Ridin' the KDX

I thought I'd make a quick page showing some more detail of my '96 KDX 200 and the kind of terrain I typically ride.  I live on a 28,000 acre ranch in New Mexico and spend about 80% of my riding just goofing around here.  I ride probably 2-3 times a week.

This is what much of the creek area looks like.  I'm riding on cow trails alongside rain-created pools.  There are areas like this that are fairly open, but the trail is narrow and rutted, surrounded by rocks.  It doesn't do to get going too fast!  I have a lot of fun jumping in and out of the creek bed.  There are about 50 miles of this kind of stuff on the ranch.  I actually use the KDX more for work than for play since I need to ride these creeks fairly regularly looking for sick or stray cattle and ATV's are just too awkward in this tight areas.  The ATV sort of replaces my pickup, while the KDX is a mechanized horse.  Tough job, huh?

Same creek, a little farther down.  Here you can see just how narrow the trails can get.  That's a fairly steep off-camber, dropping off to the water, between me in the center and that cattail on the right.  I'm approaching a big rock in this shot and want to be sure I squeeze in between it and the bank.  I have a couple of neat sections in the trees in the background that climb up one side of a side canyon, around, and then drop back in.  You have to pick a path among the rock and try not to fall off/out of the narrow cow trails.  It's strictly 1st/2nd gear stuff for me.

And here's a rocky section.  The fun thing about this is that you can make it as hard or as easy as you want.  I could ride up on the bank and avoid all but the hidden rocks, or I can dive down and do battle with them, as I'm doing here.   This is a fairly easy section of rocks, too- there are plenty of places where the rocks are all the size of those in the left side of the shot.  This is why I put a 12 tooth (insteed of stock 13 tooth) front sprocket on and why I installed a skid plate.

Here I am climbing out of the creek.  The photographer didn't catch it, but I'm actually climbing a big flat rock and jumping across a 2' gap to land on the rocky flat surface above.  Fun!  Lots of rocks on top....

A more open section.  These can be deceiving, though, since the dirt is very hard underneath a very loose, dusty, surface.  Really slick stuff.  Hey! If you look closely you can see a vicious coyote on the right hand side, just waiting to attack me.  Funny...he looks kind of like my dog....<g>.

And here's side shot of me cruisin' around a case-eating rock.

Alas, you can't see it in this shot, but I am wearing NEW BOOTS! (see main Dirt Bike page for explanation)  New boots for me, anyway.  Fox Targa, bought as NOS on Ebay.  Gear-wise, it looks like I'm wearing jeans, and I am, but I have Fox padded shorts and Moose M-1 knee protectors on underneath. I like this combo 'cause then I can wear normal pants with pockets and such.

Back to main Dirt Bike page