Kawasaki KX500 VS Honda CR500 - Motocross Action Magazine

Nathan Alexander, who was the team manager at the Muc-off Honda team in 2021, was the mad scientist who brought the 2000 Kawasaki KX500 and 1994 Honda CR500 to life. He went one step further while resurrecting these beasts by making the KX500 a replica of Jeff Emig’s 1996 MXDN machine and the CR500 into a replica of Jeff Stanton’s factory 1992 CR500. When Nathan first got these bikes, they were in bad shape. No surprise, they were over 20 years old and hadn’t had the best of care (the KX500 was in boxes). An old project bike is harder to get back together than a 1000-piece jig-saw puzzle without the picture on the box to guide you. I have struggled many times with numerous unfinished projects in my garage. The only good thing about a box of parts is that it gives you a fresh perspective on the task ahead. It allows you to create the bike you want from the ground up. Jamie Ellis at Twisted Development was a part of making this project come to fruition. He was the original owner of the box of parts and volunteered his expertise, his dyno and his race shop to get the bikes in running order. The two bikes took months to complete. Nathan and Jamie wanted the 500s to still have that old-school feel with a touch of new-age technology. The biggest upgrades were to the front ends on both bikes with modern Kayaba forks that had been updated by Factory Connection. The Honda CR500 got A-Kit air forks from a 2018 CRF250 with EZE 22mm triple clamps from Australia (stock is 24mm). The...