Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127680
:R .IN .'P E S N' 1995 Kawasaki KDX200 ID .G:IM R S IO '." . '. - . By Kit Palmer Photos by Chris Jonnum t was bou n d to ha ppen . Th e Ka wa sa ki KDX200 ha s galien serious.. . really serious. Wh at was perhaps the most us erfriendly and most easily ada ptable offroad bike ever made - the KDX200 - has now crossed the boundary into a full-on, full-race off-road dirt bike. Th is bec o mes es pecia lly evi den t when you look at the KDX's new frame. The previou s skeleton was put in the closet for a more mode m and more rigid perim eter structure, one that is nearly identical to that used in the Kawasaki KX125 and 250cc MXers. Kawasaki claims the new box-section and tubular, high-tensile steel perimeter frame is 24% stronger than its predecessor - we'll just have to take their word for it on that one - and a ne w geometry is designed to give the '95 KDX even quicker turning abilities than before. Now for the bad news . Alon g w ith the new perimeter frame comes a new seat height - 36.2 inches to be exact, and that's almost a full half-inch taller than before. One of the KDX's biggest assets in the past was its non-intimidating low seat heigh t. Nearl y anyone could plant both feet finnly on the ground while not in motion, which not only gave the rider a more confidence inspiring feeling but helped out immensely while padd ling over rough ground, like over big rocks and th ro u gh deep wate r crossings. Okay, a hall an inch might not seem like a whole lot, but for many, it can mean th e di ffe rence between successfully crossing a rocky stream or tipping the bike over and drowning out the engine. The new KDX, however, is slightly narrower than before which perhaps helps alleviate the prob lem somewhat. None of our testers who rode the KDX are under six feet tall, though, so the taller seat height wasn't a problem. In fact, we welcomed the extra 0.4 inches with outstretched arms. As far as the narrower profile, well, one tester liked the narro wer seat , while another preferred the .wider cushion of the older KDX. The perimeter frame has wh at we feel is another major drawback - there is less room for the fuel cell, which is now tightly squee zed-in between the frame's two upper spars. The 1994 KDX held 3.2 gallons, the '95 2.9 gallons . Ouch! That's a pretty big difference, especially for an off-road bike. Another big change for the KDX is the swap from an in verted fork to a "conventional" fork, which is held in place by new cast aluminum upper and forged aluminum lower triple clamps. However, the new fork isn't as conventional as the word might suggest. Instead, it's a big 43mm top-of-the-line Kayaba cartridge unit with 16-way compression damping setti ngs. The main difference between the two designs inverted versus conventional - is that the upside design has virtually no flex or give. Okay, so Jeremy McGrath might not want floppy forks when landing off the triple jumps, but how many tripl es did you see in your last enduro? Plus, we're sure that you had plenty of excuses for not high-pointing' the last enduro (we know we did) , but we can bet that fork flex wasn't one of them . 9 The new KDX200 loves the roc ks, but som e people mi ght not like the KDX's taller seat helgh L To compensate for the extra han Inch, the seat Is slgnfficantly more narrow. Despite all the cha nges. the new KDX sti ll feels like a KDX - only better.