1992 KX500

Hell yeah excited to see what you come up with I'm slowly chipping away at my 2000 K5

The 91, 92, and 93 KX500's had blue forks. The 94 had silver forks. Still a clean nice looking bike though.

ben990 wrote:

The 91, 92, and 93 KX500's had blue forks. The 94 had silver forks. Still a clean nice looking bike though.

Thanks for that, Wasn't sure and I guess the guy I got it from obviously didn't know either. Looked up the vin, 1992.

Nice!!!

And I thought finding white side panels was easy, it like many other things so far will be a challenge finding!

Got the high temp paint off to see what I was working with. Pretty cool old Pro Circuit pipe. Going to do what I can to salvage this thing, the road rash dent will be pretty tough to work out.

I feel your pain on trying to find one of these. I am about to resume my hunt for one. It seems like they all are like $4,500 to $5,000 or $1,500 and destroyed in pieces.

Markee wrote:

Got the high temp paint off to see what I was working with. Pretty cool old Pro Circuit pipe. Going to do what I can to salvage this thing, the road rash dent will be pretty tough to work out.

Check out Pacific Crest pipe repair. They will make that bike look like Brand NEW. Ive sent them 10+ pipes they all come out looking better than new.

Probably should have went that route, they have decent prices for repairs. I've blown the dent out and did some other repairs. I'll get a picture up. Looks pretty good.

Did some work to the dent. Got a ways to go, but the carbon/other garbage inside the pipe is causing some porosity.



Most of my time has been figuring out the brakes and forks. I'm pretty much done. I need to move the brake stop and weld in the new rear brake master cylinder. If you look close, you can figure out what wheels i'm using for the upgrade.



The 2011 Kawi triple trees got the stem pressed out and the KX500 stem pressed in. The bottom diameters were a difference of .006 thousands the wrong way. Meaning I had to "add" .006 to the 500 stem. How do you do that? Well Knurling a shaft increases the diameter but the contacting surface area is decreased.

Thats what I did. Knurled until I had a interference fit that was on the extreme side. Heated tree and froze stem in CO2 for 6 hours. Light coat of epoxy on the tree and dropped the stem in with the help of a 100 ton press. Done.

On the top tree, the difference of the stems were very little. But I machined a bushing/washer to make up the difference. Pretty delicate part to make right.

Nice work on that pipe.....looking like some Ktm parts there.....

Checking reference.



And... Clean slate.



Working back to the front on this Brembo brake conversion. Old tab removed.











Next. Going to make new rear master cylinder mount, and new peg mounts right and left. Also the brake pivot was so worn I just cut it off, i'll make a new one.

The two major things I wanted to do fit up nice!



Got to weld in a better (maybe adjustable) fork stop.

Old fork stop removed.



New fork stop made.



Welded in place.



Time for lunch!

Break time before I move to the shifter side.

Those pegs are amazing I have to figure out how to get some pegs like that on my k5

I've been paid a lot to help others finish their projects/goals with countless motorcycles. It was really refreshing being on the other end having Larry Wiechman, clean up and installed a compression release. Bad ass work!

RABnasty wrote:

Those pegs are amazing I have to figure out how to get some pegs like that on my k5

Thanks man. Just finished up the left side. I was going to modify the peg mounts anyway, but this bike had a twisted left side mount and worn out right side. So it all needed redone!

awesome!!
do you use a ktm caliper?
which brakerotor?
I make the conversion with a rmz450 brake and kx450 wheels

Broesel#33 wrote:

awesome!!
do you use a ktm caliper?
which brakerotor?
I make the conversion with a rmz450 brake and kx450 wheels

The brakes and wheels are off a 2013 KTM. I have a 2017 KTM 250sx that the wheels work on as well. I'll swap wheels from the 500 to the 250 and vice versa (thats the goal). Both sets have different tire set ups.

Slow raining day. Cut all the old rivnuts out the sub frame and replaced them with new ones. Had to drill 5 bigger holes to get the old rivet nuts out, then weld them closed. eh

I'm never ever putting to much work into any sub frame, function over fashion here.

There's a set of new oem 92 kx500 graphics on amazon 56049-1982 and 56049-1983 ..i came across them in a search for graphics for a bike I was working on.

Holy cow. Congratulations on being able to do all that work. You took this build above and beyond my expectation when I first started reading it! That is really nice work you did.

If you don't mind me asking...

I have a 2005 KX250 (steel frame also) that needs a new steering stop put on. I am not a welder, but can you explain how you welded the new homemade steering stop onto the frame? I intend to get a friend who can weld some to do it. Some previous owner wrecked it and put on some "not 100% satisfactory" looking steering stop.

Thank you.

KDXGarage wrote:

Holy cow. Congratulations on being able to do all that work. You took this build above and beyond my expectation when I first started reading it! That is really nice work you did.

If you don't mind me asking...

I have a 2005 KX250 (steel frame also) that needs a new steering stop put on. I am not a welder, but can you explain how you welded the new homemade steering stop onto the frame? I intend to get a friend who can weld some to do it. Some previous owner wrecked it and put on some "not 100% satisfactory" looking steering stop.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Waiting on parts now....

The main concern is warping the head tube. So if you have a friend that can TIG or MIG weld, that's what I recommend (TIG proffered).

I used 1/4 thick steel. Radius the back side of the stop to it fits the headtube good. Be sure to have your tank, radiators etc. on so you can test the stop before completely welding it on.

OK, those are very good tips. He just has a wire feed welding machine. Is that MIG??

I have a piece of 4130 that is 1/4" thick.

I did intend to radius it to the head tube.

It is on a 2005 KX250. It's a second bike, as I have my main 2005 KX250. Based on your advice, I will do some A-B comparisons to try to get the second one the same as the first one with the test fitting.

Thank you for the tips.

KDXGarage wrote:

OK, those are very good tips. He just has a wire feed welding machine. Is that MIG??

I have a piece of 4130 that is 1/4" thick.

I did intend to radius it to the head tube.

It is on a 2005 KX250. It's a second bike, as I have my main 2005 KX250. Based on your advice, I will do some A-B comparisons to try to get the second one the same as the first one with the test fitting.

Thank you for the tips.

No Problem. The 4130 would be fine. Wire feed welders can be set up various ways, and MIG is one of them. The MIG (Metal Inert Gas) uses a spooled filler wire with no flux. The weld is shielded by a gas. Most wire feed welders are set up this way. With a MIG setup you can weld thinner material.

He once did an exhaust pipe hangar on a KDX200 frame of mine. It had some wire that would come out of the center of some handle looking thing. Yes. I am not a welder. :-)

KDXGarage wrote:

He once did an exhaust pipe hangar on a KDX200 frame of mine. It had some wire that would come out of the center of some handle looking thing. Yes. I am not a welder. :-)

If you can wait a few more days I will show you through a step by step. I will be mocking up my triple clamps tonight....hopefully have it welded up by the middle of next week.