just got my first cr500! I think I'll ride a 500 forever! Rode some really rocky tight trails today and I can't believe that a cr500 is the bike that caused me to enjoy trail riding... weird! I would always stall out in the real crazy tight technical rocks when riding the 450. Didn't stall once today on the 500! I'm addicted! It'll cruize just great at idle speed even in the gnarliest terrain, and then scream when I open it up! Way more fun than the 450!!!
Came to this site for tech info etc. May one day do an AF conversion.
New cr500 owner in sandy, utah
Good question. Sorry it took a while to reply, I wasn't getting the emails notifying me of replies. I was surprised to see so many.Tharrell wrote:I was just wondering what his turning point was.
I'm hearing a lot of 4 stroke guys going back to 2 strokes in general.
So here's the whole story... (sorry if I ramble sometimes)
I grew up on 2 strokes, left the country in 2000 for a few years and didn't own buy another bike until 2008. (not sure why it took so long to get a bike... what was I thinking?!) Of course, all the rave was now the 450s so that's all I looked at. I ended up getting a sweet deal on a 2005 KTM 450sx. I loved it!!! The bike handled great, was very easy to perform basic maintenance, was simpler than other 450s, and had awesome power! I never even thought about 2 strokes again.
Then I started reading... a lot! KUMA, you guessed close but not quite...
I learned through a lot of reading on KTMTalk that my particular year of KTM had titanium valves and brass valve guides, which apparently don't mix well so the valves wear out VERY quickly, (some said they could be done at 35 hours). So now I have a bike that is going to need valves sometime soon, or risk blowing the whole top end resulting in a practically worthless bike.
I start looking at my options... get new valves before something happens... well, I don't want to spend that kind of money. So I decide I could sell the bike and just get a different year or brand similar in price.
So now I'm searching through classifieds for 450s and up pops a cr500. I think to myself, damn, that would be the ultimate dune weapon. And the price was CHEAP. I decide that for the money from the KTM I could get the cr500 for dunes and another older bike for trail riding. So I test rode 5 cr500s and found one that made the others feel like 250s!!!
I bought it that day and have had a permagrin ever since!!! The best part is that the 500 is way better on trails than I could have ever imagined. I ride better on it than on the 450 and have more fun. AND, I don't worry anymore about valves or money so I can rally and abuse it the way dirtbikes should be.
Now instead of having to get another bike for trails, I can put that money into the 500 to make it even better. I'm thinking about doing an AF conversion.
Anyway, I'm a converted cr500 rider for LIFE!!! That is my story, hope you endured.
Oh... and most my riding friends still think I'm weird for getting a 500. Even though I smoke them in the dunes and the trails HAHA! I guess I can understand it... no one likes to be roosted by a 500!!!
You can see a few videos of my first time riding the CR500 here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/gski66?feat ... 9YgzBkU6zQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/gski66?feat ... 9YgzBkU6zQ
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100hp honda
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