Service Honda- 2013 KX500AF Build Project

cool. Thanks

Good info, thanks. I have the "same" boy at home! My son Brian is eleven. He goes crazy when Dad leaves to go snowbiking. The 300XC will be ported and head work by Forward Motion / Millennium Tech, the 250SX cdi race map, and have a new APT Cast 38MM feeding it. It will be a snorter for sure! Ha... He will find it user friendly with a Recluse clutch and e-start. That will be a sweet pkg. Also a spare bike to take along to Dealer deom's for riders under 180lbs.

TTT, Here it is for those folks who were trying to find this build.

Thanks, Randy

TTT, I guess people are trying to find this thread.

Yes it does! I miss the Monster.....

I agree. I will do it again. A "high end" 500. More rev's is better. A super-moto , High RPM Service 500 is pretty awesome. Now we have Carb heat, Smart Carbs, De-comp heads, Primer, etc. It is pretty much an easy "super snowbike".

I have never had heated grips. Heated gloves and an LED light in my pack. Electricity is not something to hold you back.

I have been asked about parts availability and KX500 info lately. I thought I would post some info for folks considering a powerful, inexpensive dedicated snowbike. The Honda info is everywhere but questions about the big KX can be answered here. Reading this gives me the bug again!

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Dirt Bike Magazine
THE LIFE & TIMES OF THE KAWASAKI KX500
June 4, 2012



'A fuse looking for a light.’
‘Unrideable.’
‘Violent.’
Those are all quotes from the June 1983 issue of Dirt Bike. The subject? Kawasaki’s first KX500, a bike that was destined to become a legend in motocross and desert racing. It was a humble beginning for one of the greatest dirt bikes in history. At the time, there were no 500cc motocrossers. Kawasaki was the first to go there since the notorious 501 Maico of the previous decade. But in the end, the KX would outlast all others of its kind, officially turning out the lights on the 500 two-stroke class in 2004.
USES FOR POWER
For over 20 years, it was generally accepted that if any bike made more power than a Kawasaki KX500, it was impractical. The KX was seen as the upper boundary of sanity. It might have been true. It was a bike for real men. Unfortunately, it seemed that real men were in short supply, and the market gradually moved away from the KX500 and the other 500s that followed. When it finally was dropped from the Kawasaki line, it had been unchanged for more than 10 years, and its sales numbers were unimpressive. The question of cause and effect remains unanswered to this day. If the KX had moved with the times, would its era have lasted longer?
Interestingly enough, the KX500 remains competitive even now in one very specialized realm. It was, perhaps, the greatest desert racer of all time. Motocross might have been its intended mission, but it’s particular blend of strengths meshed perfectly with the needs of western off-road racers. The KX was all but unbeatable in the National Hare & Hound series as well as in Baja. Many top desert racers say they would still ride it to this day, if only they could.

The next year, Kawasaki gave the KX a feature that no other 500cc two-stroke had ever seen: a KIPS power valve.

1987: Updates came yearly in this period, as Kawasaki and Honda were locked in a battle for dominance of the class. All the others had fallen by then; Suzuki’s 500 was long gone, and Yamaha’s air-cooled YZ490 was still in the line, but rapidly becoming an antique. The Kawasaki got a new frame and the side-access airbox design was abandoned. The rear suspension was reconfigured, losing the big rocker arm on top.
1988: The KX500 got its last big redesign, becoming the bike we know and love. It got minor mechanical changes and cosmetic updates afterward, but the most significant event was the arrival of the upside-down fork in 1990. In 1992, the ignition and crank were changed as an unofficial acknowledgment that the KX was being used more for off-road riding than motocross. By the early ’90s, Honda had given up the horsepower chase, leaving the KX uncontested as the most powerful dirt bike made. There was a brief challenge from KTM in the 500 class, but the only years that proved formidable were 1991 and 1992. There was also a KTM 550DXC in that period that was a very good bike.
USED BIKES
Kawasaki KX500s are plentiful on the used-bike market, particularly in the Southwest. A quick survey on Craigslist shows prices between $500 and $2400. With a bike that was unchanged for this long, it’s all about condition, not vintage. Few of them were raced, although many appear unkept. Parts are readily available for anything that was manufactured after 1990.
One of the great things about used KX500s is that they are fairly indestructible. They could swallow dirt by the pound and keep running. The electrofusion-coated cylinder couldn’t be bored, but would wear for a long, long time. If it does get damaged, there are a number of companies like Millennium Technologies that can recoat a KX barrel.
At the height of the Team Green desert racing era, the most significant modification was frame reinforcement. The KX frame wasn’t nearly as indestructible as the engine. The pipe mount and footpeg mounts always got attention. Zip-Ty Racing still has a long list of KX500 parts and services available.
The fleet of motorcycles is so large that it’s somewhat eternal on trails in California and Arizona.

Hope this helps. Good luck and have fun!!!