TWO-STROKE TUESDAY: 1988 KDX200 REBUILD

A Ron Lawson completely rebuilt 1988 KDX200 is on display for this weeks Two-Stroke Tuesday brought to you by Boyesen. We packed 2-Stroke Theater full of Kawasaki project bikes from the past and don’t miss 2-Stroke hardware for information on the upcoming MTA Two-Stroke Championship! KX 2-Stroke faithful don’t miss the exclusive link to our 2004 KX250 project at the bottom of this post.

This 1988 KDX200 was about nine month process. It all began when Ron Lawson decided he wanted to ride the ISDE in a proposed vintage class. Ron found a semi-running ’88 Kawasaki KDX on Craigslist for $425 and started work. What followed was a long period of frustration and dead ends that included the bike blowing up at the Adelanto GP in February. People like Bud Matto of Matto Cycle, Kristin Anderson of Dubya and Jeff Fredette have helped a lot. Parts and expertise are harder to find than we expected. Can you believe DG still makes a pipe for this machine?Seat concepts used our stock pan and rebuilt the foam. The cover is designed for another motorcycle but they did a great job making it work on our KDX.

The crew at Dubya offer custom wheel rebuilding for older machines that aftermarket versions might not be available for. They take your original hub, inspect it, clean it up and then apply a ceramic coating called Cerakote. New stainless steel spokes are made from scratch, and then the wheels are laced up to the rims of your choosing from their catalog.

The KDX200 build turned out way better than we expected. It took lots of late nights in the garage but the finished product is well worth it.

2-STROKE HARDWARE

2-Stroke lovers you don’t want to miss this! The MTA Two-Stroke Championship will have classes for everyone to race no matter age or skill level. The 125cc Pro Class features a $1000 purse and the open class purse is expected to be over $6000.