I've been getting a lot of riding time lately, good time of year here. I like my jetting right where it is, but I don't have another pipe to do a good comparison. I don't have any flat spots in the power curve, so it can't be too bad, but would like to get a nickel plated pipe for ease of maintenance. Right now the pipe is a beautiful shade of gunmetal blue. I rode a 450 last weekend and would honestly say I prefer the 500. The 450 was top heavy and kept wanting to stand up in the turns. People say it is easier to ride the four strokes now, but I'm not looking for easy. Grabbing a handful of throttle and slipping the clutch is as good as it gets. I swear there is a spot where the front end comes up even if I'm sitting on the front fender. There are a couple of uphill stepup jumps at my local track where I can hit in third WFO. Between the angle of the hill and the pull of the motor, you get a great sensation of power. Nothing beats 60 something horsepower on tap eh mate? I cleaned up my cast downtube frame piece by machining out the square tube inside so I can slip it over and will weld it on during my next teardown. Mine suffered two cracks and is holding nicely now but just isn't as good as the real thing.
