Those were great bikes and made a great platform as a trail bike and desert racer with just a little tweaking. Still, they don't make a good dual sport. Right now the KTM's and Husky street legals are about the best thing going for a real dirt bike to be fully street legal.

One of our club members has a KX500 with a heavier flywheel mod, and that thing is a torque and traction monster out at our extremely rough enduro course where we've hosted two national enduros. Any powerful bike that can't put down its power smoothly is a hazard out there due to the constant up and down on loose, rocky, rutted terrain. That KX is a tractor.

 

Yeah I'd want it, but then get hurt when it kicked my butt!

A friend did a CR500R supermoto, Couldn't ride it the thirty miles to work and back on a tank of gas. Two stroke motocrossers not the best for gas mileage.

Interesting side note, Honda put a device on David Bailey's CR450R and found he only used full throttle twice on the first lap and once per lap there after when racing at Saddleback. He used full throttle on the start on the first lap and on the long tough uphill every lap there after. Otherwise he never used full throttle.

 

CR500...freaking almost unrideable Saturn 5 rocket. Just about useless as anything approaching trail riding. One of the guys out at the enduro club place I mentioned above has one of those CR500 engine in a CR450R chassis rigs that some cool company builds. It's a beautifully built bike with a great handling chassis, but the power is still just about unusable. My hat's off to Honda for creating such a fire breathing beast just to prove it could be done.

klx678, I think you'd be surprised with the KX500 on trails. Even with the stock flywheel, it put out some outstanding, usable power that defies normal logic of a 500 2-stroke. Despite the power output of the CR500, it's not surprising when you look at the MX championships won by the KX and the amazing years of Baja wins. The KX500 may have had the best powerband of any 2-stroke in this class.

 

SWEEEET!!! Love the smell of blue smoke.

 

Nah, I'd never like the KX500 or any other big bore two stroke. I'm small bore. I like being able to use full throttle a lot. I'd rather handle the bike than the bike handle me. Riding a 125 was way more fun and easy for me than a 250. But that's just me.