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Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
The only thing good I can say is the few times it ran, it cornered really well!
The Shop
Dropped a valve on the second ride.. Kawi wouldn’t replace it but fixed it.
I did everything right on that bike and it blew up about 4 times that year, always done by the Kawasaki guys (not a dealer) in the end they told me I just got a lemon motor And they gave me an entire new engine.
It’s no wonder I am a 2 stroke guy now, my 07 kx250 is bulletproof!
Thought it would be more reliable than a 510 TE.
Couldn't be any more wrong, lol...
A great bike for the time... that never worked, even it's probably the most "factory maintained" bike I ever had!
Kick Ten Minutes syndrom, frame welded sideways, stock carb and ignition settings totally off, lots of backfiring that burnt holes in the air filter foam or made the carb come off, stock exhaust would get so hot that it melted the side panel, very weak front brake that needed losts of maintenance, stuck kickstarter, various mechanicals, the last one being the electric water pump that led to a terminal engine failure.
Next bike was a 250 CR which I raced two years without even changing a piston, lol...
YZ 125 2008, 200 hours. Bought it used, 40 hrs mark the engine exploded. Complete rebuild, in the other 160 hours i did 3 top ends.
KXF 250 2011, 80 hours. Bought it used at 80 hrs with fresh top end. At 160 hours i sold it, nothing but oil changes every 5 hours.
KXF 250 2015, 70 hours. Bought it at 50 hours, at the 120 hrs mark the tranny said bye bye. Sold the bike.
Bought a brand new KXF 250 2019, 50 hours on it right now, no problems yet.
I can say i’ve been lucky.
Pops was working for Honda UK at the time. And he got me a 1991 CR80. It was the Honda UK test bike, and it came straight to me from DBR magazine, (complete with the slipping clutch mentioned in the magazine test) After a year or so on it, pops got a "new" 1990 engine as a spare. It came straight from the training school at Honda UK. It had apparently never been stripped and was "as new", delivered directly from Japan.
On the stand it ran perfectly. However, first time out on it did not go well. Under load it wouldn't rev out. It would just bog all the time and then finally at the very end of the start straight come on the pipe... When we got it home and stripped it... There was a cir-clip missing and the piston pin had come out and gouged and chunk right up the barrel....
Afterwards we bored it to 100cc and it was an absolute rocket ship!
I went back to the dealer, they called Yamaha, who freaked a bit and asked us to ship the motor to them ASAP. They overnighted me a brand new motor. Didn't have a problem after that.
Pit Row
To make matters worst a vet riding pal of mine went through almost the exact same thing as I did with his 18. Two complete lemons.
Needless to say we are both on different brands now.
Those were real terrible years to own a KTM.
It STAYED DOWN!
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