My first project-2004 KTM 200 MXC

It has been fun to watch some of the project bikes members have done here and when this bike popped up I decided to jump on it.




The bike on the exterior appears to be in very good shape. According to the paperwork he provided me, he bought the bike in 2010 from Motofrugals. He told me the bike has been sitting for about 5 years. If this is the case them I am sure the carb looks fabulous. The clutch currently is not working and needs new seals. Outside of that, I do not know much else.

Plan right now is to strip it down a little and check all the chasis bearings, change suspension fluids, clean the carb and most likely the power valve. Maybe a top end if it looks like it needs it. Right now I do not have plans to keep it for very long.

Nice Should be a fun one to fix up.

He also had a '94 KTM 550 in the garage he wants to sell. A little to exotic for me but I thought of you when I saw it.

I saw that, you snapped it up before I could, but I'm glad somebody got it who will take care of it.

Gravy said:

I saw that, you snapped it up before I could, but I'm glad somebody got it who will take care of it.

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I knew it wouldn't last so I made an offer and told them I would be there in a couple of hours. I promised my wife I would try and have it done and ready to sell by the first of the year. Looking at it a little closer, it has a racing history. It has a desert tank, steering stabilizer mount, suspension that was done by PRS.....Danny Morgan....one of the first guys in the state to get into suspension tuning and what looks like a Race Tech canister base on the rear shock. I think all it does is convert it to a schraeder valve for nitrogen fill, but none the less, this bike has had some attention and investment into it in the past.

Looks like fun Paul, I love project bikes! I'll be watching!

Harrison rides a 2011 KTM 200 XCW and loves it the bike is a riot to ride because it is so light and nimble

anderson750 said:

He also had a '94 KTM 550 in the garage he wants to sell. A little to exotic for me but I thought of you when I saw it.

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The power those produce is nuts. Pretty sure Chuck Norris wouldn't dare ride one

Time for a small update since I got a little work done over the weekend and hope to have it back together and running this weekend.

Some random pics of the tear down. Overall the bike is very clean and in really good shape considering it is 12 years old.


I told Jack I would pay him $50 when I sell it if he helped me.


Here are some of the parts that tie it to a racing history.

Fredette Racing Chain guide

DH1 Stabilizer mount and post

Race Tech nitrogen fill


Wire tied spokes



All stripped down and parts scattered everywhere




Just to be certain that everything was going to be fine mechanically, I tore the top end off it to clean the power valve, inspect the cylinder and check crank clearances. One thing I noticed on tear down was that cometic gaskets were used when it was last rebuilt. So, whoever did the last top end did not worry about saving money on gaskets.
Cylinder looked good with normal wear.


The power valve was pretty nasty.




But, not quite as nasty as the carb.



A couple things I still need to do before putting everything together include replacing the swing arm bearings, rebuilding the clutch and front brake master cylinder and detail cleaning.....which is where paying Jack comes in.

Good idea to get Jack involved in the work, I bet he's learning a lot!

Can I bring Harrison's 200 over for you too?

That power valves is cruuuuusty!

I think the sitting for 5 years was accurate. That gas varnish in the carb looks gross.

I have not been good at updating this as I have also been in the middle of getting bikes ready for next years race season that starts in about 2 weeks. The only snag I ran into so far has been the clutch. This bike came originally with the 9.5mm clutch piston but at some point somebody put a 10.5mm master cylinder on it. It was impossible to try and find it through the OEM micorfiche, so i resorted to KTMTalk for the answer and quickly got it from a guy on there who knows everything about KTM's.


I originally bought the rebuild kit for what the bike called for and you can see the difference between the 2 pistons. The piston on the bottom is the 9.5 mm and is made out of metal and the 10.5mm that came out of it is plastic.


Obviously as you could see from the carb pictures, the gas in this was bad. I think the bike was stored with a full tank of gas that evaporated and left this nice rubbery sludge in the bottom of the tank. It has been a real PIA to get it out and it is not completely clean, but is much better. If anybody has any recommendations on how to clean/dissolve all the small stuff out let me know.




So as it sits right now, the bike fired up after a couple of kicks and sounds good. The kill switch is not working and I have not yet taken the time to figure it out since I have 2 other bikes in pieces at this time. I think the jetting is a little off, but I will play with that this next week down in St. George when I do some shake down rides on it.

Nice. Looks like you need a bigger shop heater

Good lookin' bike. I always liked those hockey stick silencers KTM used.. nice and quiet