Posted: 08:03 am Apr 13 2012
Right, they "avoided" keeping me upright and I spent a week in the hospital with broken collarbone, punctured lung, and seven broken ribs.
Ouch!!!!
With regard to yamaha forks pre-05 I have a KDX200 that uses 02 yz125 forks and I love them. I revalve them myself and the stock .41 fork springs are right on for the riding I do. The yamaha triples are better than the KX IMHO because they mount the handle bars further forward, roughly a full 1/2 inch more forward than the stock KDX triples, which make the bike turn on a dime and handle anything with great control. (Stay away from the pre-02 yamaha triples as they mount the bars too far back, similar to the KDX/KX).
I've done three yamaha triple conversions and all needed about .003" inch knurling on the KDX stem to be a press fit. The KDX caliper will work but you need the yamaha caliper mount bracket. You also need to widen the stops slightly, and that just takes welding a wider stop right onto the top of the stock KDX stop.
You can use a KX wheel or a yamaha wheel, with the KX wheel you will need to custom make the spacers to fit. Early pre-2002? yamaha wheels have a smaller diameter brake rotor so they won't work. I know 2002 forward are good, 2001's may be OK you'll have to check.
As a matter of fact, my yamaha-forked 200 uses a 96 KX125 hub and spokes, a KDX rim, and I tapped out the KX hub to take the larger KDX brake rotor bolts so I could use the good KDX rotor I had.
I feel the yamaha compression stack (for these years) is more tunable than the KX forks units I messed with - they have better flow ports for off-road applications.