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The hybrid is not happy with me. Have spent most of the past year rebuilding old GSX-Rs and road riding and generally ignoring the Kawi. Then last night I picked up a 95 RMX250 last night for a song along with a couple extra RM frames, 2 additional sets of forks/shocks, a spare motor in pieces, tons of plastics and bits. Plan is to build it up as a new ride for my son who long ago outgrew his RM85L and has been stealing the KX/KDX hybrid out of the shop when I'm not looking.

Cool project. I don't know much about the RMX so I will ride along with your thread to see the progress.

Rode a RMX years back. Great power (hits hard) and good handling. Looks like a fun project. So.....what's happening on the other side of that fence. Were they at a high security impound lot

SWEET!! I wish they still made KDX's, RMX's and WR two-strokes.

+1 Jason, I have my eye out for a 2T WR so I can have the trifecta of 90s 2T Enduros. The fence in the background is the flightline at Boeing Field in Tukwila WA where I work, most days I think all that barbed wire is there to keep us from leaving lol

Started tear down of the RMX this weekend, and as I was disassembling it I kept looking over at the KX/KDX hybrid and thought "Why not an RM/RMX hybrid?" So I've got a 2002 RM250 frame on the way, along with a swingarm and front end. Plan will be to swap the RMX motor into the new RM frame, and then take the additional 95 RM250 motor I have and drop it into the RMX frame...et voila! 2 bikes (all for the price of 3 lol).

Sweet! That RM/X hybrid might be really easy.

Started tear down of the suspension this weekend, was a little worried about the linkage and swingarm bearings given what the area looked like when I got at it


Interesting note, Suzuki had the forethought to put grease fittings on all the linkage/swingarm bolts so you can grease them after a thorough wash with almost no effort. The bearings that had been the recipient of a grease gun still looked in decent shape
Not all of the bearings were so lucky


All bearings have been pressed out, including the wheels, cleaning everything up then new bearings go in.

Hey, looks like fun! I just picked up a plated 1991 RMX (in CA no less) and a good parts 89. I'm going through it now to get it up to speed. great bikes!

Awesome, they could have been the Suzuki KDX had the company kept producing them and stopped fiddling with the design after 95. Trying to get build time in on mine but just picked up a KTM550 (2 stroke 550! can you say super motard monster?) and I have 2 older GSX-Rs in various stages of rebuild lol

So work and life get in the way of projects, but thats likely not a new story for anyone on here lol. Working to get the RMX running lately and was having lots of issues with the carb (the original Keihin PJ38 - by all accounts not a great carb). I ordered a PWK and paid PWK amounts of money for it and still ended up with a chinese clone. Fiddled with it and tried to get it working but never could get consistent results. Finally sourced an actual Keihin from an older KX250 and in the process of jetting it. It should come as no surprise that even with the jetting wrong, the bike kicked over and ran as soon as I put the real PWK on. Lengthy battle with the Ebay seller who claimed he wasn't selling clones, but it was missing all the tell tale signs (serial number stamp, QC marks, etc). Finally got my original money back, and the guy didn't want the carb back, so I now have a new desk ornament.

The bike is close to being ready minus the jetting. The hybrid will wait for next winter, just went ahead and built it out on the RMX frame for now.

WE'VE GOT A RUNNER! lol

I am glad you got it going again! Cool bike!

Does it have a subframe or just a sub-pipe like a 1989+ KDX?

Removeable sub frame arm like the KDX, you can see it in the above photo. Not much of a surprise since the RMs from the early 90s didn't have removeable sub frames either (until like 96 or so IIRC). The bike could have been a serious KDX foe had Suzuki not decided to make it a dual purpose bike in the late 90s. Serious fast, nice, wide 6 speed tranny. The powervalve design sucks and requires a bit of maintenance, but the ergos are really nice, kind of a middle ground between a KDX and a KX.

That's a really nice bike! Great job on bringing it back to life!

So a couple months ago started having issues with the RMX not running right, idle all over the place, smoking bad. Had rebuilt the top end when I got the motor originally, the bottom end spec'd out OK and looked fine so didn't touch it. Long story short, chased my tail with carbs and jetting and finally thought "well, crap, if someone asked about an issue like this on KDXRider I'd say do a leak down test" Of course, I hadn't heeded my own advice lol. Pulled the clutch cover off to find

Clutch side main bearing just let go and took the seal with it, but luckily minimal damage to the cases. So a complete bottom end rebuild later and lo and behold, the jetting is crisp, smoking is gone, and the bike runs like a banshee. Seriously, compared to the KDX220 this thing scared me a couple times this last weekend. Now my son has a permanent grin on and I'm struggling to keep up with him on the trails :-)


So I guess the moral of the story is just listen to my internet self lol!

Great job finding that before it was catastrophic!! My buddy just had a total engine failure on a low hour 2016 YZ250F. He looks like he's going to puke when he talks about it.

Good job to get it all sorted out!

Yea man, glad its running good again! I had a couple of chances to pick up RMX's but always ended up backing out. They are super cool and I would love to have one, but just to have it haha I don't have enough time to ride the ones I got now. The power is definitely no joke on them!

Hahahaha was it you or your son who slapped on the Joey Mac bobbie plate?

Lol, the Joey Mac boobies are his...and signed to boot lmao