Went riding today

More fun than you can imagine. Check out the lean angle on my friend Paul's 380SX.

meh, I've lived here my entire life. I'm used to it! lol

And yes Chili, it was especially cold here during the day today. I think it was about -15C for a daytime high. Pretty much about the coldest we'll ride at.

Protection. If you so much as bump another rider's leg with the front tire you can guess what would happen!

The most important thing I can tell you is make sure the motor is getting up to temperature. Remember, the big KXs were primarily built in later years to be desert sleds and the cooling system works FAR too well in cold weather. New riders constantly cold seize their bikes because as the piston heats up, the cylinder stays cold. I've seen it 100 times. We did some testing with temp gauges and EGT gauges and we were only seeing coolant temps in the 60-80f range and EG temps of about 500. WAY too low and a sure cold seizure waiting to happen. You'd be amazed how fast the coolant temp rises when you twist the throttle wide open, and how fast it drops when you chop it. A 40f degree drop in coolant temp in 3-4 seconds is not unusual.


The easiest way to prevent this is to duct tape one radiator. If you don't want to install a temp gauge, the laser type gauges work well enough, but keep in mind that you have to take the temp immediately after some hard laps (we have a friend by the side of the track with the temp gun) . If you ride slowly back to the pits the coolant will cool down significantly and you'll get a false reading.


With one rad taped off it's still sometimes hard to get up to 180-200 when it's cold. We have found that the bikes make the most power at 180-210f and in reality, it's pretty much impossible to get these things too hot.


As far as lowering the bike, its basically what the machine shop charges for spacers.

Your fork springs will need to be permanently shortened.


Your shock spring is usually ok if you only go 2" shorter (14mm at shock).

The rear spring will still fit on, but any shorter than 2" you need to mess with a shorter shock spring and that's just too much cash. The machine shop typically charges $50 - $80 for the 3 spacers to shorten your forks and shock.


Some guys use the spacers but just one, full length fork spring but that really isn't the right way. If you can do all the service (oil, nitrogen for shock) yourself, you can save some cash, but if you want to have it done by a pro, I can put you in touch with my buddy. He does these bikes all the time and is an amazing suspension tech. Drop me an email if you need anything else!


terryk1@shaw.ca

(all that being said, many people just run their bikes stock suspension with the preload backed down. The don't handle quite as good as a lowered bike but if you are just playing it works just fine.)

Better than slicks on pavement baby!

No racing yet Cyg, just burning laps. The big lake we race on isn't frozen yet so we are on a small lake with a small track.

Not cheater, it's what we use here. We take our ice racing seriously.