POS KTM

[Savage]

I think it came up on here that Troy's poor old KTM 300 hadn't run for a couple years. I told him I'd get it running for him. Just get it to me and I'd get it running - no charge. Well a year later (or something like that) he finally brought it to me.
Somewhere along the line he got the idea to bring me a bunch of new parts and new tires. What did I get myself in to?!
Troy basically said do whatever you want to it. Dump a bunch of money into or blow it up.
I did what I would do to any old turd of mine.
First get it running, then start replacing any mechanical parts, tune it to my taste, and service it. After that it would just be cosmetics...

[Savage]

First thing I did was remove the carb and give it a good cleaning. Remove the jets and needle and record everything. Clean the jets and reinstall. The bike use to run, so it is idiotic to start throwing new variables into the equation and start rejetting it at this time.
Dump the varnish from the tank and put it fresh pre-mix! New spark plug and see what happens. Kicks it over a few times and she comes to life! Take her for a spin and see how she shakes out. OHH she shakes alright!!!

OK she's running now! Now just start picking away at her...

[Savage]

"Ohh good thing I caught this loose kickstart bolt before I loose the kickstart somewhere. Let's tighten it up. Apply pressure. Snap!"

"Ohh what kind of POS did he bring me!?"

[Savage]

I'll try to remember what all I did to it...

Skid plate was loose and vibrated. Shifter was toast and it was difficult to upshift. Front brakes didn't work. Fork seals leaked. Chain was toast. Grips were nasty. Air filter looked in good shape, until I touched it. Petcock started leaking later on. I think the tires were about 10 years old. Other than that she's a pretty solid old bike.

[Savage]

Some of these parts Troy brought me...
I put some mild bar risers on it, new front brake lever, new rear brake line, fresh brake fluid, new grips, cleaned the fork seals, fork seal grease, new o-ring chain, changed out the power-valve aux spring, new air filter, fresh tranny fluid, new petcock, new tires, HD tubes and rim strips. I think that's it.

I kept going over it from time to time tightening up loose bolts and lubing every moving part. I'm weird like that. The only thing I forgot to check and lube was the swingarm bolt. Sorry Troy!







In my opinion she now runs great and is ready to rip!!!

[Motoracer13]

And I thought Troy liked you! A couple things that me personally would’ve done if it was my bike, and you may have and just forgot to mention it, because you’ve given it a pretty thorough recondition.

A. Replace or atleast repack wheel bearing grease.

2. Replace brake fluid. It’s amazing how quick it can go bad just from sitting and sucking in moisture.

C. Replace the fork oil. This gets a lot dirtier than people realize and it’s fairly easy to change.

And I would make sure to hide a couple of rainbow stickers in inconspicuous places.

[troy]

Motoracer13, he flushed the brake lines and put new fluid in--brakes are excellent now! He told me the old fluid was basically rusty water. I haven't found any beautiful and tolerance-inspiring rainbow stickers yet, but I did find this beautiful sticker addition:



I bought that old 99 300 EXC from a guy in Topeka for $1,500 several years ago. It was in terrible shape, but everything worked and it ran pretty good. It would rip your arms out of the sockets without hesitation! I enjoyed a couple of seasons on it before it started running crappy. I figured a carb cleaning would resolve that. However, the front forks were leaking, the grips were trashed, and lots of other things needed attention.

Before I knew it, that bike sat for almost 4 years! It was probably more like 2 years ago that savage offered to fix it up for me and I basically blew him off. (stupid! )

A few weekends ago I was cleaning out my garage, and was tired of working around that big piece of junk. What kept me from selling it for whatever I could get was the memories of huge grins when twisting the throttle on that big 2-stroke!

Here on RideForum, we've seen savage flip several old bikes. His attention to detail shines through on each one. Whenever we get to ride together, I note his bikes always look about show ready despite the hours and abuse. So I say to myself, "Troy, you know Quinton will do a great job on this 300, and what have you got to lose?! It's been sitting here useless for years!" So I asked and he said "yes".

I basically told him "carb needs cleaning and the forks are leaking, and it probably needs some love in other areas, too". He got way more than he bargained for! Honestly, I did not realize so much was jacked up on it. The front brake worked when I loaded the bike in my truck but was completely gone when I unloaded it at Quinton's house. Within a couple days, Quinton told me he was basically shocked at how bad the condition of this bike was!

Long story short, he unveiled it to me at Luc's gathering, and I almost didn't recognize the bike! It runs perfect and much better than it did before. I love the tweaks he did to the power with the spring change, etc. I am looking forward to getting on some trails if it EVER DRIES OUT! Over 13" at my house the last few weeks.

My brother, Matt, and I plan to ride Chadwick this weekend (Oct 19-21).

THANKS, savage!!!

[stimmer6253472]

hey I will be down at chadwick with some friends this weekend as well. dont have a spot reserved yet but if you want to hook up for a ride look for my buddies 300 gas gas.
jim

[troy]

hey I will be down at chadwick with some friends this weekend as well. dont have a spot reserved yet but if you want to hook up for a ride look for my buddies 300 gas gas.
jim

Will do!

[xr-nut]

A couple things that me personally would’ve done if it was my bike

A. Replace or at least repack wheel bearing grease.

Can I get a detailed tutorial on this procedure?