[FourWerx]

Well I put $4g's down on a 505sx this morning and have put it on order officially. Delivery date here is Nov 21st roughly though, so i'll have quite some time to drool over the though of it.

What is everyones plans for there sx's? Susp. mods, motor mods, chassis and body mods?

I'll have my list up soon.

Jay @ FourWerx

 

[JAKELTR450]

just got mine yesterday. i already cut the air scoops, disconnected wire, pulled the spring out of the throttle, pushed forward the stem clamps, installed flexx bars, took both spark arrestors out of the endcap, installed mud caps and put on number plates.

maybe pep pb1 for suspension
yosh or fmf pipe
some oxy fuel
quadtech stuff this weekend
carb mod soon
number plate stickers
maybe some a-arms?
rath heel guards or equivelant

 

[Quadevil]

The stock a-arms seem pretty good to me at almost 50"

 

[rrbaby87]

I picked up my 505 SX the last Wednesday in August. Installed a precision stabilizer, # plates and another set of wheels and tires. Didn't want to ruin the Razr-MX softs practicing. The stabilizer bolts right up since the frame is identicle to the XC.
First time I removed the front plastic one of the anchor nuts stripped out and caused a fuel leak. Took it to my local KTM dealer and they got the replacement tank on order. KTM is standing by thier product so its not costing me anything except ride time. The ironic thing is one of the reasons I was taking off the plastic was to put anti-seize on all of the tank bolts. I joined this site knowing I was getting an SX and was fore warned about the anchor nuts... thanks for the heads up but it still bit me. When I got the anchor nut out I had to use two wrenches to get it loose. The assembly guys at the factory torqued the crap out of it!
I spent an entire day testing and tuning. We adjusted the shocks, set the ride height, adjusted the bars and steering stem. At the end of the day we did some timed laps to compare the KTM to a 450R. The 450R has a full national Sparks motor, Walsh long travel a-arms, Walsh swingarm and linkage and PEP PB1 shocks. Pretty much a pro caliber Quad. A 2008 amatuer champion was doing the riding. He was consistently running 2-2.5 seconds a lap faster on my KTM. The one thing that is aparent to me is that the KTM is ready to go without any high dollar upgrades.

 

[SandJunkie]

The stock a-arms seem pretty good to me at almost 50"

I too was pretty impressed with the front end...the tie rods are double the size of my LTR's...lower a-arms were very beefy...I'm sure an aftermarket set-up would be better?...Personally I would have no problem running that stock set-up though...

 

[FourWerx]

I'm sure the stock arms will do just fine with MX racing. Most likely I'll stay stock on my SX, but I might have to get another set of Walsh Flow's for that bike too. I'm loving them on my 08 right now.

Here are the walsh, and you can compare them to stock. Very beefy, and extremely lightweight!!

 

[ktmquad37]

I think I might have done the smartest thing with my SX yet!! I didn't buy it. After almost a full year of no factory support and failures of every kind, I called it quits. Selling out for a Honda. Tired of changing battery boxes, intake boots, stripped tank bolts and rebuilding motors. Many of you might think that we are just amatuers who were not prepared for a little maintenance and a few first year bike issues. Wrong! We took this year very serious, and have been kicked down by theses KTM's again and again! So to those of you new KTM guys making te $$$ plunge, good luck!! Hopefully the Honda in front of you that you cannot catch will be us!! But maybe the KTM in front of us that we cannot catch will be you, a gamble I am just not willing to take!

 

[FourWerx]

SO what do you mean? Just because you didn't get factory support you are jumping ship? I'm sorry to inform you, but Honda has virtually NO factory support even if you running pro! And I don't think you are pro...right?

I have heard very little things going wrong with the KTM for a first year machine in comparison to those of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawi etc. If your worried about having problems and going thru a season without a problem, then I'm sorry but racing isn't your game. If you ride hard, your just asking to push the capabilities of the machines and the engineers that build them. The KTM is by far the best and most thought out machine I've seen on the market yet. The engineering goes far above the rest in my opinion, and trust me i've dug into many machines!!!

Jay

 

[Big Orange]

I think I might have done the smartest thing with my SX yet!! I didn't buy it. After almost a full year of no factory support and failures of every kind, I called it quits. Selling out for a Honda. Tired of changing battery boxes, intake boots, stripped tank bolts and rebuilding motors. Many of you might think that we are just amatuers who were not prepared for a little maintenance and a few first year bike issues. Wrong! We took this year very serious, and have been kicked down by theses KTM's again and again! So to those of you new KTM guys making te $$$ plunge, good luck!! Hopefully the Honda in front of you that you cannot catch will be us!! But maybe the KTM in front of us that we cannot catch will be you, a gamble I am just not willing to take!

Well you can go back to a factory that doesn't care about atv racing, just the money that atv sales generates to support their bike racing. non stop transmission failures, right side crank bearing failures, and disposable frames. I've built, raced, and won championships on them all. And spent the least on my Ktm efforts.
My bet is if you destroyed your ktm, you'll destroy your next quad too.

 

[SandJunkie]

I'm sure the stock arms will do just fine with MX racing. Most likely I'll stay stock on my SX, but I might have to get another set of Walsh Flow's for that bike too. I'm loving them on my 08 right now.

Here are the walsh, and you can compare them to stock. Very beefy, and extremely lightweight!!

Those are sexy...

 

[rrbaby87]

I think I might have done the smartest thing with my SX yet!! I didn't buy it. After almost a full year of no factory support and failures of every kind, I called it quits. Selling out for a Honda. Tired of changing battery boxes, intake boots, stripped tank bolts and rebuilding motors. Many of you might think that we are just amatuers who were not prepared for a little maintenance and a few first year bike issues. Wrong! We took this year very serious, and have been kicked down by theses KTM's again and again! So to those of you new KTM guys making te $$$ plunge, good luck!! Hopefully the Honda in front of you that you cannot catch will be us!! But maybe the KTM in front of us that we cannot catch will be you, a gamble I am just not willing to take!

Sorry for your luck. When it boils down thats all it really is. I ran the ATVA Nationals in '06 & '07 on a TRX-450R and still had bad luck I.E. broken axel, blown stator and saw a bunch of transmissions blow out on the 06-07 models. Joe Byrd still was running an '05 this past year because of the tranny problems. Not to mention the frames flex so much the case halfs are cracking. For me it was simple math, dump $5,000 in upgrades + 7,000 in a "new" TRX that hasn't been updated since '06 or pay 11,000 for a quad that ready to go.

 

[ktmquad37]

Sorry for your luck. When it boils down thats all it really is. I ran the ATVA Nationals in '06 & '07 on a TRX-450R and still had bad luck I.E. broken axel, blown stator and saw a bunch of transmissions blow out on the 06-07 models. Joe Byrd still was running an '05 this past year because of the tranny problems. Not to mention the frames flex so much the case halfs are cracking. For me it was simple math, dump ,000 in upgrades + 7,000 in a "new" TRX that hasn't been updated since '06 or pay 11,000 for a quad that ready to go.

I understand, and totallyagree. When my dealer called and told me our SX was in I was excited. We have just had a very bad luck!! XC # 1 lost a bottom end after 3 weeks. Dealer fixed and it has been continual since with that one. Finally got it back last weekend and rode for about 2 hrs, head of valve came off and destroyed top end again! Haven't ridden it since March. #2 we have gone thru at least 6 battery boxes, 5 intake boots, the tankbolts have been stripped since the first time I took off the hood. Thinking about all this We still are running a stock frame, and axle( with Rath hubs) motor Dynos at 57hp but is not dependable. Always something big or small!!! KTM is just a pain in the rear for us!! Hope SX proves reliable. I know they have had problems with the cam gear slipping on that motor, we will wait and see! For us we can buy an 04-05 Honda, build a 60+ HP motor, shocks, etc for 10,000 and feel we will be much more reliable. We will see! Hate to bail on the KTM but my son likes to ride, and we just have not been able to ride in between races this whole season. I invested close to $30,000 in KTM atv's so far and still only have one running!

 

[FourWerx]

If your asking for reliability, 60+ HP motor is not the key. I do not think that you need 60+ hp on an XC bike stock bore, your just asking for trouble.

Jay

 

[bh84]

i have overheated mine once and put sligh scoring in both piston and cylinder, and a clutch line went bad, other than that shes been mint for me #1 plate in my room

 

[ktmquad37]

i have overheated mine once and put sligh scoring in both piston and cylinder, and a clutch line went bad, other than that shes been mint for me #1 plate in my room

Wish I could say the same. Funny thing is I bought two of them and haven't had any luck with either of them. Any way I didn't mean to hijack the thread. I sincerly hope the SX works out for you [email protected]

 

[Bronson90]

I think I might have done the smartest thing with my SX yet!! I didn't buy it. After almost a full year of no factory support and failures of every kind, I called it quits. Selling out for a Honda. Tired of changing battery boxes, intake boots, stripped tank bolts and rebuilding motors. Many of you might think that we are just amatuers who were not prepared for a little maintenance and a few first year bike issues. Wrong! We took this year very serious, and have been kicked down by theses KTM's again and again! So to those of you new KTM guys making te $$$ plunge, good luck!! Hopefully the Honda in front of you that you cannot catch will be us!! But maybe the KTM in front of us that we cannot catch will be you, a gamble I am just not willing to take!

first off i am not trying to discount your experiences with the ktm...

but do you not remember all the issues the early '04 yfz450 & '04 450r's had? i had one of each and i dont miss any of the issues i had with either; let alone the fact that they were both slow and very poorly built. it is fair to allow ktm a learning curve. remeber ktm is new to the quad market this year and both honda & yamaha had 20 years in the quad market when they released there '04 models.

ktm is a clear step ahead of all of the competition, hands down. i understand you may have had numerous issues and no support. one thing i truly believe is that good race support start at the local level with the dealers. it isnt possible for ktm or any manufacturer to have a presence at all local races around the US.

sorry you couldnt have a better experience and good luck with the honda!

 

[bh84]

Bronson makes an Excellent point, KTM stressed the fact that you have to start support in smaller series and work your way up, there will be no ATV MX team this year that KTM will support, i have a feeling some teams such as east coast and media allstars may make the switch to KTM though.


it is not KTMs responsibility to be at the races, it is the responsibility of KTM Dealers to get themselves out at the track supporting racers, we very rarely make a trip to the track without having parts or even bikes on board for other racers, we also bring more bikes home than we started with quite often, then fix them and bring them back for the next race. Dealers need to have a presence in the racing community as well as at trail rides, poker runs etc. it makes owning a KTM or any typre of vehicle that much easier and keep customers coming back and the consumer happy