Hi everyone,
I've been lurking around here for the past six months while we rebuilt a 2003 EC200 that I picked up cheap ($500) with a seized motor. It's been a LONG rebuild, since we uncovered a plethora of other little issues along the way, as is expected with any 17 year old motorcycle. The bike has been restored as well as could be done without a full machine shop and unlimited budget. We've got about $2k in the build so far, plus hundreds of hours (literally) of my dear husband's sweat, creativity, and care. I've only ridden the bike twice, but I am LOVING it. I thought a KTM 200EXC was my dream bike, but this is everything I had hoped a KTM would be, plus it's not orange!
There are two small issues I was hoping to get some advice on. (One of these belongs here and one in the suspension forum, but I thought I'd consolidate into one post...forgive me!)
When you push down on the handlebars when standing beside the bike, the forks will compress an inch and a half and then stay there. If you pull back, they'll extend all the way, and if you let go of the bars gently, they'll hold that position. Put any weight back on the bars and they'll drop again. Is this just stiction? The seals are leaking a little (but there may not be much oil in them to leak...I hit a small jump and they bottomed out like a fat man on a deflated air mattress). I tried to clean the seals but the issue persists. I presume we need to rebuild the forks, but I want to know if A) This isn't a big deal and we can just top off the oil and rebuild them down the road, B) Replacing the fork seals won't fix it and we need to do something else, or C) This is normal fork sag.
Second oddity: The bike has a 3.2L Clarke tank on it, and I replaced the trashed stock seat pan and foam with a seat of an EC300. For whatever reason, the radiator shrouds have a gap before they reach the seat. I'm guessing the Clarke tank is wider than the OEM tank. Has anyone had this issue? Any suggestions for fixing it? We've considered plastic welding an extension onto the shroud, relocating the shroud holes and sliding the shroud up (would require fabbing up a new boss and would tweak the radiator), and just covering the gap with red vinyl. None of these is a clean solution.
https://imgur.com/a/OCHT6ps
Thanks everyone--this site is has been such a blessing through this journey!
I've been lurking around here for the past six months while we rebuilt a 2003 EC200 that I picked up cheap ($500) with a seized motor. It's been a LONG rebuild, since we uncovered a plethora of other little issues along the way, as is expected with any 17 year old motorcycle. The bike has been restored as well as could be done without a full machine shop and unlimited budget. We've got about $2k in the build so far, plus hundreds of hours (literally) of my dear husband's sweat, creativity, and care. I've only ridden the bike twice, but I am LOVING it. I thought a KTM 200EXC was my dream bike, but this is everything I had hoped a KTM would be, plus it's not orange!
There are two small issues I was hoping to get some advice on. (One of these belongs here and one in the suspension forum, but I thought I'd consolidate into one post...forgive me!)
When you push down on the handlebars when standing beside the bike, the forks will compress an inch and a half and then stay there. If you pull back, they'll extend all the way, and if you let go of the bars gently, they'll hold that position. Put any weight back on the bars and they'll drop again. Is this just stiction? The seals are leaking a little (but there may not be much oil in them to leak...I hit a small jump and they bottomed out like a fat man on a deflated air mattress). I tried to clean the seals but the issue persists. I presume we need to rebuild the forks, but I want to know if A) This isn't a big deal and we can just top off the oil and rebuild them down the road, B) Replacing the fork seals won't fix it and we need to do something else, or C) This is normal fork sag.
Second oddity: The bike has a 3.2L Clarke tank on it, and I replaced the trashed stock seat pan and foam with a seat of an EC300. For whatever reason, the radiator shrouds have a gap before they reach the seat. I'm guessing the Clarke tank is wider than the OEM tank. Has anyone had this issue? Any suggestions for fixing it? We've considered plastic welding an extension onto the shroud, relocating the shroud holes and sliding the shroud up (would require fabbing up a new boss and would tweak the radiator), and just covering the gap with red vinyl. None of these is a clean solution.
https://imgur.com/a/OCHT6ps
Thanks everyone--this site is has been such a blessing through this journey!
