When I first got the bike I was amazed at
how much fun you can have in such a small
space and spent a few hours one night just
riding over a few piles of dirt – and really
didn’t want to stop.
In the short time I’ve had the 200, it’s allowed
me to do things I could never do on a motorcycle
before. I can really test my balance and technical
ability – I’ve made big improvements in my
riding thanks to the bike.
My first race on the 200 didn’t quite go to plan
with the banjo bolt for the front brake master
cylinder coming loose and all the fluid leaked
out resulting in no front brake. It was a real
bummer after myself and Dad had spent so
many hours prior to the race greasing the bike
and giving it a good check over. It’s just
something we must have missed.
The second race day was at the last round
of Sean Clarke’s Dirt Guide Series which went
a lot better and got to see the bike’s performance
on the superfast sections of track and a little bit
of singletrack. I was blown away by the way
it handled both types of riding so well.
My latest race on the 200 was round one
of the Bel-Ray Series. With the Bel-Ray track
being really fast and the ground ‘summer’ hard,
the suspension on the bike was way too soft and
blowing through the stroke and bottoming out.
We had already adjusted the clickers all
the way in prior to the race, which means
it’s going to need a re-valve to suit fast
cross-country type of races. I was still able
to push hard, but just had to be cautious
when approaching square-edge bumps
or big hollows.
Apart from that the bike handles the high
speed sections really well and feels really stable,
and was able to keep with other riders on 250s
and even 450s.
I don’t have much bad to say about the bike at
all, and the engine seems to be holding up real
well. The things I’m not too keen on are the
airbox guard sticking out and getting caught
on my boot – which was an easy fix with a bit
of heat to push it back in – and I somehow
managed rip out the speedo wire out at the last
round of the Dirt Guide. I think I was just unlucky
with that one. I don’t like the standard Beta
grips, they are a very firm compound and the
donut part of the grip doesn’t have much cover
over the inner plastic (as they are lock-on’s),
which gets quite uncomfortable by the end
of a two-hour race. That’s an easy fix.
Overall, I love that the bike has a real playful
nature, and can handle everything from tighter
trees through to wide-open flat-out style tracks.
It’s a blast to ride and race.
KIWI RIDER 57