97 DR200 "Light Weight" Woods Racer Build

[mr.skywalker]

So I've had this bike for about 7 years now, picked it up with 800 miles on it and now I am at around 6000. Over that time Ive done a few little things here and there, new handlebars and bark busters, shimmed the front for springs, heavier fork oil, DG exhaust, Keintech Jet kit, drilled airbox, Uni dual density filter and thats about it for the normal mods. I have also done a bit of research and done some guessing and figured out how to put a kickstart on the old girl(a few parts from the old 80's dr200 and a few from the drz125 PS I had a thread I started on this but havent gotten around finishing all the compilation of what part#s are needed)

This bike has blown me away with what is capable of in the woods with just an aggressive dual sport tire and its just a fun little bike to ride. It fits me well as I am a smaller frame, 5'8, 125lbs and 30" inseam so it is great when the trails get rough.

Anyway the last couple years or so I have set it up more for trail riding and recently sold my 2010 Husaberg 450 and yz125 so this now my only trail/woods bike (I am saving up for Beta Xtrainer but for now this will be my cheap play bike). Ive done alot of reading on weight reduction but never saw any real documentation on how much can be shaved off so I figured I'd just start a build thread for fun.

2 main Goals:

-Reduce target weight of 250lb with 1/2 gallon of gas(while still still being street legal, just barely haha, and also still looking like a dr200 lol)

-Improve suspension(Race tech gold valves, springs, and currently doing research on a rear shock)

So here is where I am at the first night of tinkering:

I removed all the turn signals and mirror(not required here in MS), a few brackets, pasenger pegs, and tool kit(basically all I could remove while keeping it reversible)

Next:

-To improve controls I plan to fit a set of ktm pegs I had laying around.
-I also plan to good bit of wiring mods/remove unnecessary wires and switches and cleaning up everything. 
-Replace battery with a Lithium battery.

- Remove front headlight and bracket and replace with a lighter strap on unit

-make aluminum brake arm

-replace brake light/liscence plate bracket with lighter LED unit

 

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by mr.skywalker

[BruceD_500]

A few months back I purchased an 87 DR200 with plans of just pulling the engine . But I'm having second thoughts along the lines of what you're doing. The previous owner had already installed a USD fork and triples from a newer MX bike and it feels pretty good . The back shock is blown out though. So I may look for a rear shock that will compliment the front end. The whole bike is pretty rough though . I'll follow along here and see how you make out. Not many people spending the time to mod these 200's

[mr.skywalker]

Yea, there's either not much being done or people dont talk about it(seems to be the former). Its because there is so little out there I always try to post whatever I do so others can see what can be done.

The shock I am looking at is ktm85 shock(from what i can tell its close to the same length and has the same lower mounting style(hard to find both of those on most shocks now days). My concerns are the reservoir location relative to the exhaust but if it works its a cheap option with lots of stuff that can be done. Springs might be a little hard to come by if you are over 150lbs but there are always custom springs. I may order a shock later this week to try out.

[mr.skywalker]

Well been doing a lot of research and turn out the 85 shock is almost 2" longer than the the dr200 but the ktm 65 shock is just about the perfect length(a little over 13.5" eye to eye which just so happens is exactly what the dr200 shock is ?) Travel looks to be very close to the same as well. My concerns still remains about the reservoir/exhaust clearance and getting proper springs but I have an idea for an easy spring source. If all goes well should only be about $15 in custom work and revalve. Picking up a shock for $150(just ordered, revalve should be in the $150 range, and new spring about $100(free for me bc I have it laying around and should be close to the right rate). So all said and done should be about a $400 setup so at least its close to what the works performance was and should be of the same quality and easy to source. Hope this works haha

 

BTW is anyone interested in a DG muffler? its too loud for my taste even with the quiet insert in.

[BruceD_500]

Can you post a pic of the muffler ?  How did the shock work out ? 

[mr.skywalker]

Well the shock came in yesterday and Ive spent about 30 min looking at it and so far it looks really good for fitment. length was just about perfect, the bolt hole for the linkage fit perfect but the upper shock mount was a little wider than the shock but that may work an advantage in this case. My concern about the reservoir to exhaust was a slight issue as it did touch the midpipe when the muffler is secured. I did loosen up the muffler and simply moved it outward about 6mm and you see the gap opened up a bit so it think a little muffler and header adjustment can be done to add the needed clearance. I did also have to remove the lower bolt for the mud guard so that will probably need to trimmed to fit the reservoir.  

As for springs i tried to fit the dr spring but its about 10mm too long so I have ordered a 8" spring from Summit Racing that should fit and be about 10% stiffer than stock. If it works I will post the part number for future reference, should be here by Friday.

BruceD_500 if you are interested in the muffler I can PM you some pics. Here is a link to the bike when i first installed it and I have put less than 200 miles on it since

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by mr.skywalker

[mjg15]

Nice fit, overall. 

[mr.skywalker]

Ok, so I just have been putting off posting this bc ive been so busy with work and other projects.

So for the spring I have a 450lb/in spring where stock is about 410lb/in so its a pretty significant difference. Its about 1 inch shorter but the threads can make up for the length difference and still can adjust preload. I ordered it from summit racing part number QA1-8S450. 

I did notice once I was setting the bike on the wheels the top of the shock would slightly bind so I did have to shave about 1.5mm of the top of the shock. Picture is a little deceiving but the lower side of the bracket does not touch the shock body.

I spaced out the muffler and loosened the header and ajusted as far as I could and this was as close as the shock res gets to the header. I will probably wrap this section of the header just to keep the heat down.

Did a little trimming to get the guard to sit flush

Adjustments may be a little tight to do on the fly but at least its there and I have small hands haha the bottom rebound adjustment is very easy

And just to show it does sit a little higher in the rear.

 

Thats all that I have done for now. I have BBR crf150f fork springs and ordered a set of race tech cartridge emulators based on a previous members notes they had. If it all fits when it gets here I will post more details.

 

Just FYI the rear shock is definitely going to need a revalve as it is very springy, even with the damping maxed out, similar to how it is if you cranked the preload way up on the stock shock. Not really a surprise considering the spring rate is exactly double the original so long term I may but the gold valves and play with shim tuning as I always wanted to learn how to do valving.

 

[mr.skywalker]

On 4/3/2018 at 9:29 PM, BruceD_500 said:

Can you post a pic of the muffler ?  

Here is a few pics of the muffler. If anyone is interested in it let me know, has a the smallest quiet insert and spark arrestor. I want to go to a FMF Q4 so I'd be open to trades plus cash on my end.

[mr.skywalker]

Well yesterday the last parts came in to do the forks. Talked with Race Tech and if you want to get a set of cartridge emulator gold valves part number FEGV 3301 fits the dr200 forks. For settings the info they sent me for a baseline from their previous notes start with the blue springs at 2.5 turns of preload and 10wt oil.

Fits perfectly

Before drilling the rods

After drilling 4 additional 8mm holes per instructions

Stock dr200 springs vs new BBR HD crf150f 

All finished up. Seems pretty well balanced after backing the rear preload back a little. Just need to have a dry week here and I can get out and test it. If you arent very heavy or too aggressive it should be a sufficient improvement, hope it work well and its nice actually have tunability. 

 

For a side note on weight reduction I did take of the rear rack and heavy steel headlamp mount. The headlamp assembly weighs right at 3lbs and the rear rack was 2.5lbs. I am looking to try and find a light weight light I can fab to fit the factory plastic housing that will shave some weight there and not spends alot of money. That said if you were just riding trails I am already over 10 pounds lighter and I havent even started cutting or removing actual wires and switches. I may get down to where all safety switches and turn signal harness are removed. Basically all the bike will have is the start button and light switch for high/low beam and horn( it may not be required here but im looking into this). I am looking go with a lithium battery and change out the large bulky tail light assembly as well.

This will probably be last update for a while as I cant really do much else until i do some testing and the weather here has just make it impossible to ride the trails 

 

[mjg15]

The late 80's front forks may be a bit longer too, if you're looking for an easy way to increase front height.   I have some I can measure.  Travel is listed as 9.5" compared to 8.4" for later models

[mr.skywalker]

8 hours ago, mjg15 said:

The late 80's front forks may be a bit longer too, if you're looking for an easy way to increase front height.   I have some I can measure.  Travel is listed as 9.5" compared to 8.4" for later models

Interesting, if you measure and post the length I'll do the same so we can at least have a comparison.

I am happy with the ride height now as the front was just sagging from the light springs. it looks pretty even now that the rear has the right amount of sag.

[mjg15]

Looks like they are 34" from axle center to top of stanchion.

[mr.skywalker]

Well mine measured 32.5" so I guess the older dr200 did have longer forks. good to know. in your picture the front does seem to sit a bit higher so that makes sense.

 

[mr.skywalker]

Well I had the chance to ride yesterday. Unfortunately with having the rear rack removed the rear fender does not have any support to keep the fender from flopping down. I did not realize this at the shop bc when all the bolts were tight the fender did not have much play and on the test ride on the street there wasnt much in the way of high g forces to bounce the rear end.

So today I used some spare aluminum I had picked up hat Home Depot a few months ago and made a fender support. The goal was to keep it light and I achieved that pretty well and it used the OEM hardware. The other side was 0.09 lbs FYI

On one side I made it into a bit of a handle as I did like that feature on the original rack. Considering how much easier this aluminum flexes compared to the oem rack it may not work well but it only took an extra 5 min to add the bends

 

For the ride report: I did get about 45min of riding in despite the floppy fender(would actually hit the tire so I was a little concerned it might damage it) That being said I didnt push crazy hard and I wasnt with the group(all ktms that move pretty good but Ive kept up with them in the past on this bike it just was sketchy at time). The front end felt AMAZING, very good feedback though chop/roots, no nose diving into corners with heavy braking and never and never felt like it I was going to bottom out in G outs or a few jumps I did on the pitbike track. The rear end felt surprisingly good. The initial travel felt a little busy when cornering but it handled the heavier stuff well. Even with it being busy I dont think it was any worse than stock, the front was just so planted it made you realize the rear was quite as stable. On the harder hits it felt the damping on the rear was pretty good and I guess that has to do with the PDS shock secondary damping. I do have the rebound set to the stiffest setting and it would need a little more to make it perfect so its not really adjustable at this point. I may just try running it like this for a few rides before I decide if its worth investing anything else in the rear end as that would be great if its was that cheap of an upgrade where for most riders just the spring is all you need. The exhaust did slightly contact the reservoir a few times so I will be adding a little exhaust wrap to keep the res temps down a bit.

[zomby woof]

Any more progress with this project?

[mr.skywalker]

Sorry its been a while since I last posted. Been busy and picked up a 15 ktm 200xcw that needed complete engine overhaul and started training for the local XC races so this has been on the backburner but I do have some updates.

Quick updates:

I sold the DG exhaust and bought an FMF. Much nicer on the ears at idle and still lots of bark when she opens up. Another plus its almost 1lb lighter.

The biggest setback was when I was trying to revalve the ktm rear shock I keep having leak issues and ive tried everything I can think of but there isnt much out there about the 65 shocks which are a little different than big bike shocks which I am more accustomed to. i may just need to send it off but in the mean time Ive just put the stock shock back on.

Not really related to this thread but I did purchase a set of supermoto wheels so I can play on the street with my other buddies who have sumos. The wheels are from the Qlink xf200 which alot of the bike is a clone of the dr200/dr125 so hopefully they will bolt up(also ordered a 428 chain and sprocket as the xf200 used 428 instead of 520 so maybe it will wake it up a bit by taking some weight off the drive train)

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by mr.skywalker

[DrGoon]

Sorry its been a while since I last posted. Been busy and picked up a 15 ktm 200xcw that needed complete engine overhaul and started training for the local XC races so this has been on the backburner but I do have some updates.
Quick updates:
I sold the DG exhaust and bought an FMF. Much nicer on the ears at idle and still lots of bark when she opens up. Another plus its almost 1lb lighter.
The biggest setback was when I was trying to revalve the ktm rear shock I keep having leak issues and ive tried everything I can think of but there isnt much out there about the 65 shocks which are a little different than big bike shocks which I am more accustomed to. i may just need to send it off but in the mean time Ive just put the stock shock back on.
Not really related to this thread but I did purchase a set of supermoto wheels so I can play on the street with my other buddies who have sumos. The wheels are from the Qlink xf200 which alot of the bike is a clone of the dr200/dr125 so hopefully they will bolt up(also ordered a 428 chain and sprocket as the xf200 used 428 instead of 520 so maybe it will wake it up a bit by taking some weight off the drive train)
 

How did you end up getting on with those wheels?

[mr.skywalker]

2 hours ago, DrGoon said:

On 2/25/2019 at 3:23 PM, mr.skywalker said:

 

How did you end up getting on with those wheels?

The wheels arived the day before I left on a business trip to Japan and I just got back Friday. I did some mock ups and It needs a few little things. I'll write do a write up once I finish. For now all I have is this one shot with the the wheels on

Edited April 23, 2019 by mr.skywalker

[mr.skywalker]

Well just a quick summary of what all is needed to swap the Qlink wheels.

Rear bolts up no issues, brake hub and spacers from dr200 match up. I did switch to 428 chain and sprockets but you might be able to run DR200 rear sprocket, I just liked the idea of shaving a little weight vs running the 520 setup

Front took a little work but not much.

1. The rotor needed to be swapped but the DR200 bolts right up.

2. The center of the hub is about 6mm narrow on the speedo side so I simply placed two washers between the bearing and the center spacer

3. Axle on Qlink is 15mm and DR200 is 12mm so I ordered some adapters from TBolt as this size is luckily a common size in pitbikes so they have adapters readily available

4. Speedo will be off due to drastic difference in wheel size(~10-12% based on GPS)

Sorry I didnt take any pics but it is pretty straight forward

Lastly: I did order a second kickstand and had to cut off 1.5inches to sit like stock

My only complaint is the geometry with the small front wheel the bike its really busy, I may try and play with the emulators to help stiffen the front and soften the rear(still stock rear shock). This will hopefully chopper it out a little, especially under braking and turn in, and add some stability but I did have it up to a GPS confirmed 72mph(16/42 gearing so it still had more) and It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be based on the ride around the neighborhood made believe it would.