My first time riding a Kawasaki KDX200 was quite a long time ago, and I still remember
how surprised I was by just how different the handling was on that bike compared to
any other bike I had ever ridden.
How aggressively it dived into turns and how insanely eager to corner it was.
Since then, I've ridden a ton of other bikes, and I still haven't found another one that
matches the unique, lively handling of the KDX, even bikes that are physically lighter.
So when a practically new condition 2003 model popped up on craigslist, I snatched it up
within four hours of it being listed, and I put it to work the same day.
Fast forward to the end 2018, and the bike has been put through its paces for Torture
Test Magazine, having been run for a large amount of hours until it could run no more,
so it's time for an In-Depth Review.
The KDX200 has seen multiple generation changes, so this review only pertains to the 1995-2006
generation, which, at the time of this review, is the latest KDX200 model produced for the
US market.
Since the handling is the highlight of this bike for me, I'll start by going over the
Suspension, brakes, and handling.
The KDX has a totally distinct feel to it.
Just ask anyone who has ever ridden one.
It feels as if Kawasaki designed it to dive into turns as aggressively as possible and
have really loose, lively handling characteristics.
So, despite not really being ultra light for a two stroke, mine weighing in at 245 pounds
ready to ride, it is very nimble for an older enduro-style bike.
It actually steers in a manner that may be slightly too aggressive for my little corner
of the desert, but we'll get to that in a second.
Let's have a look at the actual components controlling the KDX's handling.
Up front, the KDX sports 43mm conventional cartridge forks with 11.4 inches of travel
and externally adjustable low speed compression damping only.
These are some of the simplest cartridge forks out there, which means they're cheap to
maintain, and easy to rebuild, with all of the standard wear items replaceable by just
pulling the fork tubes out to expose the bushings and seals.
But the stock tune of these forks is pretty strange.
Most bikes are setup to feel acceptable to a wide range of riders over a wide range of
riding types.
These forks are definitely not setup like that.
They feel like they're setup specifically to eat up harsh gnarly stuff.
Initial stroke hits, even big sharp ones feel like they just vanish into the front suspension.
It's definitely a soft, loose compression damping setup.
And it is definitely sprung soft as well.
I'm a light rider at 140 pounds, so most full size bikes are sprung a little stiff
for me, but the KDX front springs feel right on the money at my weight, which means they
will probably feel too soft for most other people doing similar riding.
The 43mm fork tubes and 15mm front axle have an acceptable amount of flex.
Enough to keep the feel at the front end dumbed down a little through harsh terrain, but not
so much that it's a bad, wallowy experience like that XR650L from earlier this year was.
Of course, it doesn't have the super mega precision front end control that a modern
inverted 47+mm set of forks will, but that's hardly holding this bike back in terms of
performance, especially in the areas that the bike actually shines, like tighter trails,
and in some cases front end flex does come down to personal preference anyway.
Of course, if anyone wanted to easily give the front end feedback a little more edge
and a little more feel, it's good to know that the stock rubber mounted bar clamps are
pretty soft, so that could be easily modified.
I ran a one-piece top clamp from Scott's on mine which stiffens up the feel at the
bars just a tad in side to side twisting, so that's an option, and stiffer rubber
bushings from other bikes or totally solid bar mounts are also easy options to change
the front end feel.
Bottom line on this front end: I actually dig it and I'm perfectly happy rocking the
bone stock front suspension on this bike.
That however, seems to be an unpopular opinion, and it makes perfect sense.
I'm really light weight, and I've been enjoying this bike for it's strengths as
a trail bike, not really trying to make it do things that it's not good for.
So for myself, this front end is killer in the gnarly, jagged stuff, which is pretty
common out here in this desert, and I just love it for that.
It also sucks for other stuff, like whoops and jump faces, and jump landings, all of
which easily become a very messy situation characterized by lots of blow-through and
bottoming.
It will do it all, so I'm fine sticking with what it's got, but things get a little
sketchy sometimes.
The rear end, on the other hand, has a much different character to it.
The shock itself is a totally standard piggyback reservoir shock with externally adjustable
low speed compression damping and externally adjustable rebound damping.
But the weird thing is that there is an undeniable mismatch between the front suspension setup
and the rear suspension setup.
The rear feels like it is setup for a much heavier rider compared to the front.
There's a more aggressive amount of compression damping going on in there, and the spring
rate feels a bit high to me.
It kicks around a little bit and doesn't stay planted to the degree that the front
end does.
Now, while I can't go back in time and read the minds of Kawasaki's engineers, I'm
pretty sure the bike was set up this way intentionally to help ensure that signature, loose, quick
handling.
It certainly feels that way.
The squishy, mellow front end stays connected with the ground, always ready to help the
rider with directional changes, while the rear end stays much more afloat and not too
planted, again always ready for quick directional changes.
Once the bike is cornering, the front end settles into the turn, but the rear end stays
a little loose, making it easy to corner in even harder mid-turn when needed.
It is a distinctly different feeling than other bikes, but it has not been sketchy to
me once I realized what was going on and started to account for it and take advantage of it.
Having this imbalanced setup isn't always good, and I have no doubts some people would
hate it, but I think it does add to the signature, swift KDX200 handling that makes this bike
so energetic and fun.
The brakes on this bike are basically the same Nissin stuff you'll find on most of
the bikes from the KDX's era, but Kawasaki threw a semi-floating rotor on the front and
made it 250mms in diameter, so it is on the slightly nicer side of average.
While the rear is technically just completely average, it did feel a little bit overkill
to me at first because I ride four strokes way more often than two-strokes, and it's
much easier to completely lock the rear on a two-stroke since there isn't a ton of
engine inertia and compression acting like ABS. Once I got used to that, I got hooked on it and now, going back to four-strokes feels like trying to stop a freight train
Tying the whole bike together is a steel perimeter frame, which isn't a very common sight,
and I think for this era of bike, I've only seen them on Kawasakis.
One thing that's kind of cool about these older Kawasaki frames is that they built nice
little functional bash guards right into them.
Most people probably don't care at all, but it's a nice little gesture, and they
do help prevent damage.
The KDX also has a nice slim shape to it, despite looking kind of blocky from the side.
The gas tank is fully contained within the perimeter frame, so it's not likely to get
busted open when you drop it on jagged rocks, which is a problem I've had with other bikes,
and it doesn't hang out into the knee area at all.
The radiators are narrow, low mounted, are not sticking out much more than surrounding
components and are just generally tucked away really nicely compared to a lot of bikes.
Take my CRF250X for comparison, where the radiators are up high into the knee area,
making the bike feel way larger than it really is, and making it so the radiators are always
getting bent up on small tip overs.
The KDX just doesn't have those problems.
Over the whole life of the KDX, from like new to the day it died, with tons of crashes
on it, I had zero issues with the radiators.
They never got bent or cracked.
No radiator guards were needed.
The slim shape of the KDX, plus a seat that's not too saddle shaped to restrict movement,
but actually has good cushion to it, makes this bike feel excellent for either aggressive
or relaxed riding.
So yeah, you could say I love the layout of the KDX.
It's just very well thought out.
So what's the bottom line on the KDX200's handling?
Well, like I said before, it's loose and quick to change directions.
It's definitely not the most precise or refined handling.
It's a little bit oversteer happy, and at 245 pounds ready to ride, it's not feather
light for a two stroke, but it's still just a ton of fun because of how lively the handling
is.
I mentioned earlier that it's not perfectly suited to my riding areas, and that's because
my riding out here just isn't curvy enough for this bike to fully thrive.
This desert rewards bikes that stay planted and don't pivot on the front end in such
an aggressive manner.
But, it's still a pure joy to ride for sure, and if you've seen the video where I timed
it on my standard course, you'll know it is still actually an awesome performer out
here, one of my favorite bikes ever, but it just feels like it would be a lot better suited
to places with tighter, more twisting trails.
Moving on to the Engine, Transmission, and Fuel Efficiency
The engine is a 198cc liquid-cooled, premix-burning, KIPS power valve two-stroke with a 35mm PWK
series D-slide carburetor, and a six speed transmission.
In every single other case for these in-depth reviews that I've done, variations of uncorking
mods, de-smogging mods, airbox mods, or funky tie-this-and-cut-that carburetor mods were
needed to get the bike to run correctly.
In the KDX200's case, all it took was getting the two jets sized correctly and then the
bike ran absolutely beautifully, just like that.
So that was a refreshing experience.
So getting this bike running perfectly has been easier than any other bike I've reviewed.
There is an airbox snorkel, and a removable airbox lid, and one or the other could be
deleted to add more airflow, but this bike already runs really well and perfectly strong
just as it is, so I left mine alone for its whole life.
In terms of power, it has solid middle of the road performance for a dirt bike.
It definitely has way more peak power than my slightly modified CRF250X, but not nearly
as broad a powerband, so at first they turned out to be pretty equal in actual acceleration.
That changed a whole lot over time though.
let's just say two strokes get faster and faster as they
age.
At my weight and current skill level I definitely don't feel like I need more power than what
the KDX offers, so it's good enough for me and probably good enough for most people's
riding needs.
At off-idle RPM, there's no raunchy power, big power stroke pulses or anything like that.
It's just really smooth and mellow, but totally not stall happy, which is a departure
from what I'm used to with four strokes.
It seems like the bikes I've tested either have a rocking, torquey low end, or they're
weak and stall happy.
The KDX avoids either end of that spectrum completely because it has an entirely different
low RPM feel.
On the KDX, there's enough flywheel effect to keep it purring happily down to very impressively
low RPM without stalling out, and it will even accept being snapped open to full throttle
at low RPM and won't bog out, but it also won't really go anywhere fast or create
any violent chugging.
It just has this easy to control, healthy purr that refuses to give the click of death
and stall out when lugged down low.
So, since the stall resistance is good, it's not boggy, and the bike is more luggable off-idle
than you might imagine, I'd say it has good manners at low RPM.
And the KDX does start to come into it's real power early at low-mid RPM, and the ramp
up in power is pretty quick once it starts to hit, but right before the power fully hits
there's a very sweet spot that is great for single track, rocky areas and technical
areas, where the engine has enough power and snap to grunt the bike up obstacles and through
the rough, but not so much that the bike wants to launch.
It's a pretty small area in the RPM range, but it's super rewarding to employ some
clutch control and keep the engine in that happy zone when playing in a rocky area or
flowing through single track.
When the power does fully hit, and that two-stroke zing which sounds like a thousand angry bees
starts happening, it's a very nice thrill because that quick ramp up to full power produces
a really nice tug, and of course it's a snappy little two stroke so it can be brought
to that full power really quickly at any time with a little nip of the clutch.
Looking at the acceleration, the average 0-60mph time recorded on my KDX at 3,000 feet elevation,
with a fresh engine was 6.2 seconds, which means it traded blows with my lightly modified
CRF250X.
However, as the engine wore more and more during the torture test, it became significantly
faster, to the point that it would easily smoke my CRF250X.
Like I said before, I go more in depth on that in the magazine if you're interested.
The top speed recorded on my KDX was 81 miles per hour with the gearing I use out here,
which is simply one tooth up on the countershaft.
It feels like the top speed is limited by the power tapering off quickly at high RPM,
but 81mph is a pretty high speed for this style of bike so I wouldn't want to ask
for anymore top speed anyway.
The engine is kick start only, and usually I'm not at all a fan of kicking, but the
KDX is normally so easy to start that I actually don't think an electric start would be worth
its weight in this case.
The transmission on the KDX is fine and mostly unremarkable but there are a few things worth
mentioning.
One thing I don't like is the funky OEM shift lever, which seems to be a weak piece
of stamped, soft steel, like they just found some leftover scrap and thought "hey, let's
make some crappy shifters with this."
The design of that sad shifter is just poor.
The feel is spongy, it's very flexible, and I'm often having to bend it back to
normal after a ride.
The transmission itself is awesome, though.
The gears engage easily with or without slipping the clutch, under power or not.
False neutrals have been rare, which is nice and really makes the bike a lot safer to ride
aggressively, and this one never slipped out of gear under power for the life of the bike
during the torture test.
And I have to say, the clutch is a real highlight on this bike.
It's an 8 friction-disc unit with a judder spring, and it works beautifully.
The engagement is progressive, not limited to a small bit of travel at the clutch lever,
and it has a strong grab that syncs up quickly and doesn't slip when engaged under power.
The freeplay opens up a very small bit when the clutch is continuously abused, indicating
clutch swell from heat or maybe a little bit of warping, but it's a tiny amount that
doesn't require an on-the-fly adjustment, and it doesn't lose its grip when it gets
super hot.
It was amazing how long the clutch lasted during the Torture Test Magazine article,
so it's worthy of praise for that alone.
Best of all, the lever pull is very easy.
At the point that my clutch finger pulls the lever, the maximum pull force measured out
to be 5% less than that of a brand new CRF230F clutch, So the KDX clutch is very good because
it performs well while also having a light pull and excellent longevity.
That's almost everything you can ask for from a clutch, aside from automatic freeplay
compensation.
Of course, being a two stroke, the KDX clutch does have the advantage of not being bathed
in super-heated engine oil, having its own 700ml oil reservoir, so it has a little help
there.
Speaking of oil, there is a transmission fluid sight glass on the clutch side case which
is handy for checking that oil level before a ride, and that provides an easy way of knowing
if transmission fluid is being consumed, which could be an indication that it's time for
a new clutch side crank bearing seal.
The transmission gear ratio spread is a medium-wide ratio setup.
It is closer-ratio than that of my XR250R, with about a 3% taller first gear and about
a 7% shorter sixth gear, and that spread works well for the KDX.It has close enough transitions
between gears to easily keep it in the strong power, but enough spread to keep first gear
a crawler while having plenty of high speed potential in sixth gear.
That's the beauty of a no-compromises six speed transmission out here in the desert,
because there's plenty of nasty stuff where you want a crawler gear, but there's also
plenty of open areas where you want to go ludicrous speed without blowing the bike up.
So, overall, the KDX has a nice powerplant.
It's plenty fast, but with controllability right in that happy medium area that I perform
best with.
It's not what most people would expect from a two-stroke, but it has fun power that ramps
up early, and which is relatively easy to harness compared to MX style two-strokes.
Fuel efficiency and range on the KDX is good enough
Shredding it as hard as I can in the desert results in a premix consumption of 15.5 miles
per gallon, which gives a range of about 45 miles when riding all out in the desert, which
is 1 mile greater than the all-out range of my CRF250X, so the KDX can complete a one-hour
race format on the stock 2.9 gallon fuel tank without a fuel stop but will be cutting it
close or not making it in a two hour format.
The fuel consumption when riding at a more moderate pace is 26 miles per gallon or greater,
which gives at least 75 miles.
That is plenty for one off road ride.
One thing that's sweet about the fuel tank on the KDX is the shape of the bottom and
placement of the petcock.
Because the tank is shaped to fit within the perimeter frame, it has a nice central bowl
at the bottom which allows it to drain completely without needing to be tipped over to get the
last bit of reserve out.
Reliability on the KDX, based on the results of the torture test, proved to be very good,
especially considering the amount of performance packed into this little ripper.
It survived deep into the torture test, actually broke a record for the longest I've had
a bike go without a single issue, and it was cheap to run.
The KDX came pretty close to being the simplest bike to maintain I've ever owned.
For the average user, the bike will last a very, very long time with just air filter
cleaning, spark plug changes, and oil changes.
And let's say you do have to perform a top end repair at some point.
Big freaking deal, because the whole top end slides right off after removing a couple of
nuts.
The bike is just super easy to own.
Electronics and Lighting The KDX200 comes stock with a 30 watt H6M
headlight and a 10 watt tail light.
The stator includes a single lighting coil to push AC to the two lights, but it's not
a large amount of power and the lights are dim unless the bike is revved.
The stock headlight is barely enough to putt home when caught out at night, and is totally
not good enough to go for a real night ride.
Since the stock stator can put out at least 40 watts AC, it should be fine for powering
a 20 watt LED when rectified, so good lighting is actually attainable on the stock stator.
The lighting coil can also be wound to output up to 75 watts AC, which is plenty for a dirt
bike.
Since the lighting is powered by a single little coil, it's simple to rewind one,
so anyone who's up for a small project can rewind it at home instead of sending it out
for a rewind.
The stator plate on the KDX also has slots instead of holes where the mounting bolts
go through, and a small set of index marks, so the stator plate itself can be advanced
or retarded a few degrees to shift the ignition timing.
Shifting the timing around pretty much only makes a small difference in the way the power
ramps up, and to me it seems to be already optimal at the center position, but it's
still cool that Kawasaki at least provided this feature, because none of the other bikes
I've reviewed so far had adjustable ignition timing as a stock feature.
Price vs. Performance The KDX200 that I picked up cost me $1900USD,
which is actually a lot for a KDX200 around my area, but it was in perfect condition.
As always, I had to see if the price was justified by the performance, so I ran the KDX on the
same desert course that I run all the bikes I review on.
The KDX performed very well, and overall was only 1.8% behind the performance of my much
more expensive CRF250X.
With 6 bikes now plotted on the price versus performance chart, the KDX200 came in below
the trend line, which means the $1900 dollar price tag (which, again, is high for a KDX)
was justified by the performance.
With the prices these things are at right now in 2018, they are absolute steals.
I've seen them as low as $1000.
They might look kind of beat, but they're reasonably cheap to rebuild, and they are
incredibly simple to work on.
I think these bikes are going to be all bought up and hard to find in a few years from now,
so if you see one for sale it might be worth taking a look at.
Because, as the saying goes, "they don't make them like they used to."
And you know what, even if it's not the fastest thing out there, it's still a perfectly
competitive bike at my level, even in a desert environment which probably isn't its favorite
environment.
So, what purpose can the old used KDX200 serve
for someone buying one today?
Honestly, it's highly versatile and can fill a lot of roles.
This was obviously my primary bike for a whole lot of riding during the making of the KDX200
volume of Torture Test Magazine, and it was just all around excellent.
The great engine and signature handling kept me entertained throughout the whole, long
process.
It was a pleasure.
I do nitpick on bikes (a lot), but this bike was just plain lovable.
There wasn't much to complain about, and I didn't need any upgrades for the life
of the bike.
So, I'd say it can make a great performing primary bike, a low-cost, very reliable backup
bike, and it's even easy enough to ride that it would make a good, full-size learner
bike. And I think that's the first time I've said that a bike is good enough to be a performer primary bike but also good to be a learner bike.
But I do have a strong opinion on the one role that I know this bike is almost unbeatable for, and that role is as a gateway
to the two-stroke dark side for off-road riders who have never felt anything but four-stroke
thumpers.
Far too often, I've seen people have their first two stroke ride on some strung out mid-2000's
racing 250 two stroke just to get their butt kicked by the madness, and then swear off
two-strokes altogether.
Actually, that was me too.
However, the KDX200 will not produce a negative experience like that, because they're not
angry and punishing.
Riding a KDX usually has the opposite effect, giving people the two-stroke fever.
It's a bike that can be ridden basically like a four stroke with decent results, but
has enough two-stroke flare to get people hooked on the exciting world of mixing gas
and hauling.
Best of all, the dang KDX is so easy and cheap to own that once you've had one for a while,
it's hard to want anything else.
That's all I've got for this video, but I'd love to hear what you have to add about
the KDX200 down in the comment section.
Thanks for watching, and if you made it this far into the video, I hope you'd consider
checking out Torture Test Magazine at the link in the video description.
For more infomation >> 贾乃亮回应李小璐薛之谦绯闻，疑似承认离婚：我一个人过得很好 - Duration: 9:41. 
For more infomation >> Caccia e cucina: tartare di colombaccio con radicchio, funghi e panna acida - Duration: 3:58. 
For more infomation >> Famed kitschy Christmas cocktail pop-up 'Miracle' transforms Dillingers in Olympia (Food) - KING 5 E - Duration: 1:03. 
For more infomation >> Community Hospital North breaks single-day baby delivery record - Duration: 0:33. 
For more infomation >> Noticias Telemundo, 29 de noviembre de 2018 | Noticias Telemundo - Duration: 21:59. 
For more infomation >> Tin Mới 30/11/2018 - DÂN TÀU "NỔI LOẠN" MỸ Sẽ "T.I.Ê.U D.I.Ệ.T" TRUNG QUỐC vào THÁNG TỚI - Duration: 37:34. 
For more infomation >> 11/29/18 3:32 PM (5890 N Loop 1604 E, San Antonio, TX 78247, USA) - Duration: 10:14. 
For more infomation >> 11/29/18 11:39 AM (1807 W Wildwood Drive, San Antonio, TX 78201, USA) - Duration: 10:24. 
For more infomation >> 5 MOTIVOS PARA VOCÊ ESTAR PAGANDO JUROS NA SUA EMPRESA - Duration: 1:55. 
For more infomation >> 《不忧伤》完美收官，数据告诉你钟汉良就是最好的程天佑 - Duration: 6:41. 
For more infomation >> Nouvel élément accablant dans le dossier T. Ramadan - Duration: 3:59. 
For more infomation >> The Squad Meets Their Match - Law & Order: SVU (Episode Highlight) - Duration: 3:01. 
For more infomation >> WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2018 (November 29) - Post-match Interview [4th match] - Duration: 0:45. 
For more infomation >> [한글자막CC] 지민 정국 WE DON'T TALK ANYMORE 찰리푸스 커버곡/ 트랙팝 리액션/Jimin & Jungkook 'We Don't Talk Anymore' - Duration: 13:58. 
For more infomation >> The delicious fish-shaped waffle that's finding fans in Washington - KING 5 Evening - Duration: 2:38. 
For more infomation >> China Creates First Genetically Modified Humans - Duration: 8:14. 
For more infomation >> Man found shot to death on sidewalk in Virginia Beach - Duration: 2:14. 
For more infomation >> VERIFY: No, turning your heat completely off when you leave won't save you money - Duration: 1:25. 
For more infomation >> San Antonio's got a coyote conundrum - Duration: 2:39. 
For more infomation >> DC attorney general files housing discrimination lawsuit - Duration: 2:35. 
For more infomation >> Thief steals special wreath made by woman's murdered son - Duration: 2:11. 
For more infomation >> Trump Blindsided Migrants Overnight – Look Where HUNDREDS Are Heading Now - Duration: 4:16. 
For more infomation >> Inflatable Santa Slashed In Greensboro - Duration: 1:48. 
For more infomation >> What are downtown Norfolk's "barriers?" City wants to know as it plans for 2030 - Duration: 2:06. 
For more infomation >> 张柏芝和王菲谁更漂亮、更有气质？专家给出结论，和我们想的一样 - Duration: 2:08. 
No comments:
Post a Comment