My 99'

[electech]

 I picked this bike up last Monday, payed $1600.00,  has a new top end(showed receipts for parts)  and the fenders, shrouds, and number plate came brand new in the box form dennis kirk.  Have done nothing but put gas in and ride.  So far seems solid.  This is my second experience with green machines so any advice on potential problems or things that might be worn, or any advice would be greatly appriceated.

[Friar-Tuck]

  Looks great ElecTech,
      Getting a service manual will be a great help.  You might not need it right away, however it's nice to have it when you do.
   I've gotten the one from Clymer (and also the OEM Kawasaki books.)
         You might just take some time and check all the mounts,nuts,bolts etc.
  You'll be surprised how quickly they loosen up...    
 And of course snooping through the forum all kinds of things will pop up.
  Good luck and Welcome!
          Tuck\o/

[jfabmotorsports.com]

Welcome to the site. Looks as if you may have gotten a great deal. Good luck with it.

JFAB

[Polar-Bus]

I picked this bike up last Monday, payed $1600.00,  has a new top end(showed receipts for parts)  and the fenders, shrouds, and number plate came brand new in the box form dennis kirk.  Have done nothing but put gas in and ride.  So far seems solid.  This is my second experience with green machines so any advice on potential problems or things that might be worn, or any advice would be greatly appriceated.

Nice ! Welcome to the family! Your KX500 is "virtually" bullit proof if reasonably maintained. However there are a few glitches with respect to the KX500, but after some education and simple mods. Your 5 will outlast you. Do some searching on "chain rubbing the subframe", "broken exhaust mount" and just sit back have a brew, and lastly, read ALL the awesome stickies at the top of the forum. You will then be an expert..
                             Rich

[blueoval]

Electech, welcome.  I recently bought a 2000 k5.  They are a blast to ride.  This is a super site.  So much help with all your KX needs.    B.O.

[dans89kx500]

Nice K5!! Please give us reviews of your first ride. What kind of riding do you do? And what part of the US will you be tearing up the country side? 

[electech]

I just rebuilt an 85' Cr500 and decided I was going to need something a little newer to be my main ride since parts are getting harder to come by on that machine.  I looked at this bike on Craigslist for a week and told myself if he still has it by the weekend its mine.  It worked out obviously, and the bike was actually better looking in person than the photo which is the opposite of the way stuff goes for me usually.  I have less in this bike than I have in parts on my Honda.  Im not sure what the stock gearing is on this bike but I know it will run over 100mph cause I checked it against my excursion when I got it home.  It is geared way to high for the tight stuff we do here so Im gonna slow it down and maybe look at an auto-clutch in a couple of months.  The power is so different from my Honda that its gonna take some getting used to.  It seems to be much more ridable power down low and will wake up violentley if you ask for it.  Its like riding a 250 of idle and 500 the rest of the band.  It has an FMF Gnarly with a Powercore silencer, and pro-taper bars and is otherwise stock.  The only thing I really see wrong with it is the sub-frame is tweeked a little. My freind and I do strickly woods and trail riding here in east Texas on our family land, and national forest.  Its not that exciting here to say the least but I have a house in Southern Colorado with OHV, and single track trails on national forest land 15 min from my front door and I cant wait for this summer to get here.  We both rode heavy 4 strokes previously and decided that we should just step up to 500s for more power and less weight.  We both took 250s to Co this summer and they were lacking espeacially for my 270lbs.  I got home from that trip and decided I should go for it.  We both picked up CRs and went through them completely.  Anyway, he owns the 84 KX that Ive been talking about in my other posts and is going to use it for his backup so I bought the newer KX and Im gonna use my Honda as my backup.   

[Swe_K5_89]

Looks really nice! Good luck!

[electech]

I am now a firm believer in coppercoat on my head gaskets every time.  The bike started making a sound like slack in the top end and upon further investigation found spooge around head gasket an no water left in the rad. Pulled it down all is well like the seller said  except head gasket.  Same thing happend to my Honda after i rebuilt it. Coppercoat fixed it , new gasket, wrist pin bearing, and circlips on the way for the heck of it.   

[Friar-Tuck]

 Electech,
  Sorry to hear of the trouble, good thing you checked out the noise.
 I am with you on the coppercoat. I use a piece of wire and hang the gasket and use the spray on type.  I seem to make too much of a mess with the can and dauber. 
   I also had to gear down as mostly single track with a fire road once in a while.
 If you want to shift some low end grunt consider a reed spacer.  JFab here has them with gaskets or you can make your own relatively cheap.  Why it works is somewhat of a guess.
   My guess is adding crankcase volume. Hard to believe a 3/8" spacer works, but it does.
 There are a few more things to shift powerband down to hillclimb singletrack however you will start to give up top end. 
   Thanks for tacking on the update, you never know who you might help!
  Tuck\o/