The KX500 Green Dream: Part 1

Welcome to our first online instalment about Rob Ferrington’s 2003-model Kawasaki KX500 – the bike he’s dreamt about owning since forever.

A couple of months back, 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. It will be neither a vintage bike nor a modern. It was an old design when it was new, but if we can make it better, we won’t let originality stand in the way. 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 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 a broad development plan for the machine, and then mapped out half-a-dozen monthly instalments that’d document the project right here on Transmoto‘s website.

So, here we are. Welcome to instalment #1 of Green Dream. Take it away, Rob…

“My KX500 won’t be a beauty queen; it’ll be functional, ruggedly good-looking, and will be neither a vintage bike nor a modern.”

This isn’t your typical project bike build – not for the choice of bike, my plans for it, or what will be a complete lack of anodised ‘bling’. It won’t be the fastest bike out there, and we make no apologies for it. It won’t be a slouch, but we aren’t here to kid ourselves, either; a stock 450cc thumper will be quicker in most departments, except one – the time it takes to induce a huge, shit-eating grin!

Kawasaki’s last KX500 rolled off the production line in 2004. The model had been unchanged for the past 16 years, and while they had gained fame at European MX tracks and Californian desert races, they were pretty much left to gather dust on dealership floors. There was no mad rush to purchase the last of these models, regardless of their exploits. Nobody seemed to recognise the end of the era, and instead embraced the new 450cc four-strokes that seemed to be the answer to the question that nobody asked. Magazines rushed to tell us how old-fashioned two-strokes were, and while some people never gave up on the dream, you were hard-pushed to even give away a 500cc two-stroke. Until recently…

That is, until Sean Collier and Destry Abbott almost singlehandedly bought the spotlight back onto them. Destry had won plenty of titles – from desert racing to endurocross, on two- and four-stroke factory Kawi machines – but when he rebuilt his old title-winning KX500 two-banger, he just about melted the Internet! Likewise, when Sean schooled the field on his dad’s old KX at the World Two-Stroke Championships in 2014, and almost again in 2015, people began to realise that the old girls mightn’t be done just yet.

I’m still not sure how I came to be looking at craigslist for 500cc MXers in Los Angeles, but the timing must have right as there was one particularly tidy 2003 model which had been listed that same day. I sent an email that, reading it later, sounded like a bad Nigerian scam: “Hi, I’m in Australia and would like to buy your bike….” Anyway, I called the seller a few times until he put the international phone calls and the dodgy email together and answered. True to his word, he gave me a few days’ grace to get the cash into his account while he knocked back other offers. Shipping was arranged, and about eight weeks (and a few hidden charges) later, I was wheeling the bike into my van.

The KX’s condition was about what we expected from the pictures – tidy, but a few little cosmetic issues. The rear fender was cracked – surprise, surprise. One or two bolts had vibrated their way to freedom. And the rims looked like they had taken some big hits in the desert. But the engine felt pretty tight and the bearings were good, so there was nothing left to do but ride it. Some project bikes would have been pulled down at this stage and had their frame and swingarm sent off to the powder coater. But that isn’t the way of this build. We just rode it.