KDXRIDER.NET

Hi everyone, this is my first post. I live in South Africa and just bought a 2005 kdx 200. Its very neat and goes well. I decided to take it to a highly experienced local bike mechanic just for a once off look over and grease bearings, double check jetting and replace front sprocket and repack exhaust etc.

Seeing as i dont know its maintenance history for sure, I asked him to do the top end. He had a look inside and called me now to say that there is a small amount of up and down play on the con rod. He asked me to come over to show me. So I guess that means doing new bottom end also which I was really hoping not to do as it is now going to be quite costly.

Well anyway other wise the bike has been great fun and I really love riding it. Ive had it about a month and have ridden about 400 miles in forest, on dunes and in hills. I just wish it wasnt needing the bottom end done now...

Welcome! :)

They're a great bike! Definitely worth the effort/money to get it into top shape as I don't think there is any other bike like it (I even prefer it to KTM 200's).

Conrod up and down play is bad, and could potentially be a lot worse if you don't get it fixed, unfortunately. You could buy a rod kit for about $60 odd, and have your mechanic true it up to your exhaust crankshaft weights using a new conrod, big-end bearing etc. Then you would want new crankshaft bearings and seals while the bottom end is apart most likely.

I would say, consider doing it yourself. But I remember only a year ago I wouldn't have thought twice about doing a bottom end, now I've done a handful of them myself. If this is an option for you, you'd want the workshop manual and if possible a friend that knows how nearby.

Thanks for the response. I would love to work on the bike myself....however I will have it done by the mechanic this first time and then from now on will try learn to do the work myself. I will start getting familiar with the mechanicals from now...id rather start off with just doing top end myself next time instead of starting with top and bottom this time.

I was wanting to get the wife a bike near Christmas...probably a crf 230....but this will make my finances a bit tight now to get another bike and all the gear for her... maybe its time to work some overtime at work hehe

That's fair enough. You will get comfortable with the mechanics pretty quick, bikes are GREAT to work on! (Coming from a history of car obsessions). I've only been REALLY into bike mechanics recently, and the other day I removed an engine from a KX and had the cases split in under half an hour... they are great to work on when you get your head around it :)

Ohhh yeah, maybe you could consider a CRF150 or a TTR125 or something like that instead?

be sure to check the how to section (check my sig) before you (or mechanic) do any work on your bike