[Ed Ventura]

I just picked up an 06 DE200. I took it for its first ride yesterday. I did zero setup, No sag , lever adjustment nothing. Conditions were terrible. On the way to the trailhead it was pouring rain like you would not beleive. It was very slick. I rode the Hare scramble loop at the Thomaston Dam. I left my watch home, I could not time myself and compare to my well setup crf250r. With conditions the way the were it would not mater anyway.

The bike initially wanted to knife in the corners. I took 2 turns of rebound out of the forks and the bike tuned great after that. My intial impresion of the fork was that it was to soft, but I never did bottom it. It had to much movement at slow first gear tech. stuff. But seemend to firm up as I went quicker. It felt perfect in the 3/4 gear stuff. We have lots of rocks in New England, It worked great other than a fair amount of deflection on some of the 6inch tall pointy rocks. It manged the round stream washed ones great.The back of the bike followed great and did everything it was supposed to.
I dont think it is to bold to say that it might be one of the best stock suspension I have rode in the Nasty stuff.

The moter was great , No surprise's. I prefer smaller bores. It is geared 12/48 and could probablly a couple teeth on the rear.

Right now I am more comfortable on my crf, after years of 2 strokes I love the 250f moter. I think I could race the gg right now but will work on setup over the next few weeks , and then try to get a back to back ride and let the watch decide.

ED