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I am picking up a 2002 KDX 220 this Friday evening. It is all original except for a skid plate, new handlebars and brush guards. The bike is mint! Very clean, and low hours on it.

I won't have much time to ride it with winter coming, etc. So now is the time to sort the bike out. What maintenance should I do to it right away?

I'm 230 lbs in full gear. What springs do I need for the forks and shock? Gold valves will have to wait until spring or summer next year. I will be using this bike to ride single track in rocky terrain. Should I do the mod to remove shims from the forks?

Any advice you can give would be great! I'm a guy that loves to tinker so i'm ready to make a list. I already have a bad azz KLR 650 dual sport with gold valves, springs, custom shock, and all the rest of the farkles. So I love to wrench, and I love to mod my rides to perform their best possible.

So far I have:
Grease swingarm bearings
Change out fork oil
Change transmission oil

Thanks everyone!

Also, I have read on here about sag settings for the rear, but what about the front? I'm thinking my klr is different because I had to set sag up front using a different length of pipe in the forks to get my sag to a certain measurement.

I imagine what you're most likely to hear is to swap out the stock piston for a forged one, as on the 220 they have been known to have caused some pretty catastrophic failures.

Where is the cheapest place to get a piston kit?

I bought one on ebay it included everything
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wiseco-Top-End- ... 5ad0355cd6

A pipe makes a huge difference I have a pro circuit platinum and love it. While your doing the piston put in a set of reeds. I would also recommend changing the brake fluid.

spl383 wrote:I bought one on ebay it included everything
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wiseco-Top-End- ... 5ad0355cd6

Awesome. Thanks!

spl383 wrote:A pipe makes a huge difference I have a pro circuit platinum and love it. While your doing the piston put in a set of reeds. I would also recommend changing the brake fluid.

I'm guessing I would need the fmf gnarly pipe for woods riding.

check sig for newb thread.

JasonK94Z wrote:

spl383 wrote:A pipe makes a huge difference I have a pro circuit platinum and love it. While your doing the piston put in a set of reeds. I would also recommend changing the brake fluid.

I'm guessing I would need the fmf gnarly pipe for woods riding.

The porting is different on the 220 vs the 200. The higher reving 200 pipes act more as lowend pipes on the 220, and the gnarly acts as an ubber lowend pipe and hurts top end.

Sent via morse code

adam728 wrote:

JasonK94Z wrote:

spl383 wrote:A pipe makes a huge difference I have a pro circuit platinum and love it. While your doing the piston put in a set of reeds. I would also recommend changing the brake fluid.

I'm guessing I would need the fmf gnarly pipe for woods riding.

The porting is different on the 220 vs the 200. The higher reving 200 pipes act more as lowend pipes on the 220, and the gnarly acts as an ubber lowend pipe and hurts top end.

Sent via morse code

I see. So I am guessing the desert pipe is the way to go for the 220 then.

open up the air box , Put a pipe on it , rejet and reeds that alone will wake it up. I own three of them and that is the first thing i do . I run the desert pipes myself , we ride cross country sage brush country , and eastern washington ,oregon woods . The woods pipe when jetted right will give you plenty of RPM. I weigh over 200 with gear and my 220 will go plenty fast enough to get you HURT . LOL. I can hang with the 250 four strokes and the 2 stroke KTM's . suspension is going to be spendy BUT well worth the cost , weak link is the forks . I have yet to have a piston problem BUT we let our bikes warm up real good before riding . Maybe im flirting with disaster --- well see in time. Other then the above mentioned about all that is left is the RB updates to carb and head . I have opted to leave mine stock as they are plenty fast enough for me in that form . Grease, Grease and grease the bearings all over the bike , Did i mention to grease all the bearings

I also picked up a pre-owned 220 this year. I decided to play it safe and do a top end swap immediately. Also, packed all the bearings and pivots with marine grade grease. I know a lot of people suggest a pipe but I think it might be a good idea to take the bike out once you do the new piston and see how you like it. I think the stock setup is actually really good as a trailbike and I've found no reason to mess with it. Only thing I have planned for this winter is having the suspension set up for my weight. These are great bikes. Wish Kawi would release a updated version as 2 strokes are still very popular with the non-motocross crowd.

1st thing to do is ........ride it!

And show pic's! Everyone likes pic's ! Congrats !

Ride it until the snow comes, of course.

If you have time and money this winter I'd do the following

Top end, just so you know it is right and fresh
RB head mod. I think it is the best bange for the buck on a 220. What, $45?
Pipe and silencer. The stock pipe is pretty limiting, the stock silencer is O.K. but can plug up.
Open up the air box a bit to complement the pipe

Seriously consider a fork swap. The correct springs in the stock forks will help a lot but a KX front end makes the bike night and day better.

All the usual grease and fluid changes

KarlP wrote:Ride it until the snow comes, of course.

If you have time and money this winter I'd do the following

Top end, just so you know it is right and fresh
RB head mod. I think it is the best bange for the buck on a 220. What, $45?
Pipe and silencer. The stock pipe is pretty limiting, the stock silencer is O.K. but can plug up.
Open up the air box a bit to complement the pipe

Seriously consider a fork swap. The correct springs in the stock forks will help a lot but a KX front end makes the bike night and day better.

All the usual grease and fluid changes

This is my plan so far. What about the RB carb? Worth it?

KarlP wrote:Ride it until the snow comes, of course.

If you have time and money this winter I'd do the following

Top end, just so you know it is right and fresh
RB head mod. I think it is the best bange for the buck on a 220. What, $45?
Pipe and silencer. The stock pipe is pretty limiting, the stock silencer is O.K. but can plug up.
Open up the air box a bit to complement the pipe

Seriously consider a fork swap. The correct springs in the stock forks will help a lot but a KX front end makes the bike night and day better.

All the usual grease and fluid changes

I know I need to review in the RB section, but for completeness can you give the short version of what the RB head mod does for the 220? I also seem to recall reading it makes the bike more sensitive to jetting. Is that true as well?

The RB carb is ~$250. Ron changes how the pilot circuit works, bores the carb and puts in a divider plate. The carb will behave like a small carb up to about 1/2 throttle and like a big carb at full throttle. I really liked it on my hybrid. Whether it is worth it or not is up to you. For a really nice running bike I'm not sure it is needed.

Ron also adjusts the squish in the stock 220 head and raises the compression a bit. The 220 motor really benefits from that. I saw quite an improvement in low to mid rpm performance. I did not find any greater sensitivity to jetting.