Opinions on a KTM 500 EXC for ex-motocrosser/?

Kawi4life
Posts
70
Joined
12/26/2014
Location
Columbia, NJ US
9/19/2016 8:33am Edited Date/Time 9/19/2016 8:37am
Ok so here's where I'm at- I've called everywhere for a bike in stock- there's nada.. If you go on cycletrader there seems to be plenty out there but when you call they're always sold out. Buying a bike in Nov/Dec is dumb, too cold. Found a out of state Kawasaki dealer that claims he can re-title a MX bike for road use and says he does it all the time for out of state buyers but the Baja designs conversion kit only lists up to the 2015 model? If I could turn a 2016/17 KX450f into something similar to a Husky FE or KTM EXC street legal I would be one happy camper because A) I won't have to play the limited no stock game with a smaller company like KTM because Kawasaki dealers are good and plentiful with tons of stock to be had with deep discounts on 2016 models and Cool Kawasaki is my prefered brand anyway. There's definitely no 2017 street legal KTM's/Husky's in the States yet and shipping is potentially pushed back another month. I've even looked for lightly used ones to no avail.... There's not even one on Ebay or Craigslist and the only one on Cycletrader claimed it was sold last Saturday (I had to work Saturday, gah....) Actually there was one on Craigslist but he was asking more than brand new MSRP because of his aftermarket pipe and supermoto rims that he wouldn't separate from the sale, gimmie a break. Not paying more than a brand new one for a used one but never the less, I've never had such a hard time giving someone $10k before that's for sure! Sad
Kawi4life
Posts
70
Joined
12/26/2014
Location
Columbia, NJ US
9/20/2016 8:07pm Edited Date/Time 9/20/2016 8:18pm
TL;DR: If anyone is near Cali or Virginia and wants to get a brand new 2016 FE501S let me know and I'll forward the dealers to you that still have them.




Ok dudes, through great pain and agony I've found three brand new 501S's sitting on the showroom right now. Had them eyeball them and even text me pictures and vins and they are legit brand new street legal 501S's still on the showroom floor. But I didn't buy any of them. The nearest one was a 17hr round trip (Virginia) and the farthest was a 2700mi ONE WAY trip (Cali), lol. A local used motorcycle dealer only 27 minutes from me had one slightly used with 243 miles on it with a FMF exhaust already installed:




You guys think that's a lot of miles for a 2016? It was probably a repo from a auction, maybe not, could of been a trade as this dealer buys and trades a lot of used machines. Don't care as long as it turns out to be a solid machine. Typically I don't buy things used anymore, especially recreational machines for fear something might be wrong with it and you don't know how the previous owner treated it. But the sides of the hand grips look like they've never seen the ground and I rode it for about a hour tonight and it feels and runs perfect. I gotta say I'm definitely not disappointing in the motor/power, lol. Some people said it's geared too tall... no way this thing rips off road with massive torque! And it can cruise highway speeds idling barely breaking a sweat, heh. Suspension is way too soft for me. I grew up trail riding MX bikes and going through little whoops on the abandoned rail beds it definitely doesn't track like my KX's did but it was night time plus the levers, bars, and everything aren't adjusted to my comfort so that could throw me off a little bit.

Also definitely not worried about the weight savings on the 2017. Whipping around on a 800lb 215hp Seadoo the last five years, this thing feels almost too light and narrow, lol. I haven't been on a dirt bike in a long time since 2009 on my 2007 KX450f. But I already feel like this bike has potential to be the most fun recreational machine I've ever owned! Tonight I was cruising some off road area right next to a lake that I definitely couldn't get to legally on a offroad only bike so this machine just opened up my usability of a dirt bike ten-fold! It was almost confusing when I left my house, which way can I go? I can go anywhere I want! :D

I can already see me getting a second set of rims and tires for on-road only when my road bike friends want me to riding with them because the off road tires don't feel very good on road, heh. Actually the stock tires on this thing don't really feel that great off road. You would think with a on road capably bike they would of put knobbies that where closer together and these tires almost seem like sand tires? I think a good hard pack dirt bike tire would do much better for dual sporting to be honest.

Anyhow, please wish me luck with this used machine, lol. 243 miles isn't nothing on a car (seen plenty of brand new vehicles get sold as new with that many miles from test drives) but this is a off road machine but feels and runs fresh and new. Love the look of the FMF on it. My first fuel injected bike too! I like how the kick stand automatically lifts itself up when you stand the bike up! Pretty neat! Yea I guess you can say I'm a happy camper right now, heh. Smile
Kawi4life
Posts
70
Joined
12/26/2014
Location
Columbia, NJ US
9/20/2016 8:28pm
That FMF looks good on it... Wink


langhammx
Posts
8904
Joined
5/5/2011
Location
Santa Clarita, CA US
Fantasy
323rd
9/20/2016 8:36pm
Kawi4life wrote:
TL;DR: If anyone is near Cali or Virginia and wants to get a brand new 2016 FE501S let me know and I'll forward the dealers to...
TL;DR: If anyone is near Cali or Virginia and wants to get a brand new 2016 FE501S let me know and I'll forward the dealers to you that still have them.




Ok dudes, through great pain and agony I've found three brand new 501S's sitting on the showroom right now. Had them eyeball them and even text me pictures and vins and they are legit brand new street legal 501S's still on the showroom floor. But I didn't buy any of them. The nearest one was a 17hr round trip (Virginia) and the farthest was a 2700mi ONE WAY trip (Cali), lol. A local used motorcycle dealer only 27 minutes from me had one slightly used with 243 miles on it with a FMF exhaust already installed:




You guys think that's a lot of miles for a 2016? It was probably a repo from a auction, maybe not, could of been a trade as this dealer buys and trades a lot of used machines. Don't care as long as it turns out to be a solid machine. Typically I don't buy things used anymore, especially recreational machines for fear something might be wrong with it and you don't know how the previous owner treated it. But the sides of the hand grips look like they've never seen the ground and I rode it for about a hour tonight and it feels and runs perfect. I gotta say I'm definitely not disappointing in the motor/power, lol. Some people said it's geared too tall... no way this thing rips off road with massive torque! And it can cruise highway speeds idling barely breaking a sweat, heh. Suspension is way too soft for me. I grew up trail riding MX bikes and going through little whoops on the abandoned rail beds it definitely doesn't track like my KX's did but it was night time plus the levers, bars, and everything aren't adjusted to my comfort so that could throw me off a little bit.

Also definitely not worried about the weight savings on the 2017. Whipping around on a 800lb 215hp Seadoo the last five years, this thing feels almost too light and narrow, lol. I haven't been on a dirt bike in a long time since 2009 on my 2007 KX450f. But I already feel like this bike has potential to be the most fun recreational machine I've ever owned! Tonight I was cruising some off road area right next to a lake that I definitely couldn't get to legally on a offroad only bike so this machine just opened up my usability of a dirt bike ten-fold! It was almost confusing when I left my house, which way can I go? I can go anywhere I want! :D

I can already see me getting a second set of rims and tires for on-road only when my road bike friends want me to riding with them because the off road tires don't feel very good on road, heh. Actually the stock tires on this thing don't really feel that great off road. You would think with a on road capably bike they would of put knobbies that where closer together and these tires almost seem like sand tires? I think a good hard pack dirt bike tire would do much better for dual sporting to be honest.

Anyhow, please wish me luck with this used machine, lol. 243 miles isn't nothing on a car (seen plenty of brand new vehicles get sold as new with that many miles from test drives) but this is a off road machine but feels and runs fresh and new. Love the look of the FMF on it. My first fuel injected bike too! I like how the kick stand automatically lifts itself up when you stand the bike up! Pretty neat! Yea I guess you can say I'm a happy camper right now, heh. Smile
Congrats.

The Shop

JMX82
Posts
1386
Joined
5/9/2013
Location
Hyllykallio FI
9/21/2016 5:04am
Kawi4life wrote:
That FMF looks good on it... ;) [img]http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x106/emig5m/my%20vehicles/vp4738914_3_large.jpg[/img]
That FMF looks good on it... Wink


Nice looking bike! Now just add 17" supermoto wheels and white KTM front fender and you are ready to hit the streets
Kawi4life
Posts
70
Joined
12/26/2014
Location
Columbia, NJ US
9/24/2016 8:21pm
Just wanted to share some more input on this bike. Today I rode a 40 mile round trip trail ride and stopped here and there to adjust the suspension. Default settings are way too soft for me, even for trail riding. Like I think I said before, I grew up trail riding MX bikes before racing MX so I like the crisp handling/cornering and whoop stability of a MX machine. So as I kept messing with the rebound and compression clickers, I got to the point where they all where set to the hardest setting. This put me in the ballpark of feeling like a stock MX bike and the suspension is still VERY plush.

To help the front end feel more planted and biting for traction (felt too tall in the front and lack of traction/cornering) I had to lower the front end by moving the forks up the triple clamps. I have them at 9.5mm from top of the triple clamp to the top of the fork tubes (minus the fork end caps). So in other words, the two reference rings that are on top of the fork tubes imagine there being two more at the same distance and I would have the forks at the fourth ring. So setting all the clickers to the hardest setting and dropping the front end, the bike feels so much more balanced and stable. Default settings the bike just dove too much through the travel with no resistance and the front end traction didn't inspire too much confidence, heh. Even with the clickers set to max hardness, the suspension still soaks up riding over logs and such stuff found on the trails so it's not like it's real stiff set to max hardness.

It's amazing with just some tweaking how much better I made the bike feel and how much more comfortable it is and handles better. Before I went full hard on the clickers, it swapped pretty bad on whoops. So I'm at the borderline of absolutely needing stiffer valving but I could live with it as-is because it about feels perfect right now for straight up trail riding. If only I could put a spacer in the rear shock to lower the rear a bit I think it would feel even more balanced and stable- this bike is a tall bike.

Things I'm really liking about the bike-
[list]
[*]A MX style machine that's road legal. Being able to ride right out of my yard to trails I could no longer get to on a off-road only machine and being able to ride to new trails where I wouldn't even know where to park if I trucked it. I still feel like I'm doing something illegal by riding it on the road but I passed my first police on the road today and he didn't even bat an eye, lol.

[*]How smooth and easy the shifting is! I rode up to the store to grab some milk and just took the bike and wore sneakers since I wasn't going off road and didn't want to wear MX boots in the store where my MX bikes of past would tear up a laced shoe in minutes from the notchier/harder shifting. The shifter movement is so butter smooth and easy on this bike you could probably comfortably shift it with bare feet! Downright best shifting dirt bike I've ever ridden!

[*]Fuel mileage.... The trail riding trip I did today I would normally have to leave a five gallon gas can halfway in advance on my old 2-stroke MX bikes and I got there and back and still had 3/4 of a tank!

[*]The torque.... This thing tractors up hill climbs like no other bike or quad I've ever ridden! Don't let people that say it's geared too tall scare you about possible loss of feel of power, this thing has so much torque I think gearing it down would hurt you from too much wheel spin, lol. I have no sense of urgency to change the gearing, it's fine for me.[/list]


It's honestly been seven years since I've owned a bike and didn't think I'd ever ride again, thanks Husky for making a bike that fits my needs! Love it! Smile



Johnny Depp
Posts
6438
Joined
10/16/2014
Location
Buda, TX US
9/25/2016 7:54pm
Nice write up. It seems like you know a thing or two about setup. Have you checked the sag?

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