Hi guys,

Im new to the klx game and have only owned my bike for 3 months. In that time i thought the bike was unbelievable, all until my first trail ride with my friends. My friends have the usual CRF250's, YZ250's and similar type more motocross based bikes, and boy did they leave me eating there dust. Some of the big, steep hills really troubled me, with momentum really being the key. My friends were easily able to power up, some even in second gear, but my poor '06' KLX250 really bogged down in first and left me really working the clutch, jus barely being able to crawl to the top. Im ashamed to admit that after only having the bike 3 months, i am considering putting it on the market. I've been down to my local kawasaki dealer (where i purchased the bike) and has convinced me to go with the 300 kit, with a rejetted carb and an exhaust system. I was just hoping someone can give me some insight to whether this option is worthwhile, or whether i cut my loses and by something similar to a KX??? I dont wanna be quicker than my mates, just wanna be at a closer more competitive pace. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Nick from Australia

 

Well nick the KLX250 is not the fastest bike in the shed but it was not made to do that. it all depends on what you want to do with your bike. if you want it to be a cool suped up trail bike but still get back onto the road and cruise. then do these mods to your bike.

-Go to www.planetklx.com and do the free mods you would be suprised to what it will do to your bike.
-Go to these sites and you can choose many members have put exhaust sytems on there bikes and have said how well it compliments the bikes power increase.
-http://www.biggunexhaust.com/
-http://www.fmfracing.com/home.asp
-There are a couple others but i do not know the internet adressess to them like the (Staine Tune exhaust) or the (HMF exhaust) some one will know.
-Then go and buy a pumper carb and that will really wake your bike up. you can go to
-www.fourstrokeworks.com and get one there
-Then if you really just want to put the bike over the limit and there have been a couple of people here that have done this mod you can put a bore kit in your bike. the two common ones would be the 300 kit or the big bore kit 331 and you can ask nobrakes about that he is the only one that i know of has done that sized bore. and then some guys have but a baja designs skid plate on there bike just for some added protection. you can type them into your search engine and you can find them.
-Last would be the larger tank if you wait a little bit there has been rumors that IMS will be making a bigger tank for the KLX250S but if you dont want to wait you can either get a IMS(KLX300R) tank or a Accerbis tank that goes onto a KLX300R the 300 and the 250 are the same. hope this helps sorry about the length. but you should have fun with your bike so dont sell it. and welcome to the forum. there is alot of cool poeple here that have a bunch of advice. remeber ride safe.

 

Welcome Nick, I would have to say that the first and cheapest mod you need to do is change the gearing from 14-42 to 13-45 or a 14-48 which is the same. The low end grunt I have on my bike is awesome. Of course the jetting and larger exhaust is also a performance plus as well. Again welcome and don't be a stranger....well at least no stranger than the rest of us.

 

I re-read your post, well actually finished it this time, and I'm not knocking the 300 kit, do the gear change then ride it again, then get the bike jetted and put a pipe on it. You will be amazed at the difference. I had mine jetted to 132 and 40 along with the Full Muzzy pipe and air box lid off.but there are a few other pipes out there now, so its you're choice. Don't give up on this awesome little machine. I mean listen I am 6-1 and weigh in at 230-240 depending on what time of day it is, and my bike with the few mods I have done has to me twice the power it had when new. Good luck.[8D]

I just wanted to put this picture in somewhere and since its getting late here it is.

 

Same set-up as Deej, but I am running 14/45. What he said is what you need to make this bike a blast. Youll be well pleased with the results, no power house but no schlub either. And yes I did just make up a word.

 

KLX Nick.

I pretty much agree with what Iowa is saying exceptone part is inaccurate.

The '40HP' he speaks of is not rear wheel HP as measured ona dyno. There's a big difference. For intance, Kawasaki Japan pusblishes28HP for the KLX250 but that is measured at the engine countershaft, not the rear wheel. The measured rear wheel HP is AT LEAST 8HP less. That's about a 30% loss through the drive train.

Applying that to the CRF250, the rear wheel HP should be around 28hp. Nobrakes just did a dyno run on his 331cc set-up and got 27 rear wheel HP. The CRF250 is lighter, but another thing to consider is that Nobrake's bike is definitely cranking-out more low-end torque than the CRF. That makes the 331cc KLX a very formidable trail bike, that can run with a CRF, YZ or RM, as long as you stick to the trails and have equal skills. The MX bikewill KILL you on a motocross circuit though.

 

Thanks for all the insight guys, im still unsure of what to do as i dont know anyone that has a KLX250 with all the works you mention done, i'd really love to take one for a spin before i spend my hard earned.

At the end of the day i love my bike. I'm not worried about flat, straight line speed beause we all know that out in the bush theres not much of the stuff and if we do end up on a wide open fire trail, everyone generally cruises and trys to regain there breath. I'm still worried about the big hill climbs though. With the bigger hill climbs momentum is the key, and thats what i dont have at the moment. Hopefully with the mods listed the hill climbs will become a piece of cake and my KLX willbe poweringuptwice as long as all my friends MX bikes will last.

Thanks very muchly

 

put the 13 tooth front sprocket on to start. It will be very little time and money invested, if the bike starts to feel better the other mods will further enhance it. If you still don't think it will ever be what you want you won't have a lot of money in wraped up.

 

That's excellent advice.

Also, all of the basic mods like drilling the exhaust baffle re-jetting the carb, removing the snorkleanddrilling out the oil breather at the airbox cost a litle bit of nothing, but will make the engine a much more willing partyduring your hill climbs and trail rides. Good luck.