'04 KTM 525 EXC - customization required?

[darklife41]

Hi all :) New member here, so bear with me if this has been covered but couldn't find it from searching. Picking up a '04 KTM 525 EXC in a few weeks. I've seen that the '03's tended to run lean requiring a needle adjustment, had some head shake requiring a GPR steering damper, etc.. Wondering if the '04 has corrected any of this or if I should have these things altered before picking it up. Also wondering if anyone has experience with the adjustable offset triple clamps and their thoughts on such. I'll add bark busters and a bash plate for sure, just need to know what/if anything else should be added from the get go.
Raced enduro for a few years when younger (44 now) and been on dirt/road bikes all my life. Most of our riding now will be done on motocross tracks, until I find more trails and woods available in the South Australia, Adelaide area. I"m 5'9" and bout 145lbs dripping wet. Thanx in advance for any and all help on the subject. :-) dark

 

[CR Swade]

Yeah, they have horribly lean jetting for Cali emission requirements (oops I see you are not in the US, so I'm not sure of your jetting specs). I have used the James Dean kit w/ a richer pilot (45) and I also tried a Yamaha OBELN needle w/ the same richer pilot. JD kit gave a more linear, seamless pull while the OBELN needle gave a little more hit . Don't even bother running the stock jetting though unless you like blued pipes, hard starting and popping like crazy.

The headshake wasn't a proplem at all, just make sure to get about 10 hours on the bike for break in before considering the shock adjusted. I adjusted race sag initially then again after break in. As w/ any bike, the KTM is very sensitive to suspension set-up and if it is off headshake can occur. I run a stabilizer but not to lessen headshake, its to lessen fatigue in the woods.

As far as offset clamps, they work great on the KTM. I run 18mm Emigs on mine and it really tightens up the handling. The other mods you might want to consider, a good seat (mine is a Moose) trust me on this the stocker sucks, WER wheel spacers and bearings (again the stockers are a ruined hub waiting to happen).

Enjoy our new bike, the 525 really is a great machine (wish I still had mine)

 

[Shaw520]

Excellent response,.....Swade is spot on.
JD jets for sure.
People who experience head shake, havnt dialed there suspension in correctly, rear suspension set too soft is the most common contributer.
Give the suspension AT LEAST 10 hours of HARD riding before setting race sags, If front forks still feel harsh, try lower oil viscocity before re-valving, (5-7w). Small adjustments can make a huge differences!
Follow maintance schedule in manual, and you will love this bike!

 

[darklife41]

Wow, didn't expect an answer so quickly lol. Thanx much guys. I'm originally from WI, USA but in Australia now. Bike was bought in oz, so not sure if CA standards were applied or not to the carb needle. I'll definitely have the mechanic (a friend) tear it apart with me and look into the JD kit. Sounds like the headshake can be adjusted out, so won't worry bout that for now. I read an article on the offset clamps. This guy agreed with you Swade on the 18mm setting. He started with 14 and felt it was plenty in tight/smooth woods, but unstable at higher speeds and rocks. So I'll look into emigs 18s, if they're available here. Also looking up the wheel spacers and bearings and a seat. Can't wait to get on this monster and see what its made of. Thanx again for the input.

 

[XRpredator]

. . . Can't wait to get on this monster and see what its made of.

me either. As soon as I buy Vic it snows! Damn the man. :|

 

[Shaw520]

XRP, Alright man!,....congrats on the steed,...you've always said you wanted one,.. hope ya get some warm weather!

 

[CR Swade]

Cool, you got you a 5-2-5. I would think big counrty like yours in the land of taters would be perfect for the 525. I'm gonna try to add another back to the stable this year.

 

[XRpredator]

Ain't no taters up 'round here where I'm at, but I've always heard that the 525 was the ultimate "lazy man's" bike, and that's me :)

 

[darklife41]

'04 KTM 525 review, one riders perspective

Just brought home my 'long awaited' 525 EXC. This forum has helped me tremendously to ask the right questions from the dealer and get a good understanding of what to expect up front. I can't thank the riders who have answered my questions enough. :-) Thought I'd post my first impressions, in case the info will help others in the same way. Sorry for the wordiness of the post, but I'm soooo stoked, I just have to tell someone! :-)

First, my backround. I'm 45 yrs old, have owned 27 bikes (road and dirt) and have been riding since I was 5 (when I bought my first used Honda z50). Most of my dirt experience is on trails in Wisconsin and in AMA district 21 enduro. I rode mostly Hondas and Yamahas, and mostly big bores ('84 CR 500, lots of XR 500s, Yamaha IT 175 and 250). I'm 5' 9" and 145 lbs. For the most part, I prefer the even power band of the 4 strokes. Just seems less work to me rather than constant shifting to stay in the power band. I've recently moved to Adelaide Australia. The land is gorgeous and begs to be challenged by a dirt bike, so here I go again. I've wanted a KTM forever, and now I know why....

As the riders on this thread have pointed out, the '03 525 EXCs had a few things to watch out for. The wheel spacers and bearings, the carb set too lean from the factory, head shake from improper shock settings, etc.. My dealer assured me that he'd never heard of wheel spacers and bearing problems, so I decided to go with stock for the time being. I'll keep a close watch on that. He also showed me the '03 carb jets, and the ones on my '04, which are quite different. I also got no response from JD when emailing about info on their kits. So I also decided to try this as is for now. As I understand head shake on KTMs, its usually caused by the rear shock being set too soft. That's always a concern for me at my weight. We spent an hour setting up the suspension. As we left it, the bike doesn't move at all as I lower my light frame onto it. Seems aweful stiff to me, but I won't know for sure until I hit a few good jumps. The main KTM wrench is currently at a course for suspension by KTM, so can't wait to pick his brain upon his return. I basically only added brush guards/bark busters and the plastic bash plate (as he said they'd had frames actually come back twisted from the alluminum plates, which are also much harder to remove for cleaning). Haven't been able to find anyone in AU who makes triple plates yet, so that's on hold for now too. I loaded her up today with a new '04 CRF 150 for the 12 year old, and we went looking for a trail to try them out on...

First impression as I sat on the bike for the first time.. the front end feels funny. Almost too light? It sits extremely high! With boots on, I can't touch both feet on the ground at once. Bit scarey, but let's fire her up and see what happens. Because the boy is having problems starting the CRF, we picked a stretch of trail about a mile long, complete with multiple S curves filled with rocks of all sizes in tight woods which opens up to a sandy straight away. I wanted him to have to practice turning around and starting, so we spent 2 hours going back and forth on this stretch of trail for our initial ride. He got plenty of practice both turning around AND starting the CRF, and um.. so did I. :-)

Hit the electric start on the EXC, put her in 1st.. let out the clutch.. and we're off! All of a sudden the front end shows its true color in the first set of tight turns. The big rocks don't even phase it. I simply point the bike in the direction that I want to go, and it goes! Sitting down, I find that I'm getting some head shake as I hit the straight away and open her up into 4th gear and pounce on it. I immediately go to an 'aggresive' stance, on the balls of my feet leaning forward, and the head shake disappears. Thinking this bike was MADE to be ridden in the aggressive stance, which is fine with me since its my preferred position. The power reminds me of the old CR 500, which was the fastest production 2 stroke made to date, but also one of the most dangerous because of the unpredictable power band. The KTM, however, is smooooth!! I'd heard how the throttle response was jumpy on the 525 as opposed to the 450. Maybe its just from my experience on the bikes I've ridden, but I don't notice ANY jumpiness at all. No backfiring whatsoever, so the carb modification seems to have solved that issue as well.

After riding for an hour, we have formed some pretty good ruts throughout the entire trail. On my previous rides, this would have been something to beware of. All I can say is...WOW! The EXC seems to climb in and out of the ruts like they aren't even there. No front end washing out, no rear end sliding down into ruts, it crawls through the tight stuff where ever I point it, and it begs to be opened up on the straights!

I can't help but remember a specific race in Waunakee (always my favorite due to the hills, mud and its a faster race than most in district 21). I was on a Yamaha IT 250 and came to the big hill. Its like 1/2 mile climb gradually getting steeper as you go up. The last 50 yards is almost straight up. Extremely greasy on this particular day. Almost to the top, there were 50 bikes bogged down in the huge ruts. I tried to cross the ruts diagonally, but eventually slid into a big one, buried to the bottom of the gas tank, where I fought for 30 mins to get out until my back sprocket gave way. I sat down disgusted, with most of the other riders. Then I notice this KTM coming up the hill. He used the same technique as I did, but was holding his speed very well in spite of the conditions. I watched him go over the top and continue on his way, as if the hill was no challenge for him. The *******! :-) Ever since that day, I've wanted a KTM. Now I'm convinced that, although rider ability is some of it, his bike was a HUGE advantage over the jap and huskys that laid stuck in that hill.

Its hard for me to talk down jap bikes, because they've been pretty good to me. Very dependable and consistent. I liked the huskys that I've ridden too, but honestly never felt they were worth the extra expense. Well the KTM also cost a bit more, but for my money, the advantages are almost unfair and well worth the expense. Husky has never left an impression on me like this KTM has.

Criticisms: I have 3. The first is the kick stand. Seems to me that a bike of this quality and expense could have a more functional kick stand. If you're not on solid ground, its going to sink. Spent a lot of time pushing it to rocks to set it on, so that it wouldn't dig in and fall over. Which leads me to my 2nd criticism... One of the times that I went to start the boy's bike, the kickstand sunk into the dirt, and down she went. I got his bike running and returned to pick up the KTM. Its an enduro bike right? So no biggy, just hit the electric start and away we go again. WRONG!! Hitting the electric start caused a 10 foot flame to shoot out the back. Scared the living s**t out of me! (not a great thing in the driest state of the driest country in the world either!!) After the flame subsided, it smoked heavily for about 30 seconds, before coming out of it. Now I'm obviously no KTM expert, but no jap bike that I've had reacted this way. I have yet to ride an enduro that I didn't go down at least once, so I'm a bit concerned about this trait. What's up with that? My 3rd criticism would be the seat. Although I didn't notice it while riding for 2 hours, my butt is more than a bit sore now. Depending on how the next few rides go, I may have to look into changing that.

Overall, I've never experienced a bike that is so effortless to ride, and so much fun to try to find challenges for. I'm still obviously on the running in set of high gears and babying her a tad, but she's a keeper. The long wait for a KTM was well worth it! :thumb:

Just one riders humble opinion. :-)

 

[RAH RAH]

I love the bike too. If you find out that all of that power is a problem in the tight woods :eek: :clue: just drop a tooth on the front sprocket. again thats the very tight woods.
Id go for a stabilizer when you go for a triple clamp. that will calm a lot of nervousness that the light front end IS going to encounter. geesh the front end is barely on the ground so you know theres gonna be some headshake!!
Congradulations on a great machine.. :cool: