KX 500 faults and fixes thread

[gowen]

What about the viberation? It is really bad!! Any rubber mounts or anything that can be done? It's to the point of annoying.

THanks

[Rick]

Short of getting the crank dialed in to zero (no runout), there are only a few things you can do:

- Switch to Pro Taper bars...more flex
- Switch to big fat "Pro" grips.  For less than $10 you won't believe the difference.
- Bar inserts.  These are brass inserts that you stick in the end of each bar, and they ride on rubber orings.
- Loosen your grip on the bars...assuming you are running a Scotts dapener.  Riding more relaxed without the death grip on the bars was the single best fix for vibration, as less vibration is transmitted when you don't hold on as tight.
- I think Paul swaps the rubber bar mounts for solid mounts, but I have never tried this change, so can't comment on it's impact on reducing vibration trasmitted to the eye balls through your arms.  (after 75 miles on a bike with lots of vibration, my eyes go numb )

Of course, you can always change your sprockets to 15/40 so you don't have to rev so high.    

Rick

[gowen]

Never thought about Grips. Any suggestions? If I remove the center bar (thingy that hooks from one side of my renthal bar to the other) would that help?

Thanks

[toddwunsch]

If you are running a 7/8" renthal bar (stock bar clamps), you might want to leave that center bar in for strength and support.

[demographic]

I have heard that filling the bars with silicone sealant (like you put round the bath) helps reduce vibration.

Another way of doing this is to fill a plastic tube with silicone then put the tube into the bars (bit like a Bar Snake). I was goin to try this method but the plugs that hold my Barkbusters in place won't come out

I seem to remember both these cures coming up on dirtridernet but I have not tried them so can't comment  

[mikesmith]

I used expanding foam,works and its lighter than silicone.

[gowen]

Did the expanding foam help?

[mikesmith]

I didnt have any thing to compare it to,but yeah it helped mine.

[KXcam22]

It was easy to build a sharkfin for the rear disk.  Got some .375 scrap aluminum for free.  Shaped it and drilled a few holes for appearance and got a friend to weld it to the rear brake caliper holder.  Works great and cost zippo.

[Zanx]

What? No mention of cracked exhaust bridges or rear brake levers rubbing the cases or sticking holes in them during road/dirt/bike interfaces?  

I think the biggest fault has got to be the purple colour (yes I'm Englisher) scheme that Kawasaki cursed the bike with in the 90's.

Oh, I'm a friend of Demographic, you can blame him

 I'm currently rebuilding from scratch, a 1995 KX500 Supermoto (tuned and making about 65hp ATM) got lots of goodies to go on it but need the frame and engine sorted first, got a rebuild post going on Allthingsmoto if anyone's interested.

Ta ta.  

[demographic]

What? No mention of cracked exhaust bridges or rear brake levers rubbing the cases or sticking holes in them during road/dirt/bike interfaces?  

I think the biggest fault has got to be the purple colour (yes I'm Englisher) scheme that Kawasaki cursed the bike with in the 90's.
 

Brake lever/casing rubbing can be sorted by bending it out slightly. And you can stop the cases getting damaged in a fall by welding KDX style frame loops onto the two tubes under the engine, a good time to do this would be when you have just removed the paint and before you powder coat it....................

if you also get a mild steel plate welded onto the bottom frame tubes (like a skid plate but welded on) which will stiffen the frame a tad and add life to one that might be slightly battered on the underside..........
dunno who I could be thinking about when I mention those though.

You could even use a stainless plate instead of mild steel but make sure that you use something like 19/9 chrome/ nickel plate and 25/12 chrome/nickel welding rods as used to weld together dissimilar metals.
If you go to a fabrication shop they should know what I am on about and have some of the right stuff.
Think the 19/9 stuff gets called 304 grade stainless

Just don't forget to put a hole in to drain the oil through

Oh aye the purple was a bit dodgy