KX Riders
Maintenance & Technical => KX500 Original => Topic started by: jcm3 on September 26, 2014, 07:36:20 AM
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Got my bike back together and running over the last week or so. I had a catastrophic failure of the top end (which took out the bottom end), so decided to send it off to Tom Morgan for a rebuild. It took a while, as it needed cases, which sucked. About six gears needed replacement along with the cases and the rest of the top end, bottom end, and clutch. I also had him do his head, cylinder, power valve and slide mods. I'm going to take it out this weekend to break it in, and see how it does around the track. It's been two years since I've spent much time on a track or ridden much at all, so I'm just going to play around on the Cahuilla Creek vet track to see how she performs.
Here's a list of what I did, and I'll post up some pics and a YouTube vid once I get her out there.
Engine rebuild, including:
- new top end
- new bottom end
- cases
- transmission gears
- clutch
- Tom Morgan carb slide mod
- Tom Morgan recommended jetting for sea level for all of his mods above
I also replaced the following while it was down:
All bearings on the bike other than the steering stem bearings (did grease them, though)
EBC oversized front rotor, and also put in new EBC pads
Ride Engineering CR-style stainless steel brake line
Regina 520 o-ring chain
Supersprox front and rear sprockets
Rear brake line mounting brackets (also re-bled the rear brake line)
New side panels and front number plate
New Dirt Digits number plate backgrounds
Dubach hour meter - gotta keep track of the maintenance intervals
Got the rear shock (which has Pro Circuit valving) rebuilt. It had some bad seals, and the bladder was completely crushed and empty
Replaced the fork oil in my forks (which have the Pro Circuit KYB Works Kit already installed)
Since it was all down, it obviously has fresh fluids and oil also
All in all, I'm stoked. It looks great (although I did not powder coat the frame, I was already over budget. :-D), runs awesome, and the brakes feel pretty incredible. While riding it around my neighborhood to do a very light brake in, it will almost lock the front wheel with a little index finger pull.
I'm sure the bike will be a lot faster than I am, and the jetting should be right on for the mods. I think the old suspension is going to feel as good as it can for being fresh and having already been done by Pro Circuit.
I want to also add that Tom was awesome to work with. I know he's a busy guy, but was very responsive to questions that I had and always got back to me with answers. Sometimes it was at the end of the day, sometimes it was five minutes later. He also sent over a packet of information with a bunch of recommendations, break in procedure, jetting stuff, etc.
I can't wait to ride it!
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is how well it starts when it is fresh and the power valves are clean. I was worried that with the additional compression and the head mods that it would be harder to start. I don't think it has taken more than two kicks since the initial start up, where it took three.
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Pictures say 1000 words.
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What does tom do for his carb slide mod, is it for more performance or a jetting issue? Any pics .thanks
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I'm going to take you out drinking too the point you let me take the top the top end off
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Glad to hear you finally got your cases!! Motorrad drinks the good stuff you might want to take him up on that offer, Iknow iI would if he offered it to me!! :lol:
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Not exactly sure about the slide mod, it was hard for me to tell, but I think it is for jetting purposes. Also, I wouldn't want to speak for him, or say anything I'm not supposed to. :wink: You could probably e-mail him and he'd likely tell you more about it.
It ran great, and the front brake was so strong that I almost got myself in trouble a few times using one finger. lol But, it had been so long since I had ridden that I was not pushing the bike much, I need more time on it. It ran great though, and never took more than two kicks to start.
I'm not a huge fan of the black fenders and front number plate, but they were on it when I bought it and I was already so over budget that I left them on for now. I'm not turned off by it, though.
It was super bright out there today, the pics seem washed out a little bit. Let me know if you can't see them, I'm new to the Photobucket thing.
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_1301_zpsb34e22c1.jpg)
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_1303_zps32a1d71d.jpg)
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_1305_zpsea98b2f2.jpg)
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I'm going to take you out drinking too the point you let me take the top the top end off
I'm not dumb enough to fall for that...again...for the third time. :-D
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JCM,
Pics of how you have the CR brake line attached to the fork guard would be appreciated. I have run just the CR line & it made a HUGE improvement, can only imagine with the oversized rotor..... :-D
DoldGuy
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JCM,
Pics of how you have the CR brake line attached to the fork guard would be appreciated. I have run just the CR line & it made a HUGE improvement, can only imagine with the oversized rotor..... :-D
DoldGuy
I'm not sure if these help, but let me know.
Yeah, I was really amazed at how much better the braking was. I knew it would be better, but wow.
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_4482_zps0d063d34.jpg)
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_7638_zps8a08d4d8.jpg)
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c41/jmarphis/IMG_0258_zps33be31d4.jpg)
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Glad to hear you finally got your cases!! Motorrad drinks the good stuff you might want to take him up on that offer, Iknow iI would if he offered it to me!! :lol:
Thanks for the reference! He did a great job, and I feel like my bike was rebuilt by a celebrity. :-D
I need to get some hours on the bike to appreciate the rebuild and the freshness of the bike. It's been so long that it took me three or four sessions to start passing some guys on the vet track. lol I was definitely not tearing it up today!
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We have had the over size 270 mm disc on 2 of our kx a 500 and 1 250 they work great all the other kx s still have the std size, what a difference , finally Kawasaki saw the light and put it on 15 models , that's one less mod I have to do to them.
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Glad to hear you finally got your cases!! Motorrad drinks the good stuff you might want to take him up on that offer, Iknow iI would if he offered it to me!! :lol:
Thanks for the reference! He did a great job, and I feel like my bike was rebuilt by a celebrity. :-D
I need to get some hours on the bike to appreciate the rebuild and the freshness of the bike. It's been so long that it took me three or four sessions to start passing some guys on the vet track. lol I was definitely not tearing it up today!
Not a problem man!! Hope you enjoy it as much as I have
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We have had the over size 270 mm disc on 2 of our kx a 500 and 1 250 they work great all the other kx s still have the std size, what a difference , finally Kawasaki saw the light and put it on 15 models , that's one less mod I have to do to them.
I was thinking the same thing. Great move by Kawasaki, as the KTM's always win the brake part of the shootout. It should help.
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Just posted up a YouTube vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrYrzB-NjP0
I think it's about broken in now, I have 1.8 hours on the hour meter.
The track is pretty fun, and pretty easy. It was a fun day. My son was having fun on the kid track in his KLX110. Good times.
I just wish the track wasn't so wet all the time. They do a good job of keeping the dust down, but it seems like it never evaporates. I'm always worried that the bike is going to hit the meat of the powerband off the face of a jump and go sideways. lol Still getting used to riding this beast. It's so much different from a 2011 YZ450 that I had a few years ago. Those things can make you lazy. Riding the 500 is a blast, and it's amazing how fast they respond to a little feather of the clutch. There's so much torque in these things.
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Were did you buy all the stuff to upgrade your front brake? Were you able to get it all at one place or did you have to buy right from EBC and ride engineering?
Art
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Were did you buy all the stuff to upgrade your front brake? Were you able to get it all at one place or did you have to buy right from EBC and ride engineering?
Art
Hey Art, I got the parts separately from two places. The setup works great.
I got the EBC kit from Dennis Kirk, because they had it cheaper than I could find it anywhere else.
https://www.denniskirk.com/ebc/front-contour-series-oversize-brake-rotor.p1904790.prd/1904790.sku
I can't remember where I got the Ride Engineering CR-style brake line from. I just did a quick search, and they have it at Motosport.com for $105.
http://www.motosport.com/2001-kawasaki-kx500--ride-engineering-front-brake-line-kit
One small thing about the RE brake line kit. Make sure to mount the red bracket farther to the wheel side of the fork guards than I did in the pic above, otherwise it will put the brake line at an angle from the bracket through the white plastic brake line mounting bracket up on the fork leg. A few weeks after I got it installed, that white plastic bracket broke off. I figured it was just from being old, so I replaced it with a new one. The new one after a few rides was cocked up at a funny angle, so having the brake line not go directly up through that plastic mount will put stress on it and break the bracket, and probably eventually wear the brake line cover out faster. I had to move mine so it went more straight up through the white bracket, so now I have a set of extra holes in the fork guard. Oh well, live and learn.
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Thank you I am going to do some ordering.