Meet the Barkmasters!
MEET THE BARKMASTERS!
POWER PACKED SECTION
When too much roost is just enough
JIMMY LEWIS
YOU WANT FUN? WE GOT YOUR FUN. BlG TIME. FORGET pesky little 250s. Throw away those 400cc Thumpers. What you want, friends, is a true modern-day Open-class two-stroke. You know, twist the throttle and feel like a flag in a gale-force wind. How ’bout throttling back on long uphills that would have a lesser bike pinging like its piston’s next feat will be to shoot straight out the silencer? Why struggle to hit good lines on your favorite MX course when you can just make your own, courtesy of a beefy, buzz-sawing 100/100 rear knobby?
Just like the 500cc outdoor motocross nationals, axed from the AMA calendar in 1994, all-new big-bore two-strokes have become a distant memory. Sure, you still can buy a 500 from either Honda or Kawasaki, but how jazzed can you get about “bold new graphics” surrounding 1980s technology?
Well, pay attention all you dues-paying, card-carrying members of the HeMan Horsepower Club. Your bikes are here-essentially what new-for-’99 500cc ’strokers could be if there were a financial/ racing reason for up-to-date Open-classers.
Say Hallelujah!
DC Concepts’ KX500F1 and Service Honda’s CR500AL are limited-production, special-order items. All it takes is a signature on a check, starting at $7500 for a Service CR, m $1400 plus a donor 500 for a DCC KX. You can further customize them however you’d like-just open the wallet a little wider. How wide? Well, for $13,500 Dave Chase will build you an FI ready to win Baja or a national hare & hound. Reasonable, considering the work involved. Chase came up with the FI model name almost as an inside joke-Kawasaki, see, is on the Ell version of the KX500, a bike largely unchanged since the late ’80s, save for the requisite inverted-fork update. DCC starts with a KX main frame and suspension componentry, but it’s the shape and size of the bike that makes the FI special. By adapting a subframe, seat, airbox, rear fender and sidepanels off a 1999 KX250, hand-crafting a carbon-fiber gas tank to fill the void between the frame rails, then attaching KX250 radiators and shrouds, you get the basic FI. The benefit is an improved, forward seating position and a narrower mid-section, especially amazing when you consider the 4-plus-gallon capacity of the drybreak-equipped tank. Pro Circuit then cones up a workslooking low-boy pipe to clear the new tank. From there, it’s all about customization-and Chase knows his way around racebikes, having built them for many top off-road racing stars, regardless of brand.
One of the trickest bits is a hydraulic clutch (an extra $520), adapted from a KTM with some case machining. Up front, a works-kitted fork is held in place by an Emig
billet triple-clamp. Suspension internals can be set up for any rider or condition; our particular testbike was intended for all-out desert duty and also came rigged with a Scotts steering damper for stability at speed and an Answer Pro Taper handlebar for bend-resistance in 80mph g-outs. The frame was powdercoated neon-green just like the works Supercrossers, with color-matched Acerbis plastic. The stock hubs were laced to black-anodized Excel rims. Dunlop tires and heavy-duty tubes were selected. Overall, the look is very factory.
The Service Honda CR500AL is a much more stocklooking machine. In fact, we fooled a few people by telling them it was a prototype year-2000 Honda. Easy to believe as the bike is basically a from-thecrate CR500 motor placed into a 1999 CR250 aluminum frame (hence the AL suffix). That requires all motor mounts to be relocated and the fabrication of a new headstay. The radiator hoses are rerouted to clear the gas tank, and the tank itself is heated and coaxed into giving a bit of extra clearance for the sparkplug. Pro Circuit again chips in with a custom pipe and silencer.
As for the add-ons, a TAG Metals triple-clamp
and tapered handlebar with a Scotts steering stabilizer graced our testbike’s front end, a $720 package. The stock 250 suspension was revalved to a baseline setting derived by Service Honda. The chain and sprockets were upgraded with AFAM equipment. Special, stock-style graphics incorporating a 500cc logo give the finishing touch. Instant all-new CR500, thanks to the parts bin and a little creative engineering.
The first thing anyone notices about these bikes is the noise. (“That looks like a 250, but it sure don’t sound like one!”) Coffee-can pistons result in a guttural Ring-Ding-Ding only man-sized Open-classers expel. On track, the next thing people notice is roost-rock-chuckin’, finger-breakin’, hydroplane-
quality roost. Pure power is what these animals are about; every person who copped a ride came back wide-eyed and a-grinnin’. About the only downside is an insatiable appetite for race gas, a small price to pay. Guzzle away!
For the DCC KX there is just one mission objective: Gobble up miles of terrain at speeds that pin your eyeballs back in their sockets. The plush, wellrounded nature of the KX is still there, but the reworked suspension and especially the new seating position make the big bike feel, well, smaller and lighter. This, from a bike that tips the scales 5 pounds heavier (243 pounds, no gas) than the last KX500 we tested. Blame the powdercoated, reinforced frame and beefed-up wheels. Where you hesitate to attack > on a stock KX, you can get right at it on the F1. Sure, on a Supercross track the bike is still burly, but in turns you now can get your body lower and farther forward-the tight, inside line is even an option, though not the best one. Stability is first-rate, and you can actually throw the bike around a bit in the air. Modem-feeling, in other words, but with the Stocker’s forgiving ride still intact.
After just one stint on the Service Honda CR500AL, riders wondered aloud why Honda doesn’t already make a bike like this. There don’t
seem to be any downsides to the transplanted CR500 motor; our bike even had solid-mounted handlebar clamps replacing the rubber-mounted stockers, and there was never a complaint of harshness or vibration. The bike feels small and tame for a 500-until you give it the juice, that is. Motocross is what the ÁL is for, and with more and more local tracks going in the Supercross direction, lovers of full-sized bikes are no longer without a willing companion. If there’s a jump right out of a turn that’s hard to clear on a 250, you can do it at halfthrottle on the CR500. And it wants to hug the inside, too, or anywhere in a turn, for that matter. Suspension was sensational. We never changed a clicker and, especially in choppy terrain-the stuff a CR250 fears most-the 500 was rock-solid. All this from a bike that, at 232 pounds dry, is only 9 pounds heavier than a CR250.
Even trail riding, we couldn’t find fault in the CR, though it wasn’t as stable or plush as the KX in high-speed rough going. An off-road plus for the CR is its wider-ratio five-speed transmission, although you can gear the KX to the moon and you won’t feel any gaps. About the only penalty the CR pays is its small fuel capacity, but Service Honda soon will have larger tanks available. Both bikes carbureted super-clean and detonated very little on pump gas, though race fuel is recommended.
If you sense that we’re impressed by these two earth-movers, you’re right. Sure, we love manageable, mid-displacement bikes like KTM’s 380SX. But why not gluttonize? It’s been a while since we’ve ridden monsters like these, and we’re glad to have them back. Roost on! □
