What killed the 500?

It cost teams too much to run three different series.

mike larocco killed the 500 with his awesomeness

As far as pro racing-- I don't think the 500s were hugely popular with a lot of fans. (I liked them). They sounded mellower.

As far as amateur- way too much power for the average rider.

Open bikes were 360-400cc. Factory open bikes became bigger to take full advantage of the 500cc upper limit. The public wanted bikes that were factory replicas so production bikes got bigger and more powerful too.

As the bikes became more powerful they became more difficult to ride. The buying public found that they could go faster on a 250 so that's what they bought.

Fewer 500s were hence being sold so less money was invested in updating them. The factories then became less interested in promoting them (hence the dropping of the class in the US).

It was exponential. As less 500s were sold so less development happened....so they became more outdated....and sold even less....so even less development.... etc

We're maybe starting to seeing it happen all over again with 450Fs?

Lack of sales.

Not many people could ride them. Just a little too much power for the average joe and with the weight and handling issues back then it would make your butt pucker in a hurry. However stick a 500cc 2-stroke engine in a modern day 450 and I bet they would sell.

Yamaha killed them when they stopped updating them and soon the others followed suit.

Suzuki gave up on the 500 way before Yamaha did.

Service Honda seems to sell quite a few. Could be because it's a specialty thing to an extent. If it was offered as a production bike, I doubt it would have nearly as much appeal.

If the KTM350 succeeds at being the perfect bike and the big 4 follows suit you can probably see some of the same with the 450's. Unlike KTM, the Japanese mfgs. don't seem too concerned with giving the moto public what they want, more like what the mfgs. want you to need.

Wait, the 500 is dead?

I think the manufacturers sold every 500 they made. But they don't make money selling dirt bikes I guess.

There are so many things that happened that you cant count just 1 thing as the demise of the open class.

1. Not all manufacturers made a 500
2. Many Pro riders were focussing on a specific class and did not ride open class
3. Sanctioning bodies were trying to tighten up programs.. Something had to go
4. Lack of development made people look at the 250 class as the Premier class
5. MC never raced one in SX

... yep thats it... I blame Jeremy

The smoking gun leads to Wedge Figgus........

Heh heh heh... His mom didn't like the sound of them.

Or maybe it was Danny Dolan? Conspiracy???

The AMA....no class, therefore no machines.

what killed the 500 is the same thing that killed the 2 stroke..... us, the consumer. period. you can blame the AMA, but thats like blaming the government for the buggy whip industry collapsing when cars hit the scene. there was no class for them because 2 of the 4 manufacturers stopped making them basically and the other 2 had quit developing them and just bold new graphic'ed them for 5 years. The consumer interest wasnt there, so the manufacturers stopped.

500's where hard to ride, had more motor than the frame at the time could handle, had light switch motors that would hit like a ton of bricks, and where extremely niche in a sport that was already niche. Consumer demand for them was VERY low.

then the manufacturers, namely Suzuki first, stopped building them because they werent selling them. Yamaha had the 490, but it went 5 or 7 years without any developement because interest was low. People bought 250's and 125's in droves. Us, we did it.

Really not much different from the current 2 stroke market in general. The mfgs. stop all development of them and when people quit buying a seven year old new bike they quit producing it altogether. And that is not a 2 stroke vs. 4 stroke comment.

But I'd guess a lot of them ended up with paddle tires and flags, so they could go to Glamis.

I had an 87 500 Honda that I hated because of the spikey power. I rode a 91 and it was so much more mellow it felt slow but was fast. Kinda like a 450 four stroke...... go figure.

Sweeeet bike brah

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

It's a chicken and egg argument. Yamaha and Suzuki didn't make a competitive open class bike, so they pushed to get the class eliminated. Honda and Kawasaki didn't make enough of a fuss because it cost money to race that class and they figured the fewer models they made, the more profit they made - so basically development of the 500s stopped in '93 or so. People don't buy bikes that the pros don't ride and that the factory doesn't update, so they just went away. There was never anything inherent in a 500 that was bad or unmanageable or any of that - many riders preferred them to 250s, others had the opposite point of view. But they were, and still are, very easy bikes to ride and as reliable as a rock.

It's exactly the same thing as the 250T/250F controversy - the manufacturers don't want to keep making 250Ts, so they don't want to see them raced in pro series' and they don't want to really update them very much, and they'll die off in the same way. It's not because they're bad bikes - in fact, a 250T is probably the best all-around motocross bike ever for the vast majority of riders - it's just because the factories are run by businessmen and not motorcycle enthusiasts (KTM aside). Businessmen say, "Why make two bikes for the same class? We'll reduce production expense by making only one, and we'll have the same number of customers. Two bikes for one class is crazy, shut that assembly line down right now." The racing series' gave the factories what they wanted, and the only ones to suffer were people who wanted to race a 250T because it was lighter, more powerful, more reliable, better handling, more developed, better sounding, better smelling and cheaper to ride. But who cares about any of that stuff?

Uh, yeah. That is about all they were good for to us mere mortals...

Not so! I race in the tight Northeast woods and even as of last year I won a race on my old steel framed KX500! I love the thing, its an animal! But yes, I don't race it normally, although this winter I am racing some Mud-n-Snow Scrambles with it, no where I can't go with my trusty 500..

The final nail in the coffin of Japanese 500s?

It was a cop in Mexico...Baja, to be more specific, that drove the final nail.

June, 03, 1995.

Yet you probably love your 450 right?

The older 500's were pipey and violent. They tamed them down and turned them into torque monsters in later years. Very easy to ride and really fast. I would own a Service Honda (In an RMZ250 chassis thank you) if I could afford one.

lack of balls

One of the most fun and easiest bikes to ride I ever threw a leg over was a friend's '86 CR500 that had a balanced crank (very little vibration for a 500) and a big ol' flywheel weight. Put it in 3rd and chug around just about anything. Mellow power delivery and stump-pulling power, much like what you'd find in a modern 4-stroke, only cheaper, more reliable, lighter, easier to work on....

I ran into one of the real old-school factory 500 riders at the Houston SX one year, and he told me that he got a new bike from the factory (he was a mid-late 80s factory guy) and when he went out and rode it, it was just impossible to ride for 45 minutes. Much too powerful and sudden, couldn't get any traction and was just ridiculous. So his mechanic took it apart, welded up ports, put tungsten plugs in the crank to add weight, and generally detuned it until he could ride it fast for 45 minutes. Then they sent all the specs and particulars to the factory so they'd know what kind of engine they needed to build in 500s. They said, "Thanks so much, we really appreciate the feedback, we'll incorporate these changes immediately." He wore that bike out and the factory sent another one, and it was faster than the previous one had been before they did anything to it.

It took a long time for racing departments to really get a grip on detuning a bike to make it faster to ride on the track.