Teaching your teenage daughter how to wrench

seavoyage

seavoyage

grunt n00b
Teaching my teenage daughter how to wrench

School's out for summer and my teenage daughter was looking for a project to keep her occupied:

  1. find a bike on Craigslist for under $1K;
  2. disassemble and inspect all the major components; and
  3. rebuild the bike from the ground up.
Here's the Craiglist find she chose for her project: KTM200MXC

Photo+2013-06-07+10.41.16+AM.jpg

Inspection: absolutely filthy, maybe last washed 3-years ago. Engine runs first kick hot or cold, smooth shifting through all gears. Magura clutch OK, no clutch drag/slip. Brembo Brakes OK. Radiators, and plumbing are fine but need coolant replaced. No cracks in frame. DID rims straight and true. Tires need replacement. Missing kick stand spring and exhaust/silencer rubber. Throttle rubber cover ripped, Seat cover rip and covered with duct tape.

Aftermarket items: Acerbis hand guards, Acerbis large capacity gas tank, E-line CF pipe guard and rear disc protector, Works Connection frame guards, Devol radiator guard, Devol skid plate, Pro-Taper fat bar (CR Hi-bend) and Scotts bar risers, Galfer Wave brake rotors, Renthal sprockets, Guts racing seat.

Identified replacement items after dis-assembly and inspection: kick start spring, countersprocket oil seal, fork seals, wheel bearings, a front spoke. Seized rear axle needs to be polished and greased. Brakes need to be bled. Faded and cracked plastic. Exhaust pipe dented and rusty. Seat cover. Miscellaneous rusted, mismatched or missing fasteners. Promptly put in a parts order to RockyMountain ATV MC and trolled eBay Motors for deals.

1-week later... She's now up to speed with every component and system of 2-stroke dirt bikes.

2013-06-16.jpg

Engine: Replaced piston-rings (Vertex). Used a wire brush and Naval Jelly to restore FMF Gnarly pipe w/ Turbine Core 2 SA. Replaced waterpump O-ring seals. Replaced counter shaft seal. Clutch friction plates were at 10%-50% wear; con-rod/crankshaft/clutch basket and hub/transmission inspection = OK. Cleaned and rebuild carburetor. Reed block was fine. Chain, sprockets, and brake rotors were OK.

Set Powervalve to Langston modification: http://motocross.transworld.net/100...-shares-some-speed-secrets-for-the-ktm-125sx/

Chassis: Quite a lot of corrosion control: After a thorough degrease and wash; Replaced all chassis bearing w/ All Balls (shock pivot, swing arm pivot, steering stem, F/R wheels); Replaced rusty fasteners. Note: the wheel spacers where seized to the wheel bearing - had to be cut out! Copious amounts of waterproof grease, anti-seize, WD-40, silicone grease, chain lube to lubricate every moving part and metal fastener. Replaced footpegs with IMS SuperStock footpegs.

Consumables: She learned how to manually mount the Dunlop MX51 Front and Rear tires using the ISDE technique. Replaced front and rear brake pads. Degreased and lube O-ring chain. Replaced air-filter (No-Toil). Replaced brake fluid and Magura clutch mineral oil. Running Shell Rotella T 15W40, Putoline Coolant, NGK Spark Plug.

Suspension: Revalved and changed springs on WP forks and rear shock. Thanks to Joel @ 707 Racing Suspension. The cartridges and valve stack shims were an absolute mess, and the fork seals were due for replacement. To achieve correct suspension sag for my daughter: changed fork springs, and changed rear shock progressive springs to linear rate.

Cosmetics: FX seat cover, shaved 2.5" off seat. Cleaned the plastic (razor blades and heat gun); taught my daughter to plastic weld to repair the cracks. I let her customize the bike graphics with decals left over from previous projects.

Thanks to neduro for the KTM setup tips: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66607

Lessons Learned:

  1. Chassis and wheel bearings are consumables: Most owners don't maintain and replace bearings. If the bearings have not been replaced in more than 2-years, odds are your wheel and rear suspension bearing need replacement.
  2. The piston, piston rings, and the clutch plates are consumables: Perform a compression and leak down test. Disassemble the top-end and clutch on every purchase of a used bike and inspect and replace all items beyond maximum tolerance limits.
  3. Suspension fluids need to be replaced frequently: Most owners don't adhere to the suspension maintenance schedule.
Break-in and function check: Saturday. Riding Sunday!

Post Ride Report: My daughter absolutely loves the bike. Needs jetting fine tuned for the 50:1 premix ratio she's running. Probably even softer suspension springs.
 
Last edited:
seavoyage

seavoyage

grunt n00b
FoolishMortal said:
Me first! :x

Great job with a nice project. What year is it and, if I may ask, what was the final cost of the project? :)
Click to expand...

Got the 2000 KTM200MXC donor for $900. A bit on the high end but still within the <$1K budget. Spent slightly over $300 on consumables and maintenance items. Bit the bullet for $795 in suspension work. I could have been cheap and called it quits at $1200, but a well sorted suspension pays off = less effort to ride.

Since we ride Trials, we feel this bike is quite an unwieldy pig... we'll test it out on some gnarly single track this weekend. I'll be on the chase vehicle on my GasGas EC300.

BTW - I still can't fathom how many riders insist on riding 450 4-strokes. I had a Husaberg FE450E, KTM450EXC, and Husqvarna TE450 in the past (rebuilt the KTM450EXC top-end): heavy and too much power, much more suited for desert racing a la Dakar ... I definitely prefer 2-strokes: so much simpler, lighter, and less expensive to maintain.
 
Last edited:
R1-Limited

R1-Limited

Banned
Man that is so cool, the best times with my daughter was working together on her XR, TTR and Raptor. Great moments and memories, you will cherish them forever
 
Daks

Daks

Jersey Devil
Thanks for being a kickass dad who acknowledges his daughter's interest in mechanics! Too many girls are written off as mechanically illiterate because they don't know what they were never taught.

Hope you guys have a ton of fun rides, and had a ton of fun working at it.
 
brichter

brichter

Spun out freakshow
I started my daughter off on an XR200 10 years ago, 2 years later continued on her first car (1983 Camry), now she schools her boyfriend on his car so well he started taking classes at De Anza so he could catch up. :laughing

Your daughter will thank you for the rest of her life! :thumbup :party
 
lgyee4

lgyee4

Well-known member
Can you imagin how proud she'll be when she teachers her son/daughter how to wrench on his dirt bike? Belated Happy Fathers Day to you!

And you are absolutely right about the 2 stroke thing (I'm a bit partial..)
 
Lunch Box

Lunch Box

Useful idiot
For those of you who have met Drew's daughter, you already know that there is NO WAY he could have forced her to do this project. There's also NO WAY he could have prevented her from doing it once she set her mind to it. That girl is fiery and stubborn (and awesome). Great job, Drew! Can't wait to see the scooter. She is welcome to take my two-fiddy for a spin, too. Probably not much different than this 200.
 
kingmoochr

kingmoochr

WHARRGARBL
The problem is I bought 2 and am not motivated to fix the backup :) stopped running randomly at idle, new plug, 170 psi, got spark, plug gets damp, cleaned carb. Think it's fuel related but I'm waiting on my APT Smartcarb to show for the main bike before I swap them over :-D
 
seavoyage

seavoyage

grunt n00b
kingmoochr said:
The problem is I bought 2 and am not motivated to fix the backup :) stopped running randomly at idle, new plug, 170 psi, got spark, plug gets damp, cleaned carb. Think it's fuel related but I'm waiting on my APT Smartcarb to show for the main bike before I swap them over :-D
Click to expand...

If you have sorted the jetting, using the stock spark plug heat range, using the proper fuel mix-ratio (40-60:1) and are still fouling the plugs; one other possibility is the crank seals are leaking oil into the crankcase = oil in fuel-air mixture and plug fouling.

Your base gasket may also be too thick for complete detonation and proper port timing. We're down to the (thinnest) 0.20mm base gasket and still not detonating. (Look up measuring 'dimension X' in the KTM manual)

There is an opinion out there that KTM jetting isn't as well sorted out from the factory as the Japanese bikes...:shocker

What year is your KTM200EXC? The ones with the Keihin PWK38AG ran rich with stock jetting: US models came from the factory with 180MJ and 45PJ.

We're currently down to a 172MJ and 40PJ w/ Air screw 2 turns out; and although the plug is dry and tan at idle plug chop and revs through fine; we still get splooge with 50:1 (Castrol RS TTS 2T w/ 91 pump gas). Running FMF Gnarly and Boyesen Power Reeds. We wish there was a leaner #6.5 slide cut-away for this model. A leaner needle taper: KTM N0Z G or Keihin CEK or Honda R1369J is worth exploring over the stock N0Z F needle (3rd clip).

We don't get splooge with the Castrol RS TTS 2T on our trials bikes. We might try RockOil net time around if this persists. Too bad we can't find RockOil Strawberry 2.

Boyesen jetting chart: http://boyesen.com/tech-center/ktm-jetting.html

The 200XC and XCW didn't get the short body 36mm (2 nut top) carburetor untill 2007. Previous models came with the 'long body' 38mm (Screw on top) carburetor. The PWK36 cut down on top-end power but were better jetted out of the factory and easier to jet correctly.

This Morning: My daughter:

  • bled and realigned the forks to minimize stiction, and
  • took 2-turns out of rear shock pre-load (~6mm).
  • Changed to a 0.05mm thinner cylinder base gasket : (similar procedure to a top-end rebuild) to get a bit more compression; and
  • installed a tach-hour meter.
  • She disassembled the carburetor to change the pilot jet = much crisper now.
  • Relocated the CDI from near the steering head to under the tank (Enduro Engineering kit)
Since she had to drain the coolant to remove the cylinders: we switched from Putoline to Motul Motocool.

It's funny how she still hasn't learned all the proper names for the parts, but knows how to do the top-end rebuild and rejet the carburetor.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top