Posts
28
Joined
3/20/2017
Location
Sudbury, MA
US
Edited Date/Time
5/23/2021 11:15am
I’m a long time 500 guy and 500AF owner, and even I am a little surprised at the hype and demand going on right now. I’m more interested in guy’s opinions that have ridden and or raced a 500 themselves.
What do you guys think?
What do you guys think?
The Shop
I got off the track at the Mammoth qualifier a few weeks ago and someone offered me $6000 before I took off my helmet, which I rejected and he asked what I'd sell it for. Which I just said "not ready at any price" - which probably wasn't smart but I was just off my moto.
Pretty hammered now, after muddy practice at HT
I'm slower on it that I was my CRF450 but It's more fun.
The value in france/europe is also high, but I don't see it climbing much further as the parts availability may become an issue soon. That is why I think the value should stay more or less stable from now on.
It may not occur to everyone yet, but this is what runaway inflation looks like. I was just barely old enough to see it happen when Jimmy Carter was president in the '70s.
The biggest reason for the new huge up tick is a new class in outlaw dirt track racing. Don’t know the name of the class, just know 2 friends sold 3 bikes to the same guy at more than asking price. He said he’s using the motors for a mini winged outlaw car that his son races.
Guess I should have hung on to the 2001(last yr production) CR 500 I restored after my best friend Don Lowenberg passed away.
I thought I got a pretty good price but this baby was STREET LEGAL!
Pit Row
Then in 2006 I bought a KTM-300. I sold my KX-500s. Never looked back. If I was a collector I'd still own one, but I have no desire to race one anymore. I have no regrets riding them all those years. My taste have changed, I've moved on.
It's cool to see the builds people are doing. Mike LaRoccos 94 MXDN bikes is on my dream bike list.
Too this day a KX-500 is still the fastest off-road bike I've ridden. The Husaberg 570 is close.
The 92 was a good bike but, not for woods riding as I had recently moved to Washington state. I sold it for $1500 in 2013.
It’s a sellers market right now and prices will continue to climb. With the prices out of control, at this point, my next bike will be new. It’s not realistic paying 5-6K for a good condition 500 that parts continue becoming harder to source. I want to ride my bikes. Not ride in fear of breaking something that I won’t be able to find.
https://youtu.be/RZFvdzH9M2Y
I'm glad I owned one and got to experience a big bore smoker, but nostalgia can be deadly sometimes. I'd much, much rather ride a modern 450 for pretty much anything.
On dirt I ran a 185 main. However after 10 mins in the dunes I came back to camp and dropped the biggest main I had in the jet kit, a 205! 32/1 castor and a 205 and that bike ran wide open all day no problem with the slightest of spooge. 5th gear stand ups down sand highway, roosting the shit out of every quad at the place. Loved every second of it.
I think it’s a combination of nostalgia and the sheer brutish fun of cracking the throttle on one. I rode a RM500 occasionally as a 16yo and enjoyed times on CRs, YZ490s, WR500s and a KTM after that, but tracks have changed so much since then that they no longer allow a 500 2t to be ridden at its best. Rolling the throttle on one of those beasts coming out of a loamy corner, up a long uphill, on a flowing natural terrain track just couldn’t be beaten.....until you rode a sharp 250 and realised your lap times were several seconds quicker......and then later came the user friendly fart bombs.
A modern production counterbalanced 500 with fuel injection and a cheat button would be a dream, but it will never happen, hence the current interest in the old bikes, whether it’s to ride or just do burnouts in the bar.
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