New to Dirt Bikes-General Questions

So I thought I would update after our ride Sunday afternoon. We went towards the coast to a place that has several hundred acres of sandy trails. Not a lot of elevation gain, but some terrain. Tree roots, rocks, mud bogs you have to maneuver around, areas of fairly deep mud you just had to go through to continue the trail... Stuff like that. One trail was around 2.5 miles of switchbacks. That was really fun. It took awhile to figure out shifting gears in my boots. I just got them for christmas and haven't had a lot of practice. The trail with the switchbacks I had some issues stalling trying to change gears, hitting neutral by mistake, going too slow to be in a higher gear. Things like that. I eventually just found 3rd gear and used my clutch a lot. Got through better the 2nd time on the trail.

The place had a few tracks. I know I said I had no interest, but I decided to give it a shot. No jumps or anything like that, just going around to get the feel for it. Honestly it was way more fun that I thought it would be. The whole place was sandy. Some areas pretty deep sand. It took me half the day to stop being afraid I was going to lay the bike down in the sand.

All that being said, I noticed a few things about the bike. It performed excellent on the tight turns on the trails. Easy to start when I stalled. Not so heavy that I couldn't pick it up when I laid the bike down a time or two. I went at a moderate pace, nothing too crazy. But when we got onto straight-a-ways on paths leading out of the trails, I just could not keep up with the rest of our group. (guys riding 250s and 450s) We said in the beginning to not wait around on us, because I"m still learning and don't want to slow the group down. But I mean even pushing that bike as hard as I felt comfortable, it is definitely slow.

So looking ahead into the future, I think I'd like to keep this bike just because it's a good little bike. I will DEFINITELY want to upgrade though. I can already see i'll want something more "zippy."
 
wanting something faster comes like the changing of the seasons. one way to keep it from happening as often is not to ride with people who are on newer, bigger, faster rigs. I can tell you recognize that the machine isn't going to make much difference right now. If you had been on something that would keep up with the faster ones, you likely would have fallen more, and very likely would have spent so much more time on the ground and trying to start the rig again that you would not have written about all the fun you had.

Start looking around for a kx100, kx85 (to put a big bore kit in) or a yz 85, cr85 etc. the last two come in big wheel versions with are marginally better on rutted and sandy trails but have a higher seat height. several places can make you an engine that will drop the stock KX100 like it's a rock and still have similar lowend. But if you see good kx100 for a decent price snap it up. If you want to know how to determine good from bad there are at least a dozen of us on and off here that can help you.
 
wanting something faster comes like the changing of the seasons. one way to keep it from happening as often is not to ride with people who are on newer, bigger, faster rigs. I can tell you recognize that the machine isn't going to make much difference right now. If you had been on something that would keep up with the faster ones, you likely would have fallen more, and very likely would have spent so much more time on the ground and trying to start the rig again that you would not have written about all the fun you had.

Start looking around for a kx100, kx85 (to put a big bore kit in) or a yz 85, cr85 etc. the last two come in big wheel versions with are marginally better on rutted and sandy trails but have a higher seat height. several places can make you an engine that will drop the stock KX100 like it's a rock and still have similar lowend. But if you see good kx100 for a decent price snap it up. If you want to know how to determine good from bad there are at least a dozen of us on and off here that can help you.

We found a kx100 for sale locally. Going to get some info on it. Thanks for the feedback.
 
We have had a couple of them pass through here it is probably not as fsdt as its smaller sibling (the 85) but it is far easier to ride. It actually displaces about 95 cc's and wen you wear the cylinder out you can do a simple bore and port timing change to whatever personality you want. My choice for the mediumly height challenged offroader.
 
I have an 02 KX100 big wheel, added a kickstand, skid plate, spark arrestor and had the cyl milled to lower port timng to give it more midrange. Also added one tooth to the rear sprocket to make it better in 1st gear stuff and a steering stabilizer. It rips now even better than before. My 22 yr old daughter, 110lbs rides this and it is perfect for her.
 
Last edited:
We had one that we ended up putting one of the heavy flywheel weights we started using on cr250's. over 40ozs. My friend (who isn't hurrying to send my xr100 back to me) owned that kx100 into his late 70's. he is over 6 ft and weighs around 190 and it hauled him around well too. Those can be turned into a mule. Boring alone retards the port timing more if you don't change the ports after the bore.

Come to think of it, isn't Emily from this board riding one of them now?
 
The xr100 can be upgraded. a whole lot as a matter of fact. I am thinking of buying another, since loaning mine to my friend (he is 84) I don't think he is giving it back. Light, fun, and surprisingly capable of fun for people over 175 lbs and over 6 feet.
I'm curious about the upgrade potential...?
 
There is a post on here about a really over the top one. google xr 100 bigbore kit and you can get an idea of where to start.
 
Last edited:
the XR I had...I put CR80 forks on it from the 90s, a after market shock-cant remember the name, a rev box, pipe, proper jetting...this was all bolt on stuff. The best motor mod is to put a big bore kit on it.
 
Another option I've been thinking about is something in the 230 size with a lowering link to get the seat height closer for me to touch the ground. I think it was suggested before. I keep seeing ttrs on Craigslist locally. The kx100 we found had a lot of problems I'm not ready to tackle.
 
Last edited:
You have time to keep looking. at your height you may find the small wheel versions just as acceptable. the 230's are nice, but along with less suspension and about 50-70 lbs more weight than an 85/100 you may not get a performance boost equal to what you seem to think you would like. They are great trail bikes and very capable for a variety of things. for going fast though, none of them have a set of forks that I like. the good thing is that there are lots of dead mx' bikes out there which have decent donor forks. downside for you is that the bike gets taller with that, not shorter.

if you can find a kdx200/220 as I think was suggested above, those can be attractive, but no ebutton. xr200 hondas are superb, but unlike the 230 no ebutton either.
 
You have time to keep looking. at your height you may find the small wheel versions just as acceptable. the 230's are nice, but along with less suspension and about 50-70 lbs more weight than an 85/100 you may not get a performance boost equal to what you seem to think you would like. They are great trail bikes and very capable for a variety of things. for going fast though, none of them have a set of forks that I like. the good thing is that there are lots of dead mx' bikes out there which have decent donor forks. downside for you is that the bike gets taller with that, not shorter.

if you can find a kdx200/220 as I think was suggested above, those can be attractive, but no ebutton. xr200 hondas are superb, but unlike the 230 no ebutton either.
Yeah I've really been thinking about the weight issue. I'm starting to think the electric start may not be such a big deal for the extra weight. When I have went down on the XR, I never once had an issue kicking it if I stalled. Even exhausted.
 
Top