Hey, Guys. I've been gone for a few days...riding the KLX of course. Luke's Racing checked the valves for size and felt that they would flow plenty as they were. He enlarged the exhaust ports and did the other work I mentioned and I couldn't argue with his decision. The bike ran very well this weekend at the Arkansas ride.

I probably have somewhere around $1500.00 in mods, including the exhaust. I bought a new cylinder, but you could use a less expensive donor and save a few bucks. The bike was a hit at the Hillbilly Dual-Sport Tour, that's for sure. I only semi-raced against one bike, a slightly hopped up and geared down DRZ 400. The KLX kept pace almost side by side until we hit the higher speeds. He shut down about the time I started pulling up on him. My gearing is stock, while his bike topped out at around 80, giving him the gearing advantage for acceleration. I killed him on top end. At an indicated 95, I was at 9500 rpm. The bike was still accelerating, but I shut it down. Budd's Creek knobbies are great on the dirt, but they don't like highway speeds. I'd expect the bike to keep the one to one ratio up to 100 mph or so. That's not bad for a "250."

I wanted to let VFR Pilot, "Jerry," ride it, but we missed each other after the ride ended on Saturday.

Feel free to email me or call me at 405 830-6630 if you have any questions I haven't answered. This bike rocks, guys.

Bill Dragoo
Norman, Oklahoma

 

bump! I searched for this thread and just wanted to resurface it. I'll coment further in the morning because I'm on my I phone and it's a pain to type very much.

 

Marvin posted Bill's article on Kustom Kraft's website: http://kustom-kraft.com/klx250bb.html

 

I'm not wanting to bring up old arguements, which will probably happen, but I just thought I'd report on my "new" bike.
I re-read Bill's post to get a feel for his opinions on his KLX after all the mods. As I remembered, he feels that the KLX after mods is nothing short of impressive.
I'll go one step farther, mine after mods is nothing short of awesome!
Now, before everyone jumps on and I get the air knocked out of me; this is not backed up by dyno reports, only comparisons to bikes that I have been on or own, and my own personal ***-dyno.
I'll start out by saying that I'm pretty sure that my bike is now pretty much the same as Bill's where the engine is concerned. It has the Kustom Kraft 331 kit installed, Webcams 101 grind cams, TM34 pumper, BigGun full exhaust,NGK Iridium plug,and aTwinAir filter. I went back to the original 14 tooth drive sprocket and maintained the 45 tooth driven sprocket. The mods that were just listed totaled up to $1862.00. Broke down they are:
TwinAir filter $ 26.00
NGK Iridium Plug$ 10.00
Webcams $ 275.00
Kustom Kraft $ 779.00
TM 34 $ 340.00
Big Gun $432.00
Total $ 1,862.00

I'm sure that there are some that can get these things cheaper, but that's not the subject.

After running the bike through several heat cycles the past couple of days, the weather was warm enough to get it out and run it down the road last night. The power that this bike has is amazing! This will out perform most 450 dual sport bikes that are in stock form. I've ridden the DRZ and in stock form it doesn't compare. Comparing to my KX250F; the gearing is naturally different, so you have to take that into consideration. But the KX does have more torque but the modded KLX has some serious low end torque now.
I'm sure the Husky TE will come up in this conversation...... I've never been on a TE but I have ridden a TC250 and thought it was a poor excuse for a MX bike. The KX F will chew it up and spit it out.
So, without getting too bragadocious about this KLX, I'll just repeat that the power on this is just simply awesome. My guess is that the combination of big bore with the cams and carb is the ticket.
Bill has never really boasted of his new found power, and I probably should takea lesson from him and be reserved about it. But after my ride last night I just had to crow a little.
For those who would say that they could take that money and buy a bigger bike, I would reply that it would still need some mods to make it what they expected. Also, there is nothing more rewarding than working on your ride and making it better.
All said and done with all the mods that I have done on my KLX, I have spent as much after the purchase as I did at the purchase. That's not necessarily a bad thing .... I'ts kind of like David Allen Coe singing the "perfect county and western song" ........ I now have the "perfect small bore dual sport bike"

 

I re-read Bill's comments about carburetors. In it, he put a Keihin 35 and reported that there wasn't much difference.

Although I have no hard scientific evidence on this, the Mikuni TM36-68 certainly seems to add something to my set up. I've had the TM34 on my bike for a long time and finally got the TM36 jetted right and have a small ride or two on it.

Throttle response seems better and it seems to accellerate harder. Maybe my technique has improved, but I wasn't able to get a throttle only wheel pop-up in second gear with the TM34 (i.e. no clutching, no pulling back on the bars). However the front wheel pops up with just the throttle in second gear with the TM36.

I want my bike to be the best trail bike it can be, I'm less interested in getting top end horsepower but rather have the low end torque. (Someone metioned to me that a small carb is better for this, maybe someone can explain that to me?)

I'm somewhat intrigued by the alternate cams. I know that the right cam for a jeep engine can unleash the torque for low end rock crawling. I wonder what Web Cam's 293 grind would do?

 

I don't pretend to know what differences there might be between the TM34 and the TM36-68. I do know that mine is jetted considerably richer than Bill's. I'm running a 142.5 main jet and a 40 pilot. Last night while riding I was getting the throttle only wheel pop-up in first and second ..... no effort at all only throttle. I was additionally surprised when I came around a corner in second gear and normally should have down shifted but didn't, RPM's were about 2500 when I nailed the throttle and at that low range the front wheel still popped up. After that I played with the extreme low end just to see what kind of low end torque it had ...... it was truly impressive!
I'm with you on the "wanting my bike to be the best trail bike it can be".
And with every nickle I spend, I'm getting closer.

 

Sorry, but I must chime in here as I'm sure no one else will, at least not in written or posted form. All I'm gonna say is that I have a very hard time believing that your modded KLX will "outperform most 450 dual sport bikes that are in stock form"[sm=smiley36.gif]. Do you know how much horsepower a KTM 450EXC or Husky TE450 make? We're talking close to 50 in stock form. And it has already been dyno documented by someone else on this forum who has all your mods including the cams that their KLX didn't even break the 30 horsepower mark. I understand how much a seat of the pants power increasefeels likecompared to a stock KLX, but I think you may be overestimating, say just a tad? As far as the DRZ (which is only 400cc), it is making right at 35 rwhp in stock trim. No way your KLX makes even close to that or comes close to the torque the DRZ produces. I'll go on record and say that even after you have yours dynoed as I know you'll do to prove IG wrong, it still isn't at 30rwhp. I'm glad you're happy with your KLX, I'm jealous of you and everything. But let's tone it down a little as far as power claims. You're still only at 331cc. If 330 dual-sport bikes were where it's at, I'm sure the market would be flooded with that size. You're used to small bore dirtbikes as your KX and KLX are. The DRZ has arm straightening torque that your KLX can only dream of producing.This is even more evidentwhen it hooks up with SM wheels/tires on the asphalt.And I'm sure the TE and EXC would still kill you with a 20-bike length head start in a woods drag race. But hey, I'm ecstatic that you're happy. Wish I had your budget!!

 

Hey Gary, I think I told you that you would NOT be dissappointed. Glad you got it all together and are happy with it. As I've mentioned many times, the 331+pumper truly does make it a different bike. The new cams are interesting but to be honest, I spend most of my riding in the low to mid RPMs and folks usually replace cams for top end performance, so I never did that nor had any plans to. Every now and then I air it out, but reality is there's not a whole lot of open area where I ride in order to be able to do that or I'd find myself wrapped around a tree, and have on occasion.

As for comparing to the 450, I guess you'd have to clarify as to which one(s) as many have different characters. I rode a 650 the other weekend and thought my 450 had lots more snap and was way hungry to rev and roost and giddy-up and go, where the 650 was more lazy and subdued, so they are not all created equal for sure. But as anyone here probably knows my 450 EXC absolutely required rejetting, regearing, and exhaust derestricting to open it up - and after doing that it doesn't much compare to the way it was stock. I think just about any street legal bike will require those basic mods. But go back and read what I said in post number 9 of this thread (page 1) from almost a year ago soon after I got my EXC. Even after a year on my KTM, I still have not changed my view on that. I think the KLX331+pumper does actually compare favorably - after those mods it has that same "feel" as the EXC. I put that in quotes because the 450EXC is still a few notches up, but hey, it's a 450 it's supposed to. But you are indeed correct - the 331 + pumper does transform the KLX and puts it into the next category. No one would mistake your bike for a stock bike after they ride it. In fact, if they got on it and were expecting stock behaviour, they might actually hurt themselves because it behaves so differently. I honestly can't imagine anyone not being happy with those mods or regretting spending the money after the fact.

 

Great posts on the subject. A further hats off to Shadetree and VFRfor going through the trouble to document a wonderful list of mods. We all have varying opinions but nothing adds to the forum as much as documented experience by all the posters.

Does the KLX deserve this much money spent on it?? Who cares. We're all gear heads and there is no rational reason for it but we are all guilty. The upside is we all suffer from the same malady.

I bought a used KLX w/300 barrel for $2,000. I've installed the pumper carb, web cams 101 grind and a used Big gun system. So for $2700 I have a decent little bike thats had me running all over southeast asia for 29,000 kilometers. The information on this board will also be valuable for future buyers of the KLX that are now picking them up used.

I'm following in Shadetree's, Nobrakes, and VFR's footsteps as I've just landed back in the states and brought with me my 300 cylinder to be punched out to 330.

I compared my KLX to a DRZ400 in a post on another websight here:

Here's some feedback of my experience on the KLX. Posted in another thread but thought this might give you another datapoint for you in evaluating the bike.

Just to shed some real world light on the capabilities of the KLX250S, pro's and cons.

I've been riding one for 29,000 KM's throughout Southeast asia. I use it as an everyday commuter as well as my offroad, stuck in the jungle out in the middle of nowhere bike. I've carried enough gear on it to spend over a month off/on road in Laos, and three weeks doing the same in Cambodia plus multiple week long rides in Thailand.

My bike has the 300 cylinder, pumper carb, cams and exhaust.



The bike is capable of doing all you ask of it. Plods through technical trails, stable enough on fireroads, and drones along the road. Having said that though all is not peaches and cream. It won't cruise comfortably over about 60 MPH for long stetches. Yes it can rev freely to 80 but you're gonna be pushing the motor at those speeds. Stay within it's comfort zone and you will be happy. Expect to cruise at 80 with your 650 friends and you will be hating life.


Comfort = it's a DS bike not a goldwing. I've logged plenty of 500 KM days on the steed. However I'm happy to get off the bike after logging that much mileage. No need for a windscreen or anything daft like that since your mostly cruising around 60 mph. A wider seat would be a good mod for extended slabbing. However since I am short I did not want to sacrifice the ability to get my feet on the ground for my offroading.


Suspension = Its looks high tech but in reality its late 80's technology. The upside down forks look the business however their performance is not that stellar. It would not be my first choice if I was having to pound 3 foot sand whoops. If its rolling technical terrain it does its job fine. Fast, sharp edged holes, or high speed rock sections will be it Achilles heel. It has no rebound adjustment on the forks and the compression adjuster has minimal effect. After riding a buddies DRZ400 through high speed dirt potholes for 100 km's in Cambodia I feel the standard suspension on the DRZ was superior to the KLX. Having said that if you are simply plodding through technical slow speed stuff it does its job fine.


Weight = For a 250 it sure is not a featherweight, but it is lighter than the DRZ.

Gearbox = The KLX six speed is a joy. i watched my DRZ400 friend have to juggle sprockets all the time depending if it was technical dirt or more high speed dirt/road sections. I would smell fried clutch plates if he would not gear down for the singletrack.


Power = The DRZ400s had much more torque than my modified 300. However the 300 had better pull in the upper RPM's. The KLX loves its RPM's. Its not a torque monster even with the mods.

Luggage = It held enough for me to be on the road for over a month at a time. A set of DirtBagz, Chase harper tool pouch, Wolfman number plate bag, and a small drybag on the rack was enough to carry what I needed. I also had the Wolfman enduro tank bag but did not like it for technical dirt riding. It got in the way when standing off road. When sitting it was not an issue. Bad enough for me that I left it at home on most of my trips.

Most people are aware of the great things the KLX does, I'm just trying to make you aware of some of the pitfalls most owners don't like to reveal about their beloved steeds. My bike has been reliable enough to cover those distances without any mechanical failures. The valves needed adjusting only once up until 27,000 KM's. However its last 4000 KM's were under hard supermotard usage on the track and in the canyons. Therefore it was kept at redline most of those KM's. Under that duress I did notice the intake valves were taking a beating. I replaced the two intake valves as the seats and valves were pretty hammered. However most sensible people won't abuse their valvetrain the way I did.


Overall the bike has been fantastic. It has proven to be reliable and sturdy which is what you want where I do most of my travelling. Its stood up to plenty of crashing some of them good high speed cart wheels and has always come up surviving in one piece. Radiators have never been damaged, unlike my YZF. As long as you keep it withing its parameters you will be a happy camper. Only if you have lofty expectations will you be dissappointed. That or if you ride with guys on 525EXC's .

Good luck with whatever you ride and most importantly just enjoy the ride whatever you end up on. i see the locals over here having fun on scooters converted for offroad. I believe we let the research get in the way of good times far too often.[/align]

 

Hey, Gary. Congratulations on your "New" bike. It is a blast, isn't it? See you in Hillbilly Country next month! And the rest of you guys...Y'all come! Let's go eat some KTM's...except of course for yours, Brian.

http://www.rideok.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=964