost twice a much to do myself!