Short story long, I broke a ring a few weeks ago, no problem so I order a new piston kit but wiseco is out. 2 weeks later the piston is in so I go to order it and they wanted $$$$, so after reading about Monkeybutt on this site and others I decided to give him the business, not only was he less but I ordered on Monday and he made sure it all arrived to my door by friday. That is the only highlight of this story.
Originally when tearing down my bike I found my pipe was cracked again, and that my cylinder was ported by an 8th grader with a nervous tick, so I bought a new pipe and another cylinder. The pipe lines up fine, but the cylinder wont work because the powervalves are completely different than what I have now that was my fault I should have checked but I figure I'd have it for my next one. So I decide to use what I have and make it work the best I can. I want to ride tomorrow so I start to strip everything down so I can clean it all and hone the cylinder, but when I go to pull the powervalves out one of them comes out in pieces
The kx 500 is a nice bike but it's real close to getting a couple of incendiary rounds pumped into it. This must be where kawasaki gets the bad reputation from because I've never had any of these types of petty problems on any of my other 2 kaws, or my hondas. Keep in mind these aren't serious repairs but they are the kind of silly nickel and dime repairs that make you start to hate the bike. I won't put another $1 in the bike other than gas so if I can't fix the powervalve I'll ride it without one. And if it breaks I'll leave it where it sits and take pictures of the fire for all to see. Now I really regret not having that cr 500 ported for smoother delivery with more overrev. I really like my kx 250 and figured since the the cr was a little harsh in the tight stuff that this would be a good fit at this point I know it would have been cheaper to mod the cr than it is to keep the kx runnning. In all fairness i do ride 30+ hours a month and maybe that was just to much for this bike.