KX Riders
Maintenance & Technical => KX250 / KX125 => Topic started by: MXonaKawi on July 25, 2013, 05:49:37 AM
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My forks seem to be in good working condition. There are a few chips in the upper fork tube and lower fork leg that bother me. (d**n previous owner!) And I know that it's not set up for me in terms of springs, weight, and riding level.
I'm going to have to get it set up for me, but I'm also wondering if there is a way that I can just buy brand new (maybe works because oem is so expensive) forks and rear shock setup and get it setup for me at the same time and just sell all of the old stuff. I know back in the day pro circuit used to sell their own forks and rear shock for like 5k. I used to see it in motocross action in their ads. Does anyone do it cheaper? That's kind of crazy. Throw some ideas at me. I know little about the suspension world.
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I've been using Factory Connection for 15ish years...very affordable,and I've never once had a complaint/issue.
My K5 was done by Race Tech from the previous owner....luckily he was just a little bit bigger than me,so it already had stiffer springs front and back,which worked out for me since I prefer it on the stiffer side....but I myself have never dealt with Race Tech...I don't have any complaints or issues with them,and I know a lot of members on here like them too....I just prefer Factory Connection because I grew up using them.
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I've been using Factory Connection for 15ish years...very affordable,and I've never once had a complaint/issue.
My K5 was done by Race Tech from the previous owner....luckily he was just a little bit bigger than me,so it already had stiffer springs front and back,which worked out for me since I prefer it on the stiffer side....but I myself have never dealt with Race Tech...I don't have any complaints or issues with them,and I know a lot of members on here like them too....I just prefer Factory Connection.
Awesome insight! And with factory connection, it's not just setup and springs correct? They will sell me completely new forks, and a new rear shock as well as set it up with the proper springs?
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here...check em out...they'll completely re-build/re-valve your forks and shock the same way Race Tech would to fit your riding style/weight/skill level.
http://factoryconnection.com/index2.htm
I could never see spending 5K+ on suspension through Pro Circuit....granted they are a superior company with endless championships...but unless you're gonna be out there banging bars with Ryan Villipoto and Dungey....I don't think it would be all that economical.
The Geico Honda guys are all Factory Connection...and they're tearin it up in the 250 class.
Even Kevin Windham was/is a Factory Connection rider.
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Awesome! I guess this is what I'm looking for:
https://www.factoryconnection.com/Merchant2/works_kit.shtml
Too bad they don't make them for older bikes anymore.
I will def look into have them do the setup for me and springs etc. however, these are the parts that I want replaced. The oem ones are super expensive and mine are chewed up a bit.
Outer Tubes & Shock Body
http://www.chadsoffroadsetups.com.au/images/kashima-coating.jpg
Lower Fork Legs
http://www.factory-mx.com/product_p/pc-forklower-mx.htm
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Too bad they don't make them for older bikes anymore.
have you considered upgrading to a newer year set of forks?...you'd more than likely have to swap out triple trees....but that could be another option.
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First thing you should do is buy a race tech bible on suspension ,and learn as much as you can so you can do the work yourself,it will save you $ in the long run and is satisfying as well.It depends on how much money you want to spend ,i would start of with a set of gold valves ,the correct set of springs for your weight and go from there .If you want more you can put later model forks on ,but will need to be set up again to suit as well ,plus you have to get them to fit your triple clamps and other mods ,depending on what model forks you get.etc?How much do you wanna spend ,the sky the limit?You can get dlc coating lower sliders as well or they can repair the ones you have,you have to work out a budget ,on how much you wanna spend,ring a few suspension guys and see what they say ,get a few prices,they can be expensive.If your going to be in mx bikes for a long time ,and most of us are.i would do the first thing,buy a few tools and go for it ,most of the guys on this site do there own work and modifications and love doing it,that what it all about.
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I have no issue with learning how to do the work myself and I'm in the sport for good. BTW my inner fork tubes are in great condition. It's just the outer ones and lower fork legs that trouble me. (just cosmetic)
I have considered upgrading to a newer year set of forks, but what years will fit? If they aren't brand new chances are that they aren't in mint/new condition. Mine work fine, so theres no point in switching to different forks in similar condition.
Just the outer fork tubes oem are $200 a piece new. I can't find the lower fork legs on the oem sites for sale at all.
I wouldn't say the sky is the limit as far as budget goes. I'd rather not spend the same amount the bike cost brand new just on the suspension. If I had to pick a number that I'd like to pay. I would like keep it at $1k or under for the suspension top to bottom. If it costs more to get what I want, it costs more, but if I had to choose, that's where I'd like to be.
I'm open to swapping triple clamps. I only have the bottom one right now, which I'd be glad to sell on ebay and replace with a set from a different year that fit without mods.
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You can go as new as 01 without any changes to your existing parts.
Any newer and you will have to start replacing other parts such as the triple clamps ect...
You can get a nice used set of forks for about 150 delivered if your in the US.
Before you buy anything you might want to confirm that your existing setup is stock.
You would be surprised at how many front ends get swapped out.
You can verify with 3 dimensions.
Top clamping area of your fork should measure 54.9MM
Lower clamping area of your fork should measure 58.4MM
The chrome diameter should measure 46mm.
If you get different measurements, let me know what they are and I will help you figure out what you have.
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If you've never worked on the internals of suspension,then I would probably have to agree with KXDINO somewhat and get the Race Tech Bible.....I find it easier and better to have a buddy that HAS done it before to be by your side and walk you through it in case you make a mistake....a book won't catch a mistake...but an experienced extra set of eyes can.
Suspension was always one of the things I never cared to work on....I framed houses for a few years outa High School....I loved doing everything about it..except laying the sill starting a new house.....same with bikes...I love everything about working on them,except suspension....it's always been so much easier to ship it to FC with their 2 day turn around time and KNOW it's gonna be near spot on.
To put it in simple terms....I'd rather wash old peoples a$$holes.
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You can go as new as 01 without any changes to your existing parts.
Any newer and you will have to start replacing other parts such as the triple clamps ect...
You can get a nice used set of forks for about 150 delivered if your in the US.
Before you buy anything you might want to confirm that your existing setup is stock.
You would be surprised at how many front ends get swapped out.
You can verify with 3 dimensions.
Top clamping area of your fork should measure 54.9MM
Lower clamping area of your fork should measure 58.4MM
The chrome diameter should measure 46mm.
If you get different measurements, let me know what they are and I will help you figure out what you have.
Thanks man. I will def do that. This may sound like a stupid question but since those sound like such precise measurements, what should I be measuring with? I have a standard tape measurer. Should I get a metric one?
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If you've never worked on the internals of suspension,then I would probably have to agree with KXDINO somewhat and get the Race Tech Bible.....I find it easier and better to have a buddy that HAS done it before to be by your side and walk you through it in case you make a mistake.
Suspension was always one of the things I never cared to work on....I framed houses for a few years outa High School....I loved doing everything about it..except laying the sill starting a new house.....same with bikes...I love everything about working on them,except suspension....it's always been so much easier to ship it to FC with their 2 day turn around time and KNOW it's gonna be near spot on.
To put it in simple terms....I'd rather wash old peoples a$$holes.
That's how I've always felt about suspension too. I always wanted to just be able to adjust it but not take it apart lol. I wouldn't be completely opposed to learning it at some point, but I haven't decided if that will happen on this build or at some point in the future yet.
And for the record I will switch triple clamps to fit different forks but I don't want to have to modify too much else.
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I have no idea what this costs, but it seems like it would be the perfect cure all for me. I'd really like to just bolt a brand new works suspension on this bike. I may not, but the bike definitely deserves it. Hahah
http://www.rg3suspension.com/akit.htm
If I were to buy oem outer fork tubes and oem inner fork tubes/lower fork legs, that would cost just under $900 (crazy!!!!) and thats without any of the other parts, and set up for me.
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You can go as new as 01 without any changes to your existing parts.
Any newer and you will have to start replacing other parts such as the triple clamps ect...
You can get a nice used set of forks for about 150 delivered if your in the US.
Before you buy anything you might want to confirm that your existing setup is stock.
You would be surprised at how many front ends get swapped out.
You can verify with 3 dimensions.
Top clamping area of your fork should measure 54.9MM
Lower clamping area of your fork should measure 58.4MM
The chrome diameter should measure 46mm.
If you get different measurements, let me know what they are and I will help you figure out what you have.
Thanks man. I will def do that. This may sound like a stupid question but since those sound like such precise measurements, what should I be measuring with? I have a standard tape measurer. Should I get a metric one?
You need something to measure the Diameter, not the circumference.
Although you could convert the diameter to circumference.
If your not comfortable with the math you can use this chart:
http://www.onlineconversion.com/circlesolve.htm (http://www.onlineconversion.com/circlesolve.htm)
Plug in the diameter, click on solve others, and it will show you the Circumference, ect
I think it would be too hard to use a tape measure but hey, give it a try :-)
I use something like these:
(http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/A0U0_129768766698701171YoJqzYUgfK.jpg)
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I have no idea what this costs, but it seems like it would be the perfect cure all for me. I'd really like to just bolt a brand new works suspension on this bike. I may not, but the bike definitely deserves it. Hahah
http://www.rg3suspension.com/akit.htm
If I were to buy oem outer fork tubes and oem inner fork tubes/lower fork legs, that would cost just under $900 (crazy!!!!) and thats without any of the other parts, and set up for me.
ha...yeah but did you call for pricing on those RG3's...you might not wanna know :x
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Unless you plan on competing on a national level you can have your forks revalved and sprung for your weight and riding conditions and it will be more than most will ever be able to use.
Not to mention it will be far less expensive then a new after market set.
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I have no idea what this costs, but it seems like it would be the perfect cure all for me. I'd really like to just bolt a brand new works suspension on this bike. I may not, but the bike definitely deserves it. Hahah
http://www.rg3suspension.com/akit.htm
If I were to buy oem outer fork tubes and oem inner fork tubes/lower fork legs, that would cost just under $900 (crazy!!!!) and thats without any of the other parts, and set up for me.
ha...yeah but did you call for pricing on those RG3's...you might not wanna know :x
No I did not. I'm guessing it's well over $3000 conservatively estimating. Probably somewhere around 5k like the pro-circuit ones.
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Unless you plan on competing on a national level you can have your forks revalved and sprung for your weight and riding conditions and it will be more than most will ever be able to use.
Not to mention it will be far less expensive then a new after market set.
No chance of competing or interest in competing on a national level. This is a hobby and my favorite thing to do. Everything else on the bike is going to look like NEW, I can't have chewed up forks on the bike. So it's either aftermarket or oem. And if oem is as expensive as I think it will be, I'd rather just go aftermarket. Are there any cheaper aftermarket brands?
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not sure if it was already mentioned....but you could get them refinished and anodized to look like new...kinda half-a$$in it...but it's another option.
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not sure if it was already mentioned....but you could get them refinished and anodized to look like new...kinda half-a$$in it...but it's another option.
Lot's and lot's of stickers :-)
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not sure if it was already mentioned....but you could get them refinished and anodized to look like new...kinda half-a$$in it...but it's another option.
I considered that but there are some chips in the outer fork tubes and lower fork legs. I couldn't just throw a nice coating over a flaw/blemish like that. It's kinda like the band-aid method. And since I'm going so far with the rest of the rebuild, I really can't skimp in any area.
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not sure if it was already mentioned....but you could get them refinished and anodized to look like new...kinda half-a$$in it...but it's another option.
Lot's and lot's of stickers :-)
Haha....I think I pee'd myself a lil reading that :?
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For Brand new OEM gold forks the entire set would cost me $1365.41
I paid 1k for the bike lol. fml.
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since sandblaster knows his years, and says that your bike will only accept up to 20XX forks, then you're left with 2 options:
- buy used forks, why havent you mentioned this yet? you can buy 2000 era forks in good shape for DIRT cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-KAWASAKI-KX250-KX-250-FRONT-FORKS-1999-2001-2002-KX125-/120977969091?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c2ad94fc3&vxp=mtr
-retrofit your bike with some later year forks. this is going to cost your newer used forks (i have 2009 forks i'm trying to get rid of, and they are going for about 500$ on ebay ive seen).
but this is going to cost you some work, first you'll have to measure your new tubes and get your trees bored out to accept them. then hopefully the offset and trail matches up.
this way is going to cost you a fair amount of time and i dont even know if it will work.
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since sandblaster knows his years, and says that your bike will only accept up to 20XX forks, then you're left with 2 options:
- buy used forks, why havent you mentioned this yet? you can buy 2000 era forks in good shape for DIRT cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-KAWASAKI-KX250-KX-250-FRONT-FORKS-1999-2001-2002-KX125-/120977969091?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c2ad94fc3&vxp=mtr
-retrofit your bike with some later year forks. this is going to cost your newer used forks (i have 2009 forks i'm trying to get rid of, and they are going for about 500$ on ebay ive seen).
but this is going to cost you some work, first you'll have to measure your new tubes and get your trees bored out to accept them. then hopefully the offset and trail matches up.
this way is going to cost you a fair amount of time and i dont even know if it will work.
No point in doing used forks. I have them already. The point is that I want new ones lol. Any I find online aren't going to be in much better shape than mine enough to make the difference I want. I'm seriously considering just getting the oem fork setup for $1300 and then oem shock cylinder for $300ish, then getting springs for my weight/setup for me.
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It will sure look nice.
Post some pics.
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For Brand new OEM gold forks the entire set would cost me $1365.41
I paid 1k for the bike lol. fml.
that's ok...I paid $1500 for my K5 2 years ago...and in the 1st week I dropped $2200 on new OEM parts...and now 2 years later I'm up around $9500-$10K with all the little things I've done to it......and there's members on here that can put my numbers to shame!
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For Brand new OEM gold forks the entire set would cost me $1365.41
I paid 1k for the bike lol. fml.
that's ok...I paid $1500 for my K5 2 years ago...and in the 1st week I dropped $2200 on new OEM parts...and now 2 years later I'm up around $9500-$10K with all the little things I've done to it......and there's members on here that can put my numbers to shame!
Good to hear! Now I won't feel so bad by spending more than it was worth brand new lol
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i thought you said yours were torn up. why dont you just refinish them, or find some better used parts and replace yours. it will get you 90% to new OEM quality but a couple hundred bucks tops compared to 1300.
you could powdercoat the lugs, get legs rechromed, and re anodize the top tubes. that will look new.
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I would upload pics but it won't let me under additional options.
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you can upload them to tinypic.com, then just copy/paste the links in your msg.
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The first pic is what I call the "inner/lower fork tube", please correct me if I'm wrong. It is in great shape and I don't want to replace it if I don't have to.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2is8f2o.jpg)
This second photo is of the fork leg?, the dull grey metal part on the bottom of the forks that the axle goes through and connects to the hubs. As you cans see, it's a little scuffed up. I would hate to just throw powder on top of those nasty scuffs, but if that can be smoothed, I will definitely keep these. It appears that they don't sell these parts on their own on OEM sites. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't seem to separate from the chrome tubes they are attached to.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/692dzo.jpg)
This 3rd photo is of the outer/upper fork tubes. As you can see in the photo there are some chips in the metal of the tubes. I don't see how this can be fixed, and I wouldn't spend good money anodizing these damaged tubes. That kind of seems like a band-aid fix to me. You tell me, but my opinion is that they need to be replaced altogether. Not because they aren't functional. They are fully functional. But to give me that fresh looking aesthetic that I am going for with this rebuild.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/214731f.jpg)
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for 13 year old forks. those look pretty darn good to me!
the legs (chrome part) look to be in great shape, thats what usually takes the rock chips, so youre in luck there.
the lugs (part axle goes thru). doesnt seem to bad either. look at enduro riders fork lugs, those things get mangled due to hitting rocks and stuff.
the lugs DO come off the fork legs, but they are usually on there with a compound similar to red loctite (dont want to come off easy).
upper tubes look ok except for those rock chips you have shown.
my advice was to find a used set on ebay and piece them together with the parts you want to replace. granted, it will take a bit of time to find a great condition set possibly.
you could probably get those lugs removed and take them to an aluminum polisher and work a lot of those scratches out and make them unnoticeable
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check this set out.
looks brand new almost.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-Kawasaki-KX250-KX-250-Forks-Front-Suspension-Fork-99-00-01-/290899330807?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43baf386f7&vxp=mtr
i bought a kx5 engine thru this guy. Mike is a cool dude.
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Dude that set looks ridiculous! Thanks for sharing. I just hit Mike up on email. Maybe I'll grab that set. Kinda looks perfect for what I'm doing.
If I grab those, I'll just flip mine on ebay and whatever the price difference is I'm sure will be under $100. That's a pretty small price to pay for getting the condition parts I want when compared to the other options we discussed.
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I bought those bad boys. I had to. They were in too good of condition to pass up. Thanks for the heads up. Because of you I spent over $200 bucks today, but you also saved me about $1,000 because they look in almost oem brand new condition. I'll give a report back when I get them.
Then I tackle the rear shock haha!