Awww, the island, land of very moist roots n rocks! I live in the Lower Mainland but off-road in the Shuswap, the land of the dry rocks and surprisingly grippy dirt.
These are both excellent places to hone riding skills, both fast and technical.

As for mods, we bought the bike with the DJ carb kit installed/FMF slip on/airbox lid removed. After riding that honking goose I re-installed the air box lid. I will tinker with the jetting a bit as it has the 132MJ installed and we may be a bit rich for 1,300 - 7,000' elevation. The bike is fairly noisy with the slip-on but tractors at fairly low rpm up steeper hills nicely, 1/3 to 1/2 throttle with no sign of bogging due to fuelling issues.

Surprisingly (to me) it really doesn't make much power in the mid rpm and upper range and I've found that short-shifting seems to work best....which is a little like my DRZ400. The KLX is my wife's bike and I'm trying to teach her the art of lofting the front wheel over drainage/erosion ditches and other obstacles. I'm sure this isn't going to be easy with the KLX. Maybe the big bore cylinder would make this a lot easier? There is nothing quite like a healthy dose of wheel-lofting torque for fast narrow-track riding. So far, she is VERY happy with the KLX, quite an improvement over her previous 2010 XT250.

 

^^nice, I also have a klx400, but I might sell or trade it for a klr/Dr/xr 650 to use on multi day,long range adventuring whereas the 250 will be used for commuting and local over nighters and day trips.
My 2004 klx400


Cheers��

 

So for my reject..
Sea level-2500f
3-10degc, higher humidity, Pacific Northwest
Mods;hindle exhaust, remove backfire screen and snorkel.
My intended jetting...
132 DJ main
Stock pilot
DJ slide spring, or should I drill out the vacuum port???
Dynojet needle on suggested notch.(3rd notch with shims) Should that be good or should I go up or down??
I'll tune the AF screw once plug is drilled out, what is the factory setting??
Why do people drill out the pilot jet?? What does that gain??

Thanks this site is awesome for info on these machines!!

Cheers

 

From my Dyno testing, if you follow the directions for Stage 2 but with the #132, you will be a little lean at sea level and a little rich at 2500ASL - That's with the lid off and the aftermarket silencer on - and you will end up with a great running bike. I have no idea what you'll get using drills,lids, and air screw settings outside what stage 2 specifies.

 

Matty,
It's virtually impossible to get things spot on for you based on someone else's jetting setup, so be careful there. The 132 may work for some, but it was too rich for me with both the 250 and 351.

What DJ kit you use will determine if you use a new slider spring or drill out the vacuum port slightly. I used the #2206 DJ kit because it was the only one available at the time and it worked, so I drilled.

The factory AF settings on the fuel screw aren't always identical, but typically around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 turns out. Try somewhere around 2 turns out as a starting point. Then read up on jetting techniques if you really want to get it right.

We don't drill out the pilot jet. We drill out the enricher (choke) jet but only for hard to start bikes. They are not all hard to start. If yours already starts easy enough (choke or no choke), don't mess with it. IIRC, we typically drill out to 0.018" which is just slightly larger than the stock size and lets just a little more fuel through into the motor. Here in another month or two, as the weather cools, the forum will see a whole new slew of "my KLX won't start" threads and you'll see a range of recommendations from drilling the enrichment jet to learning Deej's startup dance.


edit: By the way, which slip-on in the pic? It looks like my old HMF with the tag ripped off.

 

Matty, I'll report what I find in the carb, but that won't be till some time over the winter...we ride for now! I suspect the 132 is a little rich, but the 'tractoring' is a nice feature for the wife. Id like to get a 128 or so in there and improve the starting, which varies unpredictably from terrific to crankily-crank-crank.

I have to defer to the very helpful members of this site with so much more experience tweaking these engines. My DRZ runs like jack-the-bear from idle to mid range to top end up in the interior, but I've never ridden it down here at the coast.

That is a very fine looking DRZ....er KLX....er DRZ in green. Mine has more than a few scars....well earned and well deserved. Its life is almost off-road and has made me feel like J.N. Roberts at times. (look him up!)

 

The main jet should have little to no affect on starting. Or are you saying you want to try a 128 AND make some other efforts to improve starting?

Another measure to improve starting is to drain the carb bowl and refill before starting. Before drilling the enricher, I would shut off the petcock about .15 miles from my house on the ride home. The carb bowl wouldn't be empty, but turning on the petcock before cranking would put some fresh fuel in there and help. Or, tip the bike on its side and let some fuel drain out. Or, press/pull on the bars and bounce the front end up and down while cranking.

 

Thanks, very good post, my DJ kit is numbered 2152, the only difference vs the 2206 I can see is the 2206 supplies a drill to enlarge the vacuum port on the slide and the 2152 uses a lighter slide spring. I was wondering what was better? I'm sure it's subjective....

My bike doesn't have starting issues at the time but winter is coming so we will see. I just didn't know why folks were drilling out the starter jet???

I think I'll start with the 132 main, I'll bump down a size if I have to. I have some expeierance tuning 2 strokes, will the A/f screw adjust the same?? Screwing in richens, screwing out leans??

The silencer in the pic is the hindle slip on I picked up for $50 I'm polishing it up and refinished the mid pipe....I can't wait!!!!

 

Yes, 2 issues, I would like to try the 128 and I was wondering why, when HOT, it will sometimes crank for a while before firing ....or it may fire immediately, especially if the throttle isn't touched. I guess it seems a little inconsistent when warm.

The wife falls flat a few times each ride, usually slow speed tip overs and I probably score a few points picking the bike up off her. The KLX almost always starts immediately after these 'events'....when I would sorta expect an issue. The tip over on Sunday was within 300' and 5 minutes of spotting what must have been the longest cougar in the world. Someone once said to show a cougar no fear and we certainly did that!

 

What's with all of the bling???? Just bolt that ***** on and get dirty!