DD - Dirtbike Durability

ama530
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ama530 12/17/2020 5:14am
12/17/2020 5:14am Edited Date/Time 12/17/2020 5:15am
With today's materials and manufacturing practices, the bikes are better than ever. And the latest synthetic oils don't hurt either. The days of ping, ping, ping, seize are pretty much over if you take care of your ride.

I am currently trying to sell my kid's 18' KTM 85 and all I get is how many hours are on the top end. The motor is stock and has been trail ridden for 72 hours. The bike is mint and the compression is the same as when I purchased it. But all I get is some moron who thinks you need to change the top end every 15 hours so it doesn't blow up. Are people that uninformed? Unless you are racing at the highest level, leave it stock, take care of it, and just maintain it.
crdnlplt
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crdnlplt 12/17/2020 7:55am
12/17/2020 7:55am
chuck356 wrote:
I worked in a bike shop for 40+ years, I could never see much difference between the 4 brands as far as quality or failure rates...
I worked in a bike shop for 40+ years, I could never see much difference between the 4 brands as far as quality or failure rates. It was always hit and miss as far as problems go, every brand had a stinker every now and then. A few that come to mind: Honda tin-can cranks in CR's, '89 RM125's would seize every 5 minutes, '87 KX80's had issues with piston ring snagging until we used a different piston, Yamaha YZ490 rattle, ping seize. Yamaha really built a good 2 stroke engine overall.
The part of the '89 RM125 is so true! My 1st 125 and would never touch another Suzuki because of that!
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NorCal1975
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NorCal1975 12/17/2020 9:54am
12/17/2020 9:54am
hypermoto wrote:
My friend raced his 18 250sxf with 150 hours on it in pro nationals and the bike never had an issue. That’s 150 “hard” hours with...
My friend raced his 18 250sxf with 150 hours on it in pro nationals and the bike never had an issue. That’s 150 “hard” hours with minimal maintenance!

Seems like a lot of the magazines say Yamaha is top of the heap for durability, at least the 450. I can't speak to that personally. My mechanic friends tell me Yamaha, KTM, Honda, Suzuki and Kawi, pretty much in that order from best to worst these days. My personal experience is that the Kawis do not hold up well, at least the little 2 strokes, only big Kawi I owned as a 1994 KX500.

The little Kawi 2 strokes are trash, motors, bottom ends and frames going down left and right even with good maintenance. I unfortunately became a pretty good welder trying to keep kx85 and kx65 frames together. Gave up on little Kawis, the build quality on the little KTM 2 strokes is WAY better than Kawi.

Of course everyone has their own opinion.
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brimx153
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brimx153 12/18/2020 6:50am
12/18/2020 6:50am
05 06 07 08 crf wins this imo . I got 600 hr on mine over 6 years , wore a hole through the frame. The bike was still going strong
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nickm
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nickm 12/19/2020 8:05am
12/19/2020 8:05am
I feel compelled from a public service perspective to immediately apply corrective action to this thread. Please see as follows and recall that anything DD related in Moto can only refer to the topic illustrated:




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MX558
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MX558 12/25/2020 6:38pm
12/25/2020 6:38pm Edited Date/Time 12/25/2020 6:40pm
MotoDogg wrote:
I have the same experience, old KX is buleltproof, but the 16 KXF feels like made out of eggshells.
LKHill wrote:
They must not be made out of eggshells because my 2018 kx250f had 80 hours (all track time) when I sold it and I never replaced...
They must not be made out of eggshells because my 2018 kx250f had 80 hours (all track time) when I sold it and I never replaced a single part other than tires, chain and front sprocket, suspension service, muffler packing.

Ran and felt like the day it came off the showroom.
hypermoto wrote:
80 hours is not an impressive amount of hours. At all. It’s nothing. There’s guys on here that haven’t touched their KTM motors for 400 hours...
80 hours is not an impressive amount of hours. At all. It’s nothing. There’s guys on here that haven’t touched their KTM motors for 400 hours. Most bikes will go 80 hours with just a chain, sprockets and tires. 80 hours is nothing, bikes fresh still. I’m not sure why people on this forum talk about anything over 50 hours being a lot. 300+ hours and now you’re doing something
We've also seen ktm's take a shit in under 50 . They're no better than the other bikes and as far as hardware goes , just buy some wood screws and save the money
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