How Much Is Enough?

[stock500]

I was just wondering about all the mods people do to the 500.  I am 6'5'' and about 275lbs and my stock 04 500 is plenty of bike.  I have been riding bikes my whole life (I am by no means a pro) but I can handle a bike pretty well.  Are you folks with modded 500's that power hungry or are the mods to make the bike more user friendly?

[CR480R]

Sand saps alot of power... and alot of guys hillclimb race their 500's...

[stewart]

power hungry

[hillclimber147]

When you compete against (hillclimbing) GSXR 600's, CBR 600's, R6's...... on nitrous, you can never have enough power!

[BDI]

When your rolling down the street in second gear and grab a hand full of throttle and start burning the tire then stab third and continue to burn the tire all the way down the street or you do a standing burnout and burn a bigger hole in the assphalt then your uncles Harley Buel. Who wouldn't want that It's great fun but I must admit I wouldn't want to ride my kx500 all day in the desert on a trail ride. It's more for taking big chunks of jell coat off of other peoples helmets from 200' away at the sand dunes.

[maddoggy]

i think for sand riding around 150 horpower from my K5 would be just about right. so my aswer is.......never enough ponies.  MADDOGGY

[k5abuser]

the  bikes are fast but it is never  enough. with the mods you don't have to work as hard to climb ,trail or out flat track  everyone else.i am 6' 2" and 290 lbs and the added power lets me race guys half my size and smoke them . wheelllllles a lot easyer and more controlable . you don't lose the torq. because stock they make so much . it will yank the front tire in the lose stuff or hard just chamber a round and pull the trigger.if you ride the race track the 250 will out run you unless it is a long track .
nothing like 90 mph with the front wheel in the air on your way to 100. i let the banshes and the 250 r honda get half way up the hill and then i ran them down from a dead stop .

[k5abuser]

maddog . a midget and nos lol. look like an ewok on a land speeder.like the song says nothing but blue sky is all i see.

[stock500]

It is fun to have tons of power.  My and my thoughts on mods for my bike might change as I get used to my bike. 

[TheGDog]

The only goofy issue with more power is just dialing in your suspension properly... proper tire selection for the kind of terrain you're going to be riding/racing on... in order to be able to actually hook-up and get some traction to the ground becomes more critical.

The other kinda neat thing I like about the KX 500 is that it makes me feel like I NEED to get back to going to the gym just so that I can tap into this things potential.

Arm pump can be intense on these things, especially since I'm a software engineer and type way more than any human being probably should be... so I'm always kinda borderline carpal-tunnel'ish anyway.

After my first quick lil' ride with this thing near the truck when we went to Victorville... just flat-out ripping-across deep well-established sand-whoops... after the words "Holy Sh!t" uncontrollably shot outta my mouth.... I came back to the truck and told my neighbor "Man!... I gotta start workin' out again... Phewwwww!"   

I then proceeded to ridiculously enjoy the rest of the afternoon constantly leaving those guys on their WR250 and CRF250X way-in-the-hell behind me and having to pull over and be amazed at how long it was actually taking for them to catch back up.

And the total grin-inducing topper of the day was my neighbor's buddy talkin' 'bout how his upper arm was still sore from this rock that shot outta my rear tire and pegged him near the shoulder.  It was soooo hard to hold back the fiendish maniacal laughter just itching to burst out from within because in that particular incidence... I that was what I was trying to do

I'd always read stories about how fun it is to roost your buddies when you're on a 500.  d**n they sure were right about that!

[Johnniespeed]

Gdog knows why I have a KX500. When your riding buddy says "I had my bike wide open,when you passed on the back wheel and roosted me"  , you realize this aint no ordinary motorcycle.
 I am always impressed by Doordie and Stewarts modifications. Thier forearm and shoulder strength must be great. 
 My original mods were to make the bike so I could hang on, flywheel weight and reed spacer. After my arms got stronger, I took the flywheel weight off and added a pipe.  My riding skills and arm strength are next to be improved.
 John

[k5abuser]

arm strength helps but it is all in the hand grip . you can hang on it will take you where you point it .

[TheGDog]

On some other thread somebody mentioned filling the handlebars with Silicone Caulking to help reduce vibration.

What I'm curious to know is if this means just fill-in enough to cover the length of the grips??? Or do they mean fill the entire handlebar with it?

'Cause I gotta tell ya... the forearm pump situation was really the only thing that truly made me nervous about riding this beautiful bike.  My grip felt "iffy" more than a few times in the heavy sand whoops.  My response was to just back-off and chill out a bit and let my slow riding buddies catch-up..... but that's no fun.  The aggro side of my personality just wants to take-over and make the jump to ludicrous speed.  But my grip can only take so much it seems. 

At my Dr visit today I explained some of the pains I've been having in my hands, ulnar muscle, etc.  He gave me this sheet which describes stretches, icing, blah blah blah. (oh yay! whoopee.)

But whatever... it's worth just to be able to unleash "The Beast" 

I'm going to Gorman (Hungry Valley SVRA) on the 19th with my "lil" bro.  I know that area pretty well.  Can't wait!  gonna bring the Helmet cam too.