Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Buy a good 2nd hand KDX200. Two stroke simplicty, usable power for a newie and yet at the same time, hell fun for someone who can steer.

KLX450, is like a ZX10 for the dirt. Hard edged, huge power, sharp brakes and geometry. Not ideal for someone new.

DRZ/KLX400 is a sweet bike. I've owned a YZF400, and still have a KTM530EXC in the toybox. I also had a KDX200. If I were to buy again now, barring the Kato, which is Dangerous Dave's as well, and I was looking 2nd hand, then I would be all over any decent DRZ/KLX 400. But, if I could find a mint KDX200, I'd probably take that. I owned the KDX at the same time as I had the KLX400 and would often change bikes at lunch time and ride the KDX200 for the afternoon.

Forget all the bullshit about two strokes being too much maintanance, it's the 4 stroke enduros like the YZF,EXC, that are highly strung nad need lots of maintanance and don't even go into a Honda as they are worse. If you rode the two stroke ALL season. Like EVERY weekend, it would need a piston and rings at the end of the season which can be done yourself in 2 hours. You might re nikasil the barrell, but that's probably only a few hundred. I think the last top end I did on the KLX cost maybe $600 going mad with really nice stuff. That's once a season if you ride EVERY weekend.

If you rode and enduro EVERY weekend, you would use $30 maybe more of oil plus a filter every ride. Plus, they dust up easily and the valves start leaking. Then it's thousands for the rebuild unless you are bloody handy.

The 4stroke in the middle is the DRZ/KLX. Naturally being the same bike, the KLX is the better one. They still require and oild and filter change every 2nd or third ride, depending on dust levels. So are pretty cheap there. They also tend to do a lot more klms before they need the top ends done. WHen you do do the top end, then you can make it go like the 450 enduros, but still keep the ride it all day suspension. I never touched the stock suspension on my KLX except to set it up for me. It was standard springs and valving. The guys on katos and YZF's which were the hardcore enduro bikes, would never get away, but come early afteroon, they would all start falling behind. By the time we were back at the carpark, I was ready for another 100klms and they were shattered.

As Aardvark attests, crashing is a certainty. Especially when learning. Sometimes when you crash you break the bike, sometimes you break you, sometimes both. As a learner you're going to be chucking it into the bushes with regular monotony. We all do. You will want to ride with others, as injury could be fatal solo and you'll want some people who know the tracks to show you around. So, you will try and keep up and you will crash. Make sure you have good gear and ambulance cover.

Having said all that, I have gone whole seasons where I rode all year, as in the crashes I had I got lucky and didn't hit anything/one. Then I had a few where I didn't!

But dirt bike riding is a hoot, insane fun. No speed limits, massive lurid slides at high speed on the faster single track, then hard braking berm riding in the tight single track. Hitting an unexpected erosion mound at 80klms an hour for the first time and landing 30 feet away and fluking it and staying on. The next erosion mound you hit, overconfident and you get it all wrong and face plant at 80 klms and hour, then slide and bounce along the fire trail till you stop. The greasy slimy wet clay up in our mountains that even standing up on the pegs and feathering hte throttle has it opposite locked past 90 degrees. That wicked set of single track you get to know and manage to back into every turn and slide and wheelstand out the other. It a Hoot!!

One tip.......Take "Allens Snakes" with you as well as your water and lunch. Snakes are a god send, when you are all waiting for the newbie and want a sugar hit for the next knarly hill.

ooooohhhh kdx200 good bike

Yep Allen's snakes are a trail favorite

And don't buy a Euro. The KTM530EXC we have is an 08 and has done fuck all klms. Maybe 1000. But, we keep the thing on charge all the time so it will start when we get on it. BUT.....if you don't catch it first time, you will have to resort to the kick starter as it just flattens the battery in a second. That's the sort of shit you have to put up with to have a Euro. They ride great, but are expensive and unreliable for the most part.

I could leave the KLX alone for 6 months, throw it on the trailer and go out to our riding spot. Pull it off the trailer, hit the button and it would fire first time. That's Suzuki reliability.

KDX 200 is a fine machine , but difficult to fine in good nick . Quite a cult following in the US . And NO electric start

Neither has this , my new beast

I owned a KDX 200, years ago. They are great bikes.Light and nimble with more than enough power. As for the kick starter, being a two stroke they should kick over with very little effort (unlike the four strokes). The only down side for the KDX is up and down snotty hills. There is no engine brake so they can get away from you a bit going down a hill. Going up hill you have to keep the revs up as there is no low down torque. If you can over come these issues you will love a KDX and it would make you a better rider. Saying that I would go with a DRZ/KLX 400. Or even a KLX250 with a 300 kit. The money you save on the 250 you can spend on extras for the bike.

the kid wrote:Neither has this , my new beast

At least it's the right colour!

the kid wrote:KDX 200 is a fine machine , but difficult to fine in good nick . Quite a cult following in the US . And NO electric start

Neither has this , my new beast

Ooooohhhhh........noice Billy! That would be definite fun 4th gear on the pipe wheelstands???

Strika wrote:

the kid wrote:KDX 200 is a fine machine , but difficult to fine in good nick . Quite a cult following in the US . And NO electric start

Neither has this , my new beast

Ooooohhhhh........noice Billy! That would be definite fun 4th gear on the pipe wheelstands???

Only rode it yesterday for the first time as a test . By myself , so taking it a bit quietly ............. but fun fun fun
Lighting kit from Small Coil Rewinds , works a treat . Horn and brake light = Rec Reg .

Might have to gear it down a tooth as it runs out of legs pretty quick on the fire roads . Tight stuff is great fun .

Yeah yeah yeah KDX200 get one, all the cool kids have them

Sorry Vivek I was trying to keep it simple so you could follow but I cant resist a good discussion such as his.

Strika wrote:And don't buy a Euro. The KTM530EXC we have is an 08 and has done fuck all klms. Maybe 1000. But, we keep the thing on charge all the time so it will start when we get on it. BUT.....if you don't catch it first time, you will have to resort to the kick starter as it just flattens the battery in a second. That's the sort of shit you have to put up with to have a Euro. They ride great, but are expensive and unreliable for the most part.

I could leave the KLX alone for 6 months, throw it on the trailer and go out to our riding spot. Pull it off the trailer, hit the button and it would fire first time. That's Suzuki reliability.

For a beginer I agree, but if your in the top end of the market I have to disagree.
I would by a euro over any Jap bike particularly at the moment, both my Husqvarna's start (95%. conservatively) on the button first time and definately starts on the 2nd hit regardless where you are, the older TE510 has a kicker but it never gets used, the newer TE511 doesnt even have one and I have never had a charger or jump pack on either.

I have never had an issue and I ride mine alot and in harsh hard conditions from hot desert sand to rocky ravines to the cold wet hills/rivers/mud, rocky hill climbs, tight single track to open high speed whoops flat out. Anywhere except jumps

However I have seen most Crf's hard to start because of badly designed valves, Wrf's not starting after one hit of the button flattening the battery when hot, KTM's are the same especially the 2st's 300's and they also have had stator issues. I ride a bit with a trail bike club and have attended most of their trail ride events last year as well as many private rides, we are talking about dozens of riders and bikes and the most common bikes failing are the Honda's, Yamahas, KTMs in that order keeping in mind KTM's are very popular. The olde DRZ400 keeps on tractoring on tho..

There is one sure way to get tired quick and that is trying to kickstart a four banger on the side of a hill. Reliability is king, the Huskys have proven this time and time again amoungst many other bikes on club events that I have seen all the popular bikes fail in some way.

The old saying euros need more maintence use to be true until a few years ago when the Jap bikes caught up a bit and now need almost as much servicing but mechanically fail before the euro's do. This is kind of conjecture as it depends on how well each bike is maintained and used, but IMO the euro's make far better bikes than the Japs and usually are so far in front with technology.

Dont get me wrong I am not anti anything except unreliable bikes screwing up your day, I have spent my apprenticeship kickstarting bikes until the lever breaks off in the middle of the bush and dragging the now hated piece of crap out, all kinds of bikes from big bore 2 strokes to one of the worst I have owned for starting KLX650RR, great bike as long as it was running but a great heavy lump when its dead

Some of the remote places I have been you wouldn't bother rescuing the bike, it is cheaper to abandon it, yeah extreme circumstances but if I am going to rely on a bike I want it to work to get me out of there, I do not want to be spending half my time kicking a bike over or having to repair broken bikes because of poor design.




billy* Noice pickup mate, good to see finally you snared it

Defend your purchasing decision all you want, but it just means you either ride like a pussy, or you got the three good ones!

I told myself to keep out of dirt bike threads, cause i know nothing... last i rode in the bush was around 89.. thats a long time ago... the last race was a little event held in QLD back then..
But one word of advice, dont ride alone in the scrub... a good mate back in the day of hairy fisted dirt bikes.. cr 500's , IT490's ect.. no lecky starts on them!!!!
Anyway a good mate Ian fell in the bush while riding alone, broke his leg, and had to restart his bike, get on and ride out alone... and he was a top level A grade racer at the time... it happens..
Another time while out riding i had my mate jamie with me, he was fairly new to this.. we were belting along a fire trail we knew well, but a big storm had gone thru the night before, i was in front on my IT490k, jamie on a XR350 RF, i hit a big washout, got thru it , only to look behind to see how jamie was... all i saw was a XR doing cartwheels down the track.. end result was a shattered left wrist, went back, picked him up, checked bike, rideable... started it for him, sat him on it, put it in 1st gear, ran along with the clutch in till he got going, and made him ride 20 odd k's out on his own..
Wasnt a happy chappy, but as i said to him after a hospital trip, and plated wrist, mate if u were on ur own, what would u have done?? sit there crying till someone come along!!!! not likely, where we were. toughin up and ride the fucker out urself... took him a while to get it, but he did.. and was a lot tougher rider for it

Thanks for all your inputs!

It seems that riding in the rain/wet is no issue. But from what you guys have shared it sounds like the risk of injury dirt riding is quite high. Naively enough, I was thinking because you ride off road and typically at very low speeds you wouldn't hurt yourself. Sounds like you can break a lot of things, and quite seriously too!

Should I choose to for one, it's a kdx200 or a drz400 then? Only problem is there are only like 3 kdx200s for sale in all of Australia

And yeah, of course I would never contemplate anything European, unless of course it is a ............









Triumph speed triple

A really good well looked after and maintained KDX is going to be next to impossible to find. You might get lucky, but, they haven't made them for a long time or at least imported them here, so they are getting long in the tooth. But, if you lucked one, they are good. MY son rode the KDX 20klms back to the car with one hand, in sand. He had fallen off and broken his wrist. Left thankfully. So, same thing as usual, got the bike started for him, pushed him till it was moving and he clicked into gear clutchless and rode that way all the way back. I had to take it through some sections for him, but the rest he managed. The point being, they aren't that hard to ride, he was 12 and Usually rode a KX85.

But you are more likely to find a good KLX/DRZ. I still think the KLX is better looking. It has a slighly different plastics package I think. Either that or the green totally changes it. But the green looks wicked with black stuff all over it. LIke Black Anodised rims, black spokes, black hand gaurds etc., I think I'm getting wood. Oh and they sound great with a loud pipe, but be careful, the cops are hitting the trail riders with that one now too. Don't need it TOO loud.