Made a start on the winter re-build for the 200 today.


Surprising how much crud lurks in all the nooks and crannies, had to give it another blast with muck off and the washer once the plastics were off.
That’s better



Some rusty nuts and bolts but nothing too bad.






All done, not to bad for half a day’s work


Now it’s all in bits the forks and shock will be sent off to Dr Shox for a service and re-valve. The frame and the spring is going off for powder coating.
The end can needs repacking, and everything else needs a good clean and re-grease.
Thinking about getting the swing arm polished, what do you lot reckon?
While all that’s being done I’ll wip the head off and have a looksee.

Hopefully it’ll all go back together without any leftovers, I took my time doing the strip down and labelled all the bolts etc in little bags


I don’t think this plug would have lasted much longer.


The piston and barrel looks OK, so just a new set of rings I think.



The frame looked a bit secondhand around the footpeg area, expected that though.


Taking the spring off.
Take a measurement of how much preload you have on.

Then undo the allen bolt and wind the preload adjuster all the way off so that the spring is loose on the shock

Then turn the shock over and give the grey seating plate a tap so it comes loose.
That will expose the circlip, once you pull the circlip off the seating plate and spring slides off.



I’ll take the frame and spring in for powder coating (a nice satin black) tomorrow if I get home early enough.

Got the frame back from the powder coaters, very nice it is to
Satin black

First thing to go on was the new footpegs.

If they perform as well as they look I’ll be well happy.
They only thing I could moan about are the cheapo spring that comes with the kit.
I had to put a heat shrink on it and bend it over to stop it rubbing on the frame.
You can see it here (circled in red)

Call me a tart, but WTF, ally this good deserves to be polished.
Bling Bling

Got fed up waiting for my pistons rings that I ordered from Bracken, if there’s one thing I find annoying about KTM it’s the waiting for parts.
The dealerships seem to be road bike orientated and never carry any stock. It’s always got to come from Austria and will take seven days, which then turns into 3 weeks.
I suppose that’s the price we pay for having cheap spares from the manufacturer.
I phoned ET James on Friday who had all the parts I wanted in stock, they were delivered the following morning. Excellent service.
Rings installed, head back on. Gave up looking for the same type of bolt as standard (only in stainless steel) and ordered some Allen SS bolts to replace the crap KTM ones.

Checking they moose’s out I found a couple of splits in the front, not to bad just wrap some tape round and keep an eye on it. They tyre feels OK with the moose fitted.

I find the best way to fit a moose is to put one side of the tyre on the rim, put it up and stuff the moose in then push it down an lever they tyre on.

I did grease it up first.
Before doing the back tyre I took the old sprocket off (save skinning your knuckles)

Then stuck a nice new Mitas C02 on, couldn’t get it to seat properly, I’ll give it a test run before Rendelsham, that should sort it.

Stripped the throttle assembly and cleaned it all up, just got to do the front and rear brakes now. Should be done for next weekend

While the brake calipers are off the bike I gave them a good clean. The back brake was OK but the front caliper was seized on the carrier. Took a while to free it off.
Wasn’t rusted just caked in old grease and muck.
I removed the mounting pin from the carriers and gave it a good clean.


Replaced all the bolts on the motor will stainless allen bolts and gave the covers a couple of coats of PJ1 satin engine paint


Came out quite nice.



Once the engine was back in the frame I could put the swing arm back in.

Bling bling
Had the ridge polished out and the spring powder coated satin black same as the frame.


Fitted the new FMF pipe, went on no problem, though I can’t say I’m that impresses with the chrome. It looks a bit thin. Would have been even less impressed if I paid the full UK asking price. Hope it performs better than it looks.


Almost done. Think I’ll just sit and stare at her in her naked glory




Trail riding tomorrow day off Tuesday so should get it finished then
Looking good

Wish I had paid more attention to the rads when I removed them. Must have bent them a bit in one of my many off, couldn’t get the new rad guards to fit. No time to sort this side of the weekend, so I’ll get them sent off after Rendlesham.
Always a good idea to zip tie the plastic rad thingies in place, they tend to go missing during races

Fitted a nice new air filter

And some new plastics.

Some new grapics to finsh the job.
Sweet






Seems a shame to get it all dirty on Sunday.

It does look very nice! I wouldnt want to get it dirty after all that!

_________________
Life begins on 2 wheels

Rich, when can you do mine please?

Good job Rich the powder coating looks cool. Did you consider doing the rims also? Much more work obviously.

How much to powder coat the frame. Did you have any problems with bolts not fitting holes/threads in the frame afterwards.

I also can't believe you went to all that effort and expense but left that piston in there. I never replace rings. My view is rings £35-£40, pison kit £80. Piston is no harder to do than rings therefore new piston every time. Personal preference I suppose.