KX Riders

Maintenance & Technical => KX500 Steel Frame Conversion (SFC) => Topic started by: bigred on December 30, 2013, 12:15:13 PM

Title: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: bigred on December 30, 2013, 12:15:13 PM
For all of you that wanted to ride all year!!!
(http://i.imgur.com/UozKj0t.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/TFkOe5B.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/LoETjcf.jpg)
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: skunkworks on December 31, 2013, 05:42:21 AM
that's awesome !!!
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: Brute on December 31, 2013, 09:15:05 AM
Ohhhh Mannnn. That is cool. More details of how good it is!
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: tkeen511 on January 01, 2014, 11:35:14 AM
I keep seeing these every where, where do you get them? Or are they all just custom made?
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: skunkworks on January 06, 2014, 02:46:11 PM
Hey bigred how do you like that carb ? Can you give us a review maybe? Pros cons !!
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: ID KX500 on January 15, 2014, 04:06:08 PM
kx500 is a great power source but check this out. But a bike falls short even at 70HP.


BoonDockers is an Idaho company. I would want the turbo with tires and track.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P48ZTCuRZ_w&feature=youtu.be

Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: sandblaster on January 15, 2014, 04:39:17 PM
I'll take two please...
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: Foxx4Beaver on January 15, 2014, 10:06:50 PM
those are cool...but the engine maintenance must be through the roof on those 4Ts if you're climbing deep snow hills a lot and making that engine work like they were in that vid...constantly beatin the snot outa them at high revs :|...I think I'd rather go the way Bigred did and use the K5, that way if it does grenade, it won't cost as much as a new bike to fix it.
Although I'd love to try one of those 4Ts on some  groomed snowmobile trails with the turbo :-D
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: don46 on January 16, 2014, 04:39:00 AM
My son and I were invited on a ride with Timbersled last year, they brought out 4 2012 and 2013 kx450's and the area sale rep had a kx500  in an al chassis with the ap carb. we rode these for 3 hours and as some would suspect I thought you would have to ring the snot out of them, not so. They told me the 2012's had over 300 hours with no internal maintenance, just oil changes. the 13's had had the forks switched because they wouldn't hold air in the cold and the one I was riding I suspected the clutch was slipping but man were they fun. As a life long sledder I was skeptical, they will go places a sled won't due to the narrowness and how nimble they are, you can almost sidehill a vertical incline. they will not climb like a snowmobile but thats not the end of the world.

My first 20 minutes I was wondering what the hell I was doing, I fell over a bunch, can't put your foot down in the soft stuff, but then it cliked and we were going like all get out for the 2.5 hours. I think if i didn't have to drive so far I would have one, and it would have to be the sx version then modified with the wider/longer track, at 6 grand you would have to be pretty serious about it.
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: Foxx4Beaver on January 16, 2014, 04:57:50 AM
as some would suspect I thought you would have to ring the snot out of them, not so. They told me the 2012's had over 300 hours with no internal maintenance, just oil changes.

that is surprising, maybe it's just because of the nature of how loud the 4Ts are, that makes me think they're being pushed to the limit....being a life long sledder myself, I'm probably basing it off the way I ride my 2T sled...hard.
If I ever was to get one of these, I still think I'd rather go 2T though...those 4ts make me very nervous....and my "luck" sucks. 
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: ID KX500 on January 16, 2014, 09:15:50 AM
My son and I were invited on a ride with Timbersled last year, they brought out 4 2012 and 2013 kx450's and the area sale rep had a kx500  in an al chassis with the ap carb. we rode these for 3 hours and as some would suspect I thought you would have to ring the snot out of them, not so. They told me the 2012's had over 300 hours with no internal maintenance, just oil changes. the 13's had had the forks switched because they wouldn't hold air in the cold and the one I was riding I suspected the clutch was slipping but man were they fun. As a life long sledder I was skeptical, they will go places a sled won't due to the narrowness and how nimble they are, you can almost sidehill a vertical incline. they will not climb like a snowmobile but thats not the end of the world.

My first 20 minutes I was wondering what the hell I was doing, I fell over a bunch, can't put your foot down in the soft stuff, but then it cliked and we were going like all get out for the 2.5 hours. I think if i didn't have to drive so far I would have one, and it would have to be the sx version then modified with the wider/longer track, at 6 grand you would have to be pretty serious about it.
as some would suspect I thought you would have to ring the snot out of them, not so. They told me the 2012's had over 300 hours with no internal maintenance, just oil changes.

that is surprising, maybe it's just because of the nature of how loud the 4Ts are, that makes me think they're being pushed to the limit....being a life long sledder myself, I'm probably basing it off the way I ride my 2T sled...hard.
If I ever was to get one of these, I still think I'd rather go 2T though...those 4ts make me very nervous....and my "luck" sucks. 


I've not ridden one, but from videos the sidehilling back and forth (in powder) to gain altitude seemed so slow and unimpressive, compared to a sled. A good running sled a few years out is the same cost as a track for a bike.

So seeing the kind of power they're pumping out with the turbo caught my eye. Straight up is what sledding is about where I ride. Seeing 20K+ sunk into a sled isn't unusual, and I've seen brand new sleds with turbos and or NOS being towed back to the trailer, due to bad adjustments (not to remind USMC 500 about bad adjustment), like you said though Foxx4Beaver, the ability of the 4t to handle the added stress has to be affected,,,no way will it last as long.

Tracks for all-terrain also have impressed me at the Big Nasty Hillclimb close to here. However I ride trails and can't think of many places a big fat track would be easier to ride. Like everything else,,, there is a place for it,,,the tree boondocking really impresses me,,,and no where near the damage to repair if you do hit one,,, also in a steep hillclimb tip over I'm guessing the bike doesn't roll like a sled.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKiKfUB6IJY
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: Foxx4Beaver on January 16, 2014, 09:45:41 AM
I've not ridden one, but from videos the sidehilling back and forth (in powder) to gain altitude seemed so slow and unimpressive, compared to a sled. A good running sled a few years out is the same cost as a track for a bike.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKiKfUB6IJY

+1
I'd love to try one, but I was never much into the "boondockin/mountain climbing"...I grew up sleddin in northern New England and Quebec on nice fast groomed trails. I bet it would be a rush to open one up on a nice wide rolling hill trail.
Hell, for what a track for a sled costs these days, you could buy a good running dirt bike :lol:
I would definitely have to stumble into some unexpected money before dropping $6K on a conversion. 

ugh, that hill climb video is stomach turning!...nothing worse than watchin your ride outa there go tumbling 100+ yards :cry:
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: ID KX500 on January 16, 2014, 10:44:22 AM
  ugh, that hill climb video is stomach turning!...nothing worse than watchin your ride outa there go tumbling 100+ yards :cry:


Been there,   sick feeling   
Title: Re: KX500 SnowBike
Post by: Rock_93 on January 24, 2015, 02:09:09 AM
If you are climbing narrow chutes like that you better be a dam good sledder or rich.