Noobie doing top end on 2 stroke

[joshua_medeiros]

Hi, I'm 15 years old coming off a ttr125 and I might be getting a 2010 ktm 150sx for $3700. The guy says it has around 60 to 80 hours on it, I don't think he has ever done the top end. Hes a old guy and bought a more laid back bike so I don't think he rode this bike hard or anything. I don't know much about repairs but I know you have to do top ends alot on two strokes. I was just wondering if this is something I can learn easy. I am interested in working on my own bike so I'm ready to learn. I just don't want to get this bike and mess it up by me doing something wrong. It has quite a bit of hours on it so before the season starts should I do the top end and check everything else here's a picture of the bike

[ohiodrz400sm]

Are you a mechanical person? Can you look at something broken and say, hold on, I can fix that? Some people are just naturally born that way. If you are one of them it will certainly help. I went from a Honda XR100 to a KX80 and did my 1st top end at age 13. My father isn't a mechanic so I had to teach myself to work on bikes.

If you don't already have a good mechanics tool set I suggest you get some. I have never owned a KTM so I don't know how detailed the manual is but make sure you have a good service manual for the bike. It will give you all the need to know information on the bike.

Keep in mind if the guy has rode the bike for 7 years he may of put off maintenance on other key parts such as chassis bearings and suspension components as well.

I recommend taking an experienced rider/mechanic to look at the bike with you before you purchase it. You could post 10000 pictures and it wouldn't tell us what a mechanic could in 2 minutes with the bike.

Good luck

[mlatour]

It may be the low picture resolution but that chain looks to have a few kinks in it.

[joshua_medeiros]

I'll take some pictures when I go see it for there to be a better look of the bike

[joshua_medeiros]

Are you a mechanical person? Can you look at something broken and say, hold on, I can fix that? Some people are just naturally born that way. If you are one of them it will certainly help. I went from a Honda XR100 to a KX80 and did my 1st top end at age 13. My father isn't a mechanic so I had to teach myself to work on bikes.
If you don't already have a good mechanics tool set I suggest you get some. I have never owned a KTM so I don't know how detailed the manual is but make sure you have a good service manual for the bike. It will give you all the need to know information on the bike.
Keep in mind if the guy has rode the bike for 7 years he may of put off maintenance on other key parts such as chassis bearings and suspension components as well.
I recommend taking an experienced rider/mechanic to look at the bike with you before you purchase it. You could post 10000 pictures and it wouldn't tell us what a mechanic could in 2 minutes with the bike.
Good luck

Me and my dad are going and my dad isn't a mechanic so he won't really know what to look for. I have no one to bring with me, the people I can live far away from me so should I just go? I want to be a mechanical person, I have that personality your saying a bit. never really had the opportunity to work on any motorized thing yet

It may be the low picture resolution but that chain looks to have a few kinks in it.

Here is another picture of the chain area

[moodus2006]

Is it me or is $3700 a little stiff for a 2010. There is a 2013 sx for sale around here for $3500. Expect to have to throw a little cash at it to bring it up to snuff and ready to rip reliably. Find the service manual.. use a torque wrench and take your time.

[Taylor Baird]

There are videos everywhere of top ends. Rocky Mountain Atv, slavens racing has a good one. I suggest watching a couple of them multiple times first. Get you a manual, tools and even watch and pause the video as you're doing it. They're all on youtube

[joshua_medeiros]

Is it me or is $3700 a little stiff for a 2010. There is a 2013 sx for sale around here for $3500. Expect to have to throw a little cash at it to bring it up to snuff and ready to rip reliably. Find the service manual.. use a torque wrench and take your time.

I think it's just my area (Canada). Here's another bike I was looking at but the guy lives 3 hours away from me and he's asking 4800 for a 2012 ktm 150sx and he said he would take 4600 minimum. So I don't really know

[cpetz24]

1: That's too much $$ for that bike.  

2.  Changing out the top end take like two wrenches and a manual and it is done on a 2 stroke.  As long as you know that righty is tighty and lefty is loosey, then you should be fine.  Just follow the book and it will step you right through it. 

3. Don't forget the rag to cover the crank case when putting in the circlip on the piston.  

Follow those three and you'll be good to go.  

[joshua_medeiros]

1: That's too much $$ for that bike.  
2.  Changing out the top end take like two wrenches and a manual and it is done on a 2 stroke.  As long as you know that righty is tighty and lefty is loosey, then you should be fine.  Just follow the book and it will step you right through it. 
3. Don't forget the rag to cover the crank case when putting in the circlip on the piston.  
Follow those three and you'll be good to go.  

How much do you think I should offer?

[Missouri Railroader]

14s are going for around 3500 in Missouri

[mlatour]

OP has not indicated in his profile but an earlier post mentions he's in Canada, where used bike prices are notably than in the USA.

and without needing to be too specific in which city, at least indicating which province you live in helps in receiving more infos.

 

OP, are you only looking at KTM's or open to other brands ?

Do you intend to ride trail / off-road or MX tracks ? (don't buy an MX race bike to only trail ride!)

What is your total budget ?

keeping in mind spending 200$-400$ in un-expected repairs is quite normal with any 5+ year old dirt bike.

(forget the simplicity and low cost of ownership of your former TTR125 with any performance oriented dirt bike)

The seller says it has about '60 to 80' hours, if closer to 100 it could by now require replating the cylinder as part of the top end refurb,

so that's an extra 300$ right there.

Ask him to send you a picture of the air filter, that one single pic might be enough to determine how much he puts off maintenance....

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by mlatour

[joshua_medeiros]

OP has not indicated in his profile but an earlier post mentions he's in Canada,
where used bike prices are notably than in the USA.
and without needing to be too specific in which city, at least indicating which province you live in helps in receiving more infos.
 
OP, are you only looking at KTM's or open to other brands ?
Do you intend to ride trail / off-road or MX tracks ? (don't buy an MX race bike to only trail ride!)
What is your total budget ?
keeping in mind spending 200$-400$ in un-expected repairs is quite normal with any 5+ year old dirt bike.
 
 
 

I live in Ontario, Toronto, but I'm looking at bikes out of Toronto too. I've been looking at yz125s too. Also I really want to do mx this year but I'm gunna ride trails for sure. I'm not the one spending money but my dad is buying the bike for me his budget is around 4k I'm getting a job soon so if I got to spend $200 to $400 I will.

[fire22]

I just had a look at that bike on Kijiji, its advertised for $4200, did you already negotiate with the guy and did he go down to $3700? It looks good in the posted pictures, but when you zoom in you can see scuffs here and there, no big deal but $3700 might be a good price if its in great shape.  Have a look at it, you can somewhat tell a bit about it by how its presented, not sure how to explain that but its a good idea to go with an open mind and walk away if its not as nice as presented and your not impressed. Have a look at the air filter and filter box on that bike for that price it should be clean, if not the guy may not be so picky on maintenance. I think even $3700 is high yet.  If I was interested and looked at it and it was everything I was expecting condition wise, I would offer $3300 and go up to $3400.  I don't know why used 2T prices in Canada are so high, but they are.

If your open to a YZ 125, you can find decent ones that are a few hundred less in the same age range or newer.  Search this forum for issues with that year of SX 150 so you know what you are getting into.

If you buy it, as said before, plan to spend a few hundred on any parts needing replacing.  Also (again for that price) you should expect the guy to have the tool kit and manual that came with it.  

For everyone outside of Canada, $3700 equates to about $2800 usd.

Good luck with it 

 

[joshua_medeiros]

I just had a look at that bike on Kijiji, its advertised for $4200, did you already negotiate with the guy and did he go down to $3700? It looks good in the posted pictures, but when you zoom in you can see scuffs here and there, no big deal but $3700 might be a good price if its in great shape.  Have a look at it, you can somewhat tell a bit about it by how its presented, not sure how to explain that but its a good idea to go with an open mind and walk away if its not as nice as presented and your not impressed. Have a look at the air filter and filter box on that bike for that price it should be clean, if not the guy may not be so picky on maintenance. I think even $3700 is high yet.  If I was interested and looked at it and it was everything I was expecting condition wise, I would offer $3300 and go up to $3400.  I don't know why used 2T prices in Canada are so high, but they are.
If your open to a YZ 125, you can find decent ones that are a few hundred less in the same age range or newer.  Search this forum for issues with that year of SX 150 so you know what you are getting into.
If you buy it, as said before, plan to spend a few hundred on any parts needing replacing.  Also (again for that price) you should expect the guy to have the tool kit and manual that came with it.  
For everyone outside of Canada, $3700 equates to about $2800 usd.
Good luck with it 
 

Just looked at it. Beautiful shape. Started it up, exhaust was cold started up first kick. He said he took it to a mechanic we can go ask him everything he maintained the bike. He said they did the gaskets. My dad wants to get it. I loved it, comes with manual, original tool, had ufo bark busters.

[DASFUEHRER]

Too end is easy...and cheap. You can get a top end kit for 150-250$ depending on the source. Personally I went with slavens as they offer the "easy" clips for the wrist pin. Believe me these easy clips make the hardest part of the job....easy!! As mentioned, put a clean rag in the crankcase opening around the connecting rod so nothing accidentally falls down there. Have a torque wrench handy so you can put the cylinder head on according to NM specs. Don't guess on that and tighten the cylinder head in a criss cross pattern so it seals evenly. Boom!

[billtro11]

honestly i would take a look at bikes from NY, PA or ohio.  Toronto is less than a 2 hour drive from most, and i bet bikes are ways cheaper on the other side of the line in the sand.

[mlatour]

Considering the Canadian dollar is currently worth about .76$ USD the total cost would come out the same,

add gas money and no doubt some cross border hassles, taxes etc. it's just not worth it.

In this region, $3500 CAN is about a baseline price for any decent condition late model 125 or 250 or 250F.

The cost if repairs needed on lesser priced / older bikes will equal or exceed this.

 

Edited February 18, 2017 by mlatour

[Lahms]

Top ends are no problem as long as you have tools, a manual, and internet access (I.E. Youtube, how to's, and I assume you do because you are on this forum). You can download a manual on the internet, which is what I did. Tools, there aren't many that you need. Torque wrench is nice and makes things easy. I highly recommend getting the EZ clips that someone mentioned above from Slavens racing. Getting those regular circlips into the piston is really hard, even with experience and technique. I know its $5 plus shipping. Wayyyyyyy worth it. Use a vertex piston, clean the power valve. Make sure you do a really good job on cleaning. Took my first top end 2 days with extended breaks in between. I was worried my first time about wrenching on a 2 stroke, or any bike for that matter. It really is not that bad. I caused myself some grief by not paying attention on how things went back together. I had to take everything apart 3 times in 2 days to make it work right. Moral of the story is, 1. Get the right tools for the job. 2. Good manual 3. Watch Youtube videos on how to do it, re watch them, so its like you have done it before.

 

By the way, that bike, for what the price is ($3700 CAN to $2800 USD). I would buy it, use the rest of the budget on tools, a new top end with new gaskets, and gas and shoes for the bike.