KDXRIDER.NET

I just put the 2003 KX forks on my KDX. The hardest part was trying to mount the headlight using the parts on hand or with a few bits from the hardware store. I was trying to keep the cost down so didn't want to buy a new headlight or additional mounting system.

I came up with a way to mount it onto the KX triples and still use the stock headlight hardware. On the top mount what I dad was to use upper pinch bolts 70mm long and fully threaded. The stock pinch bolts are about 50mm. Once these were threaded through the clamp and tourqued down I used a 1" long nylon spacer over the longer pinch bolt. This spacer positioned the headlight the correct distance away from the top triple. The headlight mounting bracket holes lined up perfectly with the pinch bolt spacing. The picture below shows the top mounting method.



For the lower mounting I tried to use the two holes in the lower triple clamp to my advantage. I don't know what they are used for on a KX, maybe the number plate. With the fender off I was able to slide a bolt up through this hole, slide another 1" nylon spacer over the bolt to position the headlight properly and bolt it together. The bottom was a little more difficult. I had to take off the bottom headlight bracket, flip it around, and then bend the tabs with the holes over to line up. It wasn't too bad. A picture of it is below.



And below is the finished product. I can't wait to try it out.

Looks very finished!!

But, your girl has been fooling around and has given birth to a litter. And they don't look like they all came from the same daddy either!! Ha!!

I especially like the cowboy hat hanging from the bars. Cute!!

You can barely see the rear fender, but there is a little KX behind my bike. The mornings we go riding I feel like a one man pit crew. Pretty much @$$h0lE$ and elbows getting four bikes ready.

Y'know, I was thinking the same thing as far as the spacers...you beat me to it, but, confirmed my suspisions. My 220 is plated, and not having the headlight is not an option. Great pics! And, thanks for the confirmation it can be done. Now, for my Scotts Damper mount.....

--C.J.

It really worked out pretty nicely. The hardest part was finding the bolts and bending the bottom bracket to line up to the holes.

On the '03 triple clamps, and probably all years, it uses an 8mm bolt with a 1.25 pitch. This is standard. The length needed to be 70mm. Again no problem. The hard part was finding one that was fully threaded. The mosy common practice in the fastener industry, as I found out, is to thread only the last 20mm or so. I had to drive all over OKC to specialty bolt suppliers to find the right one. I do know you can order a box of them from Graingers for about $8.00 which isn't too bad since buying them individually will cost $1 each or more.

The nylon spacers came from Ace Hardware. They have a huge selection of bolts, nuts, spacers, etc. The spacers were 1" in length. They didn't quite seat properly against the triple clamp because it is curved where the bolt comes through. I used a belt sander to shape one side of the nylon spacer so that it would match the curve of the triple clamp.

The bolts for the bottom mount were left over either from the top triple clamp or off the KDX clamp. Bending the bottom headlight bracket tabs to line up wasn't too bad. I had it perfect and then when I was drilling the holes out a little larger for the 8mm diameter bolts the drill bit grabbed and spun it around in my hand and twisted it all out of shape. If I had it to do over again I would have used a little smaller dia bolt on the bottom so not to have to drill it out.

Got any better pics of the top mount? I'm a little fuzzy as to what you did there....

Clean work man

Looks good!!

Indawoods,

I will see if I can get some better pics. The top mount is really the easy one (for '03 forks anyway). I just used bolts 70mm long. These stick through the clamps quite a ways so that the headlight bracket can reach them, or vice versa. The spacers were simply to give the headlight bracket something to stop against. Pretty easy.

That's what I have... 03's

I may not be remembering things correctly, but on my 2004 KX125 upper triple clamp, the pinch bolts insert from the gas tank side of the clamp, so I don't think this setup will work for me.

Same as on mine. Study the top picture closely. You will see that my pinch bolts insert from the gas tank side also. Use longer (70mm) bolts so they extend through the top triple clamp. The added pinch bolt length gives you something to mount the headlight brackets to. All you have to do is flip the brackets around to the other side and use some kind of a spacer to keep the headlight the correct distance from the forks. Even if the pics don't make sense, once you start playing around with it everything falls into place.

Correct me if I am wrong, but why would you want to mount the light like this? What I mean is fixed and stiff like this. If it can't move around a little, won't it break during a crash? Isn't that why they use the rubber straps around the fork tubes, so things can move around during a crash?

You are probably right. I'm basically a likeable guy, but have a few quirks and mental disorders. One is that I don't like stuff flopping around or things not being how they're supposed to be. I guess I'm kind of like an okie-fied version of Monk.

Nice job.

My '03s are mounted in a Scotts upper triple, and their bolts are different. I rubber mounted my headlight and it's very tight, no floppiness . In fact, when I first mounted the rubber straps they were a total beach to get on.

One thing I notice is your stock brake line guide. If you ever go with a Trail Tech odo/speedo gizmo, they'll tell you to cut that in order to get the sensor through it. Then you're sposed to glue it back together. I tried that and hated it, so I went and got me a guide off a modern KX. They're not round, but trapezoidal, and big. Much mo better and the sensor slides right through.

By coincidence I installed a Trailtech computer last night and did cut the brake line guide. I do plan on getting the KX guide. I have a braided steel line I got cheap that I will install at the same time.