1998-2002 KX 250 Freshening up

[Gots_a_sol]

A riding buddy had a KX250 he set up as woodsy as possible. He eventually replaced it with a Beta X-trainer and said he couldn't believe the difference just in making tight turns. The other stuff like e-start, 6 speed, and low seat height was just icing on the cake.

My old KX125 was the same. Went like hell in a straight line on the pipe but fuck me if the trail turned. I raced that bike ONCE when my Husky was down trying to salvage a top 5 in that years championship. I got 6th because of it

 

[slowlygettingthere]

Well I made my final KX upgrade.

Gonna hang on to the kx but finally decided to upgrade to something not 2+ decades old. Going to install a few accessories and get the suspension resprung and revalved before I ride it.

 

[crispins]

Well I made my final KX upgrade.

Gonna hang on to the kx but finally decided to upgrade to something not 2+ decades old. Going to install a few accessories and get the suspension resprung and revalved before I ride it.

why does the suspension need work before it is good to ride?

I dont get it, is it because your weight is out of spec for how they designed it?

Seems to me a new out of the box bike would be good to go

 

[slowlygettingthere]

why does the suspension need work before it is good to ride?

I dont get it, is it because your weight is out of spec for how they designed it?

Seems to me a new out of the box bike would be good to go

Well ya I'm a good bit heavier than what it is sprung for. It's setup for someone that's 5'10 and 170lbs give or take. I'm 240 with gear right now and 6'4" tall. Someone taller also rides with more weight on the back of the bike usually. That's about 5 spring rates up on the rear from stock. You typically would need to revalve when changing spring rates that much. Because your going to overwhelm the valving.

Xcw's are setup for trail duty. That will be where most of my riding it done and I want the wide ratio trans and lights. I have some jumps I'm working on at home though and I may take it to the track some. So I want a little more bottoming resistance than it has stock.

If I was about 5'10 and weighted 175 lbs and only planned to trail ride it then ya I probably wouldn't have to touch it.

I really contemplated getting a 23 xc with the new TBI motor instead. I wanted the spring forks and lights instead of the air forks. Plus I can still put a Kickstarter on the TPI motor. So I went that way.