Author Topic: Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.  (Read 2227 times)

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Offline sandblaster

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Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.
« on: September 23, 2019, 03:27:06 PM »
Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.
Many of you followed along with the KX Guru Racing Play Bike build.
At the time we expected that this bike would potentially see a magazine pic or two so we kept it a secret as to whom we were building it for.
When Sunny saw his Magazine bike he realized it was something special.
He then asked us to build another bike that he could ride and not worry about destroying.
The issue for me was knowing who some of Sunny's friends are, I thought that some high profile riders might take it for a spin.
So what started as a basic build turned into something a little more.
But before I get into this too much the bike has some very interesting history.
It turns out that I bought the bike from the current single cylinder 500cc stock class land speed record holder Stewart Rouse.
The engine in this bike had seen a lot of dyno time for R&D on building the land speed record bike.
After the land speed record was obtained Stewart completely went through the bottom end and replaced nearly everything and he topped it off with a brand new factory top end.
So the engine was good to go.
From there I disassembled the bike, gusseted the frame, powder coated the sub frame and frame, as well as replaced all the bearings, seals, cables, tires, plastics, frame and engine bolt kits, ect.
The forks and shocks were gone through by Enzo and set up for Sunny.
There were also some of the normal repairs that any older KX500 experiences.
We had plans for a nice graphics kit modeled after the Magazine bike we built for Sunny.
Incidentally, the magazine bike will be coming out in Racer X Illustrated Magazine within the next month or two so watch your news stand for that.
As things turned out Sunny succumbed to his depression he had suffered from for years and he tried to commit suicide.
So the bike sat for several months in limbo.
Last week I was able to get into contact with Sunny's legal caretaker and they came and picked up the bike today.
It was sad to see the bike go but I hope that Sunny is able to recover enough at some point to enjoy riding this bike around his place up in Washington.
Here is a link to the build:

http://www.oem-cycle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=1515







The four stroke engine: That's one stroke for producing power and three for wearing the engine out.

Offline reklessj

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Re: Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2019, 03:01:45 AM »
Turned out nice!! Still praying for a full recovery for Sunny, I see he is making some progress. But not many updates on him
My rides: 1994 KX500, 1988 T4, 1998, ZXI 1100 JETSKI, 2003 MOUNTAIN CAT 900
WIFES (Baby Fiver) rides: 2004 KTM 105SX,1992 LT250R, 1995 ZXI 900 JETSKI,  2011 RMK 600
SONS ride: 1995 YZ125,2002 RM 250
other rides: 2007 RMZ450 RC Ediition, 2003 RMK700

Offline sandblaster

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Re: Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2019, 07:13:55 AM »
Turned out nice!! Still praying for a full recovery for Sunny, I see he is making some progress. But not many updates on him

Yeah, it's sad but I'm not sure he's ever going to ride a MX bike again but time will tell.
Unfortunately we have no other info to give..
The four stroke engine: That's one stroke for producing power and three for wearing the engine out.

Offline sandblaster

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Re: Sunny Garcia's Play bike KX500 not his magazine bike.
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2019, 07:33:51 AM »
One other thought, The Nov issue of Racer X came out and the article is not up so it looks like it will come out in December..
The four stroke engine: That's one stroke for producing power and three for wearing the engine out.