Beast Mode - WR500 Yamaha

Gnarly bro. Was a parts bike, bought a few small items for it, used a bunch of extras from the shop and it is almost ridable. Should be fun.

Rode a friends a few years ago. Ran great stock. Was it a WR500 you rode or a YZ490? The WR500 fixed most the issues the YZ490 had...

"The WR500 engine is the same mill that powered the YZ490, unchanged except for the ignition stator, 38mm round-slide Mikuni, new combustion chamber, pipe and silencer. The ignition features a lighting coil (35-watt), less advance (1.7mm from 2.0mm) and the same flywheel as the 490. Compression dropped from 6.9:1 to 6.64:1 to get rid of the pinging. "

I liked the XC. Was not wild over the drum brake front end which I swapped for a KX500 front end. Made the bike much better. The thing that in the end turned me off from the bike the most was it was near impossible to stand up on as it was so wide due to the twin shocks. Also those shocks cost more to refurb than this whole bike cost X2. Was a cool bike, enjoyed it but did not fall in love. We will see how long this one stays around. I like my single shock 86 WR400 better than the XC500 by a good margin for the type of riding I do. Vintage MX, yeah the XC500 would be cool for that for sure.

Cant even get new springs for a couple hundred let alone the service. 2 shocks to do which makes it almost 2x the cost to begin with, 2 sets of springs to get the rate right as they were soft (again 2x the cost), parts as they are old (yep 2x the parts involved), service, was over $600. They wanted $900 for the full meal deal. I'm fine with you liking the XC500 more. I have a good bit less than $600 in this bike.

Looks great! I've got a soft spot for the classic Yamahaulers.

When I first started riding I went from a XR75 to a SL125 to a XL175, all slow reliable trail bikes. Then jumped from the XL175 to a YZ465!!! That was a learning curve. But I always had love for the old air cooled yamaha's after that. Loved the 465 motor.

Wow thats a real nice one. Looks very unmolested.

older pic. Still has the zokes and disk on it.

Well its alive!!! I can believe it only took three kicks cold, after sitting for years, with an unknown carb and jetting and old plug. Starts first kick every time now. Was expecting a struggle getting it lit but seems to be a very willing starter. Rode it around the hood some, yep ridiculous wheelie power, lots of vibrations. Rough and rowdy this one is.

That's not called vibration, it's referred to as open bike muscular therapy.