Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original
KX500 Bad reputation
KX500freak:
in the wide region around i,m the only K5 streetlegal rider :mrgreen:
all my buddy,s have 4stroke,s
and few do have cr500,
none off the bikes is so aggresive on the throttle as a fresh K5
so therefor its good to have bit bodymass,over 200pounds :-D
so i can use the mass for launchcontrol,
but its not easy take off from tarmac imo.
since the powerband begins at once and it starts climbing in chain
or the bike gets lowrev,d and fades out causing you to lose from big 1cyl.4stroke :cry:
imo its a bike for very experienced riders,
thats where its bad rep.comes from
its big great powerband aside the total feeling of sitting on rocket with handlebars
:mrgreen:
quincyman:
When I ride my K5 in the woods I only get remarks about how great my riding skills must be to handle something that powerful on tight trails. I am not a great rider but having learned to dirt bike on the seat of a KX500 I have become exceptionally good at wrist control. At my age I can't afford not to be able to control my wrist.
I also hear a lot of remarks like:
Now thats a mans bike!!!!!
I have always wanted to try one but don't think I can handle that kind of power.
It's over kill.
I'm afraid of em, my 250 is more than enough for me.
Your the man.
Do you think I could try it out sometime? (usually when I offer they say they didn't mean today)
Mick:
Guys don't like the thought of a dated bike that's no longer produced smokeing their razzle dazzle four banger. I would often catch a lot of static in the pits or up in the hills early in the day. But it only takes a minute to shut everybody up. My KX has hurt a lot of ATV riders feelings. Ported, bored, stroked it doesn't matter. A KX500 eats expensive home built four wheelers.
CR480R:
--- Quote from: quincyman on December 22, 2007, 03:24:56 PM ---When I ride my K5 in the woods I only get remarks about how great my riding skills must be to handle something that powerful on tight trails. I am not a great rider but having learned to dirt bike on the seat of a KX500 I have become exceptionally good at wrist control. At my age I can't afford not to be able to control my wrist.
I also hear a lot of remarks like:
Now thats a mans bike!!!!!
I have always wanted to try one but don't think I can handle that kind of power.
It's over kill.
I'm afraid of em, my 250 is more than enough for me.
Your the man.
Do you think I could try it out sometime? (usually when I offer they say they didn't mean today)
--- End quote ---
Really this applies to most big-bore 2-strokes in general... What most 250/450 guys dont realize is that the added grunt actually makes them easier to ride in alot of situations...Thats what I love about 500's... The added rotating mass and lugging power is priceless when pulling a steep or rutted hillclimb... The added torque makes them feel like they are always in the right gear, especially on sand... and on slick ground you can upshift for traction and still pull... I am glad most guys dont realize what they are missing
TheGDog:
There's a reason why the KX 500 won the Baja 1000 something like 9 times in a row.
My first ride was out in Victorville... and you could just feel that you were on a purpose-built machine engineered to blast across Desert whoops at ludicrous speed.
Man... I took her out for a quick warm-up blitz down a whooped-out trail near the truck... when I pulled back up to the truck... first thing I told the buddies I was with was....
"Hoooo Man! I gotta start gettin' my ass back to the Gym!" Not because I'm all that pathetically out of shape or anything... it's just.. it's just.. This thing is a BEAST and she wants to rip herself free of your grasp at all times! It's freakin' beautiful!
And man oh man.... when I would take lead.. Ho-Ly Sh!t.... I'd have to wait a substantial amount of time when I'd stop for the two behind me on their 250 4-strokes to catch-up. And.. to hear one of'em tell me about how is arm is still sore from the rock I threww off the back-tire which pegged him near the shoulder... Major Grin Material!!
The only kinda minor gripe for me is that she IS kinda tall and long-legged. I'm "inseam challenged" if you will. I'm 5' 10"... but my inseam is only 30" (I'm a lil more torso than leg).
So... at one point where I was following these two... on the top of a rocky hill they decide to turn around and head back down the way we came. Eeek! Slow going in bouncy-ass rocky terrain saps my energy quick since I can't dab my feet the way they can. Slipping the clutch helps considerably... however lends itself to arm pump.
Ugh... and kicking her over is tricky for me. She's usually just a one-kick start... but the trick for me is getting myself up high enough to give a good solid snap to the kick. There is a lot of free-play in the kickstart lever which requires that I lean the bike over so my foot is kicking-down at an angle..NOT parallel with the side of the bike. Also I kinda need to the ball of my foot on the kick-starter... rather than my arch. Otherwise at bottom of kick foot hits pegs and thus shotts off the side of the lever.
When I went to purchase her... that first kick trying the normal way... slipped off the lever and I got shanked up my shin bone somethin' fierce by the lever. (Still healing)
One thing I thoroughly love about this bike though... I have absolutely no fear of hillclimbs of any kind. I just know that I can do them... simply put. You can even start at a dead stop at the bottom of basically any hill.. then just say "Go!" and grunt up anything.
I still have to mess around with adjustments... but from that first trip, she seems like a handful in the corners.. and ya gotta be very weary about trying to honk on the throttle and blast outta berms, as she can easily break traction and slide out the top of them.
Whatever prowess she lacks at railing corners.. she MORE than makes up for when you "pull the trigger"!
The suspension had been freshly rebuilt by the genious/artist associated with "CLEAN RACING". I had the same guy do the '01 KTM 450 MXC I'd had before. I'd come running up on stuff that made my eyes nervous... but she'd just swallow it up like nothin!
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