I've been caught up in a lot of motorcycle madness lately, so my KX500 didn't get much attention until just lately. I kinda forgot that I made an account on here! You can throw rocks at me, if you feel the desire to.
Well, back in June, me and my dad decided to go ride out at Snowball chats (for the locals who know what I'm talking about.) I rode my '91 KX500, and he rode his CRF450R. At one point, towards the end of the day, I decided to give a try at the 450F. To me, it wasn't as exciting as the 500... But the brakes worked so well, it drove me into the ground after coming in hot behind a kid on a XR100. Learned my lesson about new bikes.
While I was trying to ride back to the truck with a bruised wrist, my dad ended up on his back.. While he was on chemotherapy. Remember that stuck throttle issue I was having back then? Yeah... Found out the intake boot had a hole in it and dirt was getting stuck up in there and was dropping into the slide. Well, if you ever had a slide stuck wide open on a 500, you know how terrifying it is. Well, he didn't have time to react, since he went up a hill and was between two rocks. So, the bike came out from underneath him (in 2nd gear, turning the full 8500rpm, with a 51T sprocket, it happens on these big ole' KX's.) and put him on his back, with bruised ribs... The bike? Well, it luckily didn't blow up... But, the FMF Gold Series expansion chamber was toast, and the FMF Turbine Core silencer took a beating, and the rear fender snapped in half. Needless to say, I had some work to do.
The top end was in serious need of a rebuild, so I got new Wiseco rings, and a Versah gasket kit. Stewart hooked me up with a FMF Fatty pipe (which I love, since it gave it more bottom end and smoothed out the transition from bottom to mid range.) for $40 and got a new rear fender. New Pro Motion throttle cable. Semi new intake boot. And a new ignition cover from Stewart.
Needless to say, it's running like a champ now.. and it's ready for some racing again. Though, I'm probably going to go back to 49T, try out some new handlebars (I'd really like a set of 1-1/8's bars, like Pro Tapers or Renthal Twin Walls) and find a way to smooth out the power that seems a bit abrupt right off idle. I'm not looking for more power, by the way. 60hp is enough! I need to smooth out the power for a more user friendly machine, for the upcoming hare scrambles, and maybe a few motos. Anyways, enough of the blah. Here's a few updated pictures.
