JUST ANOTHER 2016 KTM 250SXF CHASSIS KX500 ENGINE CONVERSION GONE MAD!

Ok, the finish was clear.
I ended up with some orange peel but only very slightly.
My guess is my cheapo gun.
I need to invest in some better equipment if I want to do more Cerakote.
I'll post pics soon...

Cole Townsend at Fasst Company really outdid himself with these pegs.
The quality is unbelievable.
It has the elastomer which isolates to cleats from the peg.
Check out what they say on their website:

Absorbs vibration and abuse.
The elastomer absorbs vibration allowing your feet to remain better planted on the pegs. High-frequency abuse like spikes, jolts, and bumps are also dramatically reduced through the cushion of the elastomer.

Exceptional traction
A combination of our tooth profile coupled with minimized vibration, and larger platform (77mm x 58mm,) literally grabs hold of the bottom of your boot.

Hard Anodized 7075 T6 Aluminum
Provides exceptional construction, strength and wear resistance.

Orange, Red, or Blue to suit you.
All Impact Moto Pegs have a black body with either orange, red or blue elastomers of your choice to suit your personal touch.

Add your name, number or both to your Impact Peg.

... check these babies out..

And for those waiting to see some pics of the clear Cerakote... I really dropped the ball. I sent the tank off for graphics. But not all is lost... I will have pics once the graphics are done...

Nothing is set into stone but we are getting closer to being finished.
The engine is assembled, all the new mods have been tested mechanically and they work great.
The real question is how well will the mods work together???
We will see soon enough

The left side installation was pretty straight forward once I remembered how the springs go in




The right side has a small interference fit issue



Just needed to take the cover off to fit the Titanium pin in.

You spent some serious money getting a beautiful top end ported, plated, and ready to install. Spend a few minutes to port match your Cometic base gasket or you just wasted some of the time or money you invested. I probably wouldn't try this with those cheap paper gaskets....

I had two builds for a high profile customer interrupt this build. Both bikes are finished and one or both will end up in Racer X illustrated at some point in the future..

With those done I can now focus completely on this build and get it done.
I have made some small progress but nothing worth yacking about...

Oh... except that I had made some mods to this engine that have been tested in another bike and it runs amazing..
Very 4T like bottom end but, with a KX500 raging top end.
In fact, recent testing showed that this engine spanked a 550cc KX500 with advanced port timing.
The engine in this build is one step beyond that engine so it will either be awesome or a dud... Time will tell..

Ti is your friend... :-)

Jason Tanner from JT Engine Works came out yesterday and we made some good progress on the build yesterday..

Some say yes and some say no.
From the only one I ever rode it did seem to help a bit.
But that was on a KX250.
The way this engine is built it doesn't really need it, but hey, why not?

Posted this last night but had a technical glitch. Some of you have been following this build.. KtX500e Fired it up last night for the first time... There is a bit of humor there.... Jason Tanner handled the situation like a Pro

Lol... Yeah it was pretty funny.
I have never started one without it bolted on but I figured it was just the first heat cycle so no biggie.
Lessons learned... Now I have a single zip Tie holding it on till I finish my custom muffler...

Muffler assembly.. Got the outlet cap on...

When it comes to coloring Ti you can use all sorts of things to do it.
I chose to use very even heat to get the color I was after.
Just don't tell your wife that you are using the BBQ for things other than meat
Heat coloring of titanium:
pale gold straw-385 C or 725F
purple-412 C or 774F
deep blue-440 C or 824F
red purple-565 C or 1049F
brown gray-648 C or 1199F
green blue-925 C or 1697F

I let mine air cool but I suspect at the temps I ran at that you could quench.
It cools very quickly especially as thin as this stuff is... .030"

As soon as the Ti reaches temp, it colors.
You don't have to keep it at that temp.
In fact, keeping it at temp will not change the color at all...
Only going up in temp will change the color.
I'm not sure that it would aneal that quick.. Or at the temps I can achieve.
Some research is in order :-)
Re-cored to a larger diameter, colored, modded to fit, and assembled.
Ready to mount.

A little back ground on this project. Because it's made from Titanium it's very hard to find someone to weld it. Turns out Rob lives a few miles down the road and was friends with Alex Ward as kids growing up. Also, Ti is very hard to polish, drill, cut, whatever. I suppose if you have the right tools and know what you are doing would greatly help. I know nothing 😲 Anyhow, I showed Rob what I wanted done after I pulled the stock set up apart. I even ground all the internal welds as I had to put a new, larger diameter core in it. That meant that all the capture parts for the core had to be removed and redone. Because the Ti is so hard and so thin we could not bend the tubing with anything that we had so Rob cut little pie pieces of tube and welded and fit them one at a time. Needless to say it was a lot of work. If I was doing another I would use Stainless steel. But in the end, I am very pleased with the results and it sounds great. Yes, It's a little short for a KX500 silencer but with this engine I don't think that will be a issue. But we will know a lot more later this coming week. Jetting, testing, and tuning...

Yes, the shop is dirty... Whatever,,,

The bike is cold and jetted very rich but you get the idea...
Does your KX500 sound like this?

Hello.
I used a 2016 KTM 250 SXF Hammerhead rear brake lever.
I looked at bending mine but it would have shortened the length substantially and with a size 12 boot I usually feel short changed. So, I cut mine and welded in a chunk and then Cerakoted the lever black.
I would have been better off using a 450F rear brake lever as it has a lot more bend to it than the 250f lever.
I likely would have had to cut it but a lot less.

What I have done works well but I plan to eliminate the spring hole and use a clevis style spring.
Nobody that I found makes one but I'm sure I can do it.
I just don't like the looks of KTM's way of doing it.

Post a pic of your setup. I would love to see it.

I appreciate the thought but, you shouldn't feel that way.
Most guys have the same tools I do which is basic hand stuff...
Me and Mr. Sawsall are masters of the garage.
All the welding was done by various buddies of mine.
I think 90 percent of guys out there have the skills to do it.
The two big issues are time and money.
Both is why I'm 2 1/2 years into this build.
I wanted to rush through this build so I could ride it.
And I could have done this build in a few months if that was my only goal.
Since this bike is going into MXA magazine and will be going head to head against a CR500 powered conversion I had to force myself to do everything as good as I could and not just get it done so I could ride it.
It's been a much longer journey than I originally intended but so far the results have been well worth it.
Thanks again.