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/127964
(Above) Race -ready right ou t o f the crate . (Left ) A red esigned WP shoc k makes all the difference in t he wo rld . (Below) The 193cc motor p ro duc es good , usa ble power. Very little was sacrificed in the way of overall shock strength to achieve tha t extra rush in the ini tial part of travel. It takes a nasty G-out or whoo p to ge t the b a ck en d to b ot to m , a n d e ven t he n yo u' ll feel jus t a slight thump. You can eve n charge quite hard into a section of whoops a nd feel rela ti vel y co nfi d en t that th e b ack en d wo n't swap to th e sides. A truly scary swap is a ra re occurrence on the 200; the bike is so ligh t and nimbl e tha t it's easy to make minor corrections to ga ther things back in when the situation gets a littl e hairy . Up front, KTM mad e the usual sma ll valving changes to the WP 50mm conv en tio na l-s ty le fo r k, a nd we' re okay with that, since we had no com plaints wit h las t yea r's ('98) fork. The '99 fork works just as well. As d id all of KTM ' s ' 99 tw o-strok e mod els, th e 200 E/ XC took on a .new engine reed-bl ock assembly, fea tu ri ng dual, tw o-peta l. horizonta l-vane ree ds. Th e id ea was t o improv e thro t t le response. The only other alte ration to the 193cc, water-cooled motor was a change of the Koku san ign iti on ' s a dva nce curv e , which KTM claims im p roves pow er d elivery in the middle of th e p owerband. It was a little ha rd to tell whether or not these relativ ely mino r changes to the motor di d what they were su pposed to, since we d id not have a '98 mod el to compare with directly , but we d o know that th e ' 99 200 E /XC manufactures unblemi shed power from top to bottom . It st ill mi g ht n ot have th at torquey, tria ls-like gru nt off the bottom like the Kawasaki KD'x 200 , but it does ha ve enoug h d ow n low to get the job d on e and enough in the middle and top to run away fro m the KDX and riv al any 250cc end uro bike . Sim p ly put, the 200 E/XC makes good, usab le power. Pre tty much the only othe r perfor mance-min ded change that KTM made to t h e E / XC w a s to th e r ea r brak e. Aga in, just like its brot her s and sisters, the 200 got a scaled -down rear brake. KTM went to slightly sma ller pis tons on th eir rear- bra ke systems wi th the hop e of increasing feel and decreasing rear-w heel lockup. We can' t honestly say that KTM accom p lish ed th eir goal with the 200 beca use we still experienced a number of engi ne sta lls on the bike - mor e so th an on t he Hu s qvarna TE610 fo u rstro ke that we review elsewhere in thi s iss u e. Luckily, sta lli ng the 200' s en gine isn ' t a major penalty since - a lot of the time you can quickly flip out the kick lever and fire 'er back up befo re you stop rolling. Try that on the Hu sky. Although KTM did not make a lo t of changes to th e '9 9 200 E/XC, they did make all of the right changes, the most notabl e being to the new WP shock. It now d ances over the rocks and ro ots wi th ease, a nd when the tra il suddenly changes direction behi nd a bu sh or tree, all you ha ve to d o is flick the handl e- . b ars and the n im bl e 200 res pon d s w it ho ut ques tion . It goes where it's pointed. A slight tug on the bars and a qu ick blip of the throttle will also get you and the 220-plus-pound KTM ov er alm ost a ny o bs tacl e in you r path. We ran the 200 thro ugh so me tight, slow-going trails and never lost the use of the hyd raulically opera ted clutch or any coolant along the way. After pu tting some time on the 200 E/XC again, we are remi nded just why the 200 E/XC has become one of KTM's best sellers. We liked this bike th e -first time we rode it w he n it firs t came ou t about a yea r and a half ago, and we like i t even mo re n o w . It s li g ht weig h t , strong powerpl ant, excellent sus pens ion and solid handling make the 200 a go od, a ll- a ro u nd off-r oa d ma chine that w e wou ld n' t h esit ate to trai l-rid e or rac e anywhere at anytime. On ce aga in, KTM h a s really o u tn d on e itself . 1999 KTM 200 sxc Specifications KTM Sportmotorcycles USA Inc .. 930 Fesler St ., EI Cajon. California. 920'20 Engine Liquid-ccole d. _ two-st roke. single Displacement . . .. . . ... .. • . .. .193cc Bore" stroke 64 x 60mm Carburetor Keihin pw K 39mm Transmission 6-speed Final drive 14:48 Clutch Hydraulic Ignition Kokusan digital 2K-3 Mainframe Chrome-moly Subframe Aluminum Importer Suspension Front WP Extreme 50mm _ WP-PDS single shock Re ar Wheel travel Front 11.23 in. Rea r 12.61 in. B rakes Front .Disc, 260mm Rear _ Disc. 220mm T ires Front Bridgestone 90 / 90-21 in. Bridgestone 120/90 -18 in. Re ar Wheelbase 57.5 in. 36.44 in. S eat h eight Ground c learance 14.96 in. 3.2 gal. Fu el ca pacity .211.2 Ibs. C laimed dry weight MSRP $5448 00 0\ 0\ ,..-; "", ' ,..-; l-< Q) ..n o .... u o 45