The Red Princess has faded away. However, let's not be too quick to discount his claims. The CR500 is a very, very, very wicked bike from what I've seen and heard. It definitely deserves to stand alongside with the KX500. Nontheless, in stock trim, I would put my money on the KX. From there, it comes down to what you do to the bike, what type of racing you do, and whether or not you have the BALLS to hold on and run along side with the CR. I have to say, I have never run against a CR500. However, I have run against the Honda XR650, Yamaha YZF 450, KTM 520 EXC, and Honda CRF450 all in one session. And I must say, I was fairly dissapointed with the results. I was running a 2004 KX-500 with 15/45 gearing down a long dirt highway in Baja from the main highway down to Percebul. All of the other bikes got the jump because I wasn't ready, however, I pinned it in 5th gear, and I must say that I was impressed with my opponents. It took me longer than I expected to chatch up. Don't fret... I was the first bike into Percebul, but I didn't pass those bikes like they were standing still or anything. The only way I could pass them was to put my head down and keep the visor from ripping off of my helmet. Since I later learned that my counterpart on the XR-650 was pinned in top gear when I passed him, my guess was that we were probably in triple digits speed wise. I'm thinking somewhere between 90 and 110 mpg. The one advantage I had from all of the other bikes once I passed them and took the lead, was that every time I let off the throttle just a hair and pinned it again, I would throw an insane barrage of rocks at them. Something they could never do with there 4-strokes in top gear. I wondered, after I passed them, why they didn't give me a challenge. I later learned, at the bar in Percebul, that the amount of rocks I was throwing their way, after I passed them, was way too much for them to handle so they backed off !!! Oh well.. The KX500 is a very mean, wicked, fast bike.. And mine is close to being considered a WORKS bike considerding that I've got about $10k into this bike and still I had a little trouble passing the XR650 and KTM 520. Nontheless, I still passed them, as you would expect, and gave them some serious rock tattoos once I passed. I would like to go up against a CR500, but I would have to say, that even though I really believe that my bike is the fastest dirk bike on the planet, I probably wouldn't put any significant amount of money against the CR500. That would be a stupid bet !!
