The KX500 Green Dream: Part 2

Welcome to the second online instalment about Rob Ferrington’s 2003-model Kawasaki KX500 – the bike he’s dreamt about owning since … well, forever!

There is no shortage of project bikes on the Net that cost more than some blokes earn in a year, and I have no intention of trying to build another one. This is about breaking the mould and seeing if I can figure out why those blokes riding the VMX scene seem to have so much fun; it’s about have a bike that lets me turn up at any event and still do okay.
So the first thing I did was ride it. No mods, no nothing; just head straight out to QMP and ride the thing with its 18-inch rear, huge desert tank and gearing that’s probably good for somewhere north of 100mph. The only love it got was a clean air filter and some fresh Penrite Pro Gear in the gearbox. The compression felt pretty good under boot, and it ran crisply, so there was nothing to do but put it in the van and get out to the track. Once you get your head around the fact that it’s a 14-year-old bike (that had been unchanged for 14 years!) and that you are riding a design that was cutting-edge more than a quarter-of-a-century ago, you become a little more understanding…

It is a bit of a no-brainer to say this, but it is the power delivery on this big-bore two-stroke machine that blows you away. If you haven’t ridden one before, it is like nothing else. It isn’t the screaming top-end that got me; it was the bottom and mid-range, where there was power any time you wanted it. There was no such thing as a gear too low; just twist your wrist and the big girl would deliver as much as you wanted with no complaint. Courtesy of the bike’s previous life as a desert racer, its suspension was set up pretty soft and surprisingly compliant. Not that I tend to test suspension set-ups to their limits, but my plan is to bring the suspension up to modern standards, and then see if we can make the engine a little sweeter (which I’ll cover in subsequent installments).
So, over the past few weeks, I’ve focused largely on just tidying the bike up. While it looked pretty tidy in the photos in Part #1, a closer inspection showed a few areas that needed some love. The wheels had some huge dents, courtesy of some high-speed hits in the desert; the plastics had plenty of cracks; and the chain and sprockets were flogged out. They were the immediate concerns.

WHEELS & TYRES

Calling the guys at Ash’s Spoked Wheelz in Capalaba was the first step. I explained that we were on a budget, but didn’t want budget outcomes, and then waited for the inevitable laughter. The rims were shot, but Jack suggested lacing up a set of DID Dirt Star rims to the OEM hubs. The hubs had previously been turned down on a lathe to remove the casting marks, so all it took was a polish, new rims, and a set of spokes for the front (Jack was able to re-use the spokes on the rear), and we had the perfect, cost-effective solution. It may have been easier to throw a set of anodised Chinese wheels on there, but I reckon we came up with a much better solution at a competitive price. Sometimes it just takes a little expert knowledge to get were you need to be.

Of course, new wheels called for some new rubber, and having a connection with GoldenTyre in Australia made the choice pretty simple. Having been used for at least one Finke prologue win and the 2016 AORC title, a GT333 120/100-18 was an easy choice for the rear. For a rear tyre, there’s no harder task than trying to keep 60+ horsepower under control, although having me in the seat makes it a bit easier. A GT216 90/100-21 fatty takes care of the steering up front. I have been pretty stoked with this combo over the past year on my other bikes, so it seemed like a good starting point while I get myself accustomed to the KX500.

PLASTICS

Closer inspection showed that the rear guard was nearly cracked through behind the seat – a common enough problem on 500s – plus the radiator shrouds were well past it. We couldn’t source any OEM plastics, but I was pleasantly surprised there was a UFO plastics kit available on the shelf and ready to go. The fitment was spot-on and the green was the perfect hue. I chose to leave the white sideplates on there, rather than put the new green pieces on, just to try and get a bit of contrast and not have it look too much like Kermit.

DRIVE TRAIN

The chain and sprockets were well and truly cooked and, like the tyres, an open-class bike isn’t the place to skimp on these items. So a fresh set of Renthal sprockets and a Regina chain set the bike off nicely. I bought the bike back to the standard gearing to try and slow it down a bit in the tighter stuff. First gear idle used to feel like you would get a ticket in a school zone and, combined with a pretty heavy clutch, made you work a whole lot harder than you needed to.

UP NEXT…

That is it for this second instalment. But coming up, we get Dave from Two-Stroke Performance to work his magic with the Kawi’s engine, and Full Force Racing to bring the suspension into the 21st Century.

ABOUT THIS KX500 PROJECT…

In late 2016, we got an email from a bloke called Rob Ferrington, spelling out his vision for a KX500 project bike. “I don’t want to create yet another project bike with anodised brake reservoir covers and wheel spacers,” he said. “My KX won’t be a beauty queen; it’ll be functional and ruggedly good-looking. I will be neither a vintage bike nor a modern. This won’t be the quickest bike around, but I reckon it will be right up there when it comes to reminding us why it is that we ride.”

Rob’s been involved in the racing scene and moto product distribution game for some time, so we’d chatted a couple of times over the years. But after reading his refreshing real-world vision for this KX500, we became equally enthused about the project. We put together broad development plan for the machine, and then mapped out half-a-dozen monthly instalments that’d document the project through www.transmoto.com.au. You’ve just read Part #2.

Part #1: https://transmoto.com.au/the-kx500-green-dream-part-1/