Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RACE TEST KTM200MIXC Almo t By Cameron Coatney Pho tos by Grumpy and Bill Trev ino y brother and I have been raein g th e Adelanto G ra nd Pri x fo r alm o st 10 yea rs n o w i n so me form or. a nothe r, a nd we di g it. Or ... ah ... let me say I kno w [ dig it. He kee ps sho wi ng u p every yea r, but at this point I'm beg inn ing to wonde r why . He has to have the longest string of bad -luck DNFs going than an yone in the h istory o f th e race's 18 yea rs of existen ce. He has fouled pl ugs on the line, forgo tte n gogg les, see n his countershaft sprocket come off, lost his seat, ru n over a guy off of the infamous water ju mp and he' s blown so many bikes up tha t I' ve nicknam ed him Ju liu s "Sei zer." And (as if I even had to tell you ) th is year was a real trea t fo r him again which so me how relates to me racing the KTM 200M/XC, I swear. Adelan to is a high-s peed, balls- tothe-walls, WFO, ninth-gear-pin ned kind of course. If you're no t gea red and jetted to the moon, you mig ht as well go home b e fore yo u ge t s moked or certai n ly seize. Here's a synopsis of the rou te : Start your bike from a dea d start wi th at leas t 200 other lunatics, race down Main Street, tum right , go 90 m p h for eight .miles on choppy roa ds wit h curb-siz ed sq uare edges, (oh yea h, do n't forget to turn once in a while), wallow a ro u nd over sandy whoops, and charge down a few m or e stre e t sectio ns . Eve n tua lly, yo u tu rn left and head into th e 2-mile motocro ss cou rse, jump the water hole (if yo u th ink you can even ho ld on by this point) - and repea t four times. The s tee ring damper was surely in vented because of races like this. The Unclassified race is the first race of th e w e ekend a n d , as the nam e implies, it's a free-for-all that most people - m yself included - use as a tuning or pre-run session. My brother wanted to rid e, a nd I (thi nking th at he ' d su re ly br eak in his race the next day) offered up a p repped YZ125 to have some fun on - the bike I plan ned on rid ing in the 0-175cc class la ter in the day (wh ich was really the 0-200cc class; we'll ge t to it, I swear). Need less to say, he seized my jetted a nd -gea red -up-wi th-a -brand- new-piston YZ125 in tw o m ile s, a nd nearl v made me crash on the second lap as my head sp un around at 90 mph when I did a double tak e, realizing that his vood oochild lu ck had d on e so me th ing evil to the bike I needed to ride in two hours. Th e cv li n der wa s toas t, and I endured ' a few ch uc k les from Ty Davis and his mechanic when the y sa id they would hav e sanded down a new piston or used a clapped-out one before they'd use a new piston at Ad elanto - bein g pinned for tw o minutes at a time does some weird things to new pistons. And they were even runnin g stock jetting in their YZ125 (on race gas) . Anyw ay , I thought m y day was done until KTM ca me to my rescue . They offered me a bik e to rid e - a 200 M/X C. (I told you we'd get back to it.) I was all set. Eric Hjal marson and the boys a t the KTM pits fueled me up, set the sag (35mm static) , adj usted th e alu minum bars, kicked the tires, and I was set to go to the line . M The bike I was to ride was modi fied s ligh tly for Adelanto - ma inl y jetting a nd gea ri ng , of course. KTM replace d the stock 50-toot h rear sprocket for a 42 (that's right - a 42, which is p roba bly smaller than the rear d isk), which would ena ble the bik e to top ou t a t over 80 mph - just what the doctor ord ered for Ad ela nto . Su rprisi ngly, the stock 180 main jet was re tained in th e Ke ih in 39 m m carb (we were using ra ce gas, though), the stock NIEH (3) needle was repla ced with a leaner NOZH (2) needle in a n even lean er p os it ion , w hil e the stock 45 pilot was also re tained. I sig ned u p fo r th e 0-2 00cc Exp ert class, which meant I was trying to compet e with the likes of Montclair Yamaha' s Ty Davis (YZl25), KTM's Russ Pears on (KTM 125) an d Er ic Hallgath (KTM 200), Vos bu rg KTM' s Mik e H ea ly (KTM 125), The KTM 200 MlXC is a very compet itive bike to ride In the Q-200cc class due to it s lig ht weight and 250-lIke power. and Team Green riders Steve Hen gevel d and Dan a Van Stee (KXl 25s), among the man y ot he r spe edy desert and GP crazies on hand . As I pulled into the second ro w of the two-row Expe rt start, I was reminded by the sight of these afo rementioned rid ers that I was in jus t a bit over my head. But hey, "I'm almost cheati ng," I thought. "Mos t of these guys (excep t Hallga th) are on 125s; I wond er if I can get the holeshot from the seco nd row?" In-gea r starts were no problem at all fo r th e KTM ' s hvd rau lic clu tch and fiv e-speed ' transm is si on, but I s till pla yed it s afe and had th e clutch e ngage d and the -- ---- bi ke in gear when I shu t it down for the last time before the bann er dropped. This ens u res th at th e clutch pl ates are not en tire ly ca ked with oil and stuck together wh en you need them to spin freely as you kick over the bike . Wh en th e banner d ropped , I hammered the lever and spun away to what I co uld figure was a top-10 start from the back row , d od gin g bikes that didn't fire up on the first row and slower Mini .Exp erts. I managed to beat Davis int o the first corne r, bu t it was n' t because of anythin g I d id ; it was beca use his YZ re fused to fire on the first, second or third kick . It d id n't ma tter - he passed . me within a few hundred va rds of the first turn and motored to ~ convincing win in the class ov er Healey, Ha llga th, Pearson and Hengeveld . Notice that I wasn' t in the top five, or even the top 10 for that matt er (that was my secre t goal) , but I did manage to get 13th in th e class (an d th at was prett y dam close). I pu t in fourhard laps on a bike that I had never rid de n before and came away vcry impressed wi th its performance. Th e 200 is definitely fas ter than any of the 1255 out there, fro m the top of the po werband to the bottom. It' s al most as fas t as a fu ll-on 250. Dow n any of the stree t or lon ger road sections, the M/ XC wou ld pu ll away from 125s and the few lapper KDX200s I encoun tered on the course. I had fu ll co nfidencc in thc 45mm Mar zocchi conve ntional for ks that come on the 200M/XC becau se they were one of m y fa vorite fo r ks ever wh en they cam e standard on KTMs in '95 an d '96. (50m 01 WP forks come standa rd on the r est of th e M X a nd off- roa d lin eup, w hile the 125 also ge ts the 45mm 'Zoke.) I d on't m ind -th e ex tra flex associated with th em b e cau s e I rea ll y likc th e plushness, contro l and good resista nce to bo ttoming th e for ks offe r, and thi s pair was no differen t. I was, however, slig htly conce rn ed th at th e n ew Iinkagel ess Pr ogressi ve Damping Sys tem WP shock would be a littl e harsh.on the tho usa nds of sq uare edges that invade Adelanto every yea r, but I ple a santl y fou nd th at co nce rn unwarranted. Whil e the motocross models (the SX line) are known to be slightly harsh in the initial part of the tra vel and have an ex cellen t res istance to harsh bottoming, th e o ff-roa d- m od el KTMs (E/ XC and M /XC mod els ) come with softer spring ra tes a nd revi sed valving that makes the shock more plush in the initial part of the travel. And the bottoming resistan ce is still very good .with these settings. Out on th e co u rse, th e suspensi on did an excellent job of gobbling up the squa re edges and holes that can rip your hands off the bars in a n instant at Ad elanto . While doubling, tripling and even quadding huge sand whoops at 70 mph (b y a cci d en t, most of th e ti me ), y ou learn a lo t abou t how a bike ha ndles, and the 200 M/XC took the big G-out hits very we ll, refusing to squirm and pop ou t of ho les sideways even wit h a r id er on bo ard th at p robably required the usc of heavier springs. Some head shake was expe rienced, but every rider and b ike that even man aged to make a qu art er of a lap felt so me head sh ake at Adelanto. Agai n, the s tee ri ng d am p er was s urely crea ted

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