The 'tardation begins...

[Tricky Mike]

So, the dirty toy is gonna get mo 'tarded this winter. It's an SX, and I'd like to make it road-legal, so I've got a lot of work to do... but the way I see it... it's beats the hell out of watching TV.

Think I'm gonna start with upgrading the tranny to a 6-speed (the SX is a four... great for the MX track... not so good for I-93). Probably need to upgrade the stator while I'm in there... Gotta build a set of the goofy small wheels, too..
So... a question... anyone (R7?) running a motard have opinions about cush-drive hubs? Think I'd like to rock the cush drive, but it looks like all the blingy hubs (Talon, Haan, etc) aren't cush... Thoughts? (R7?) Anyone? (R7?)

[ChR1s]

Some factory dual-sports don't even bother with a cush drive hub.

[R7]

The 6spd is a MUST!!! That is by far the best money i've put into my 450sx yet. I got the parts for dealer cost and had them install everything and it cost me about $550 for that upgrade. I did take the motor out and gave it to them that way so that saves some labor. The 6th gear lets you keep a reasonably lower final drive ratio for some low speed fun, yet you can still do 70-80mph at about 1/2 throttle.

Keep the MX wheels and don't bother building a set with your stock hubs, honestly I use the MX wheels more than the tardy stuff now just for dualsport riding. A cushdrive? What's that? Don't waist your money. The guys that run a cush drive on a motard are always replacing them, guys running standard wheels never seem to have much of a problem. I've "heard" of a few transmission problems that were blamed on not having a cush drive but I don't buy it.
Ebay is your friend, I see KTM wheel sets all the time for reasonable money. You can also buy them fully assembled direct from KTM

The stator... the only advise I have is just buy a the EXC stuff, it's expensive but simple and reliable. I wish I did this from the start with my 450 I used the following parts from a EXC, stator, stator cover, 2 new stator bolts (bigger), flywheel (big improvement for trails as well), rectifier/regulator, wire harness, battery and a battery box. You'll need the battery to make your signals work properly. Use the exc wire diagram to wire everything up, it's pretty simple.

Any more questions, feel free to ask. Not sure how different the years are but I pretty much know my bike inside and out seeing I've had it apart. Got the wheels swap from motard to dirt down to 35 minutes

[Tricky Mike]

Yeah... I'll definitely be keeping the dirty wheels intact, after all, it's always gonna be a dirty, dirty bitch regardless of what kind of street junk I throw on there... you know what they say... sticking feathers up your butt doesn't make you a chicken...

So, I just checked all the part #'s to do the 6 spd upgrade... looks like I can do it for a little over $300 (just parts). Not too bad... I think I'll probably just order that stuff up tomorrow. Mmmmmm... splitting cases is so much fun Had the motor out a couple times over the last 3 years.... I heard that Auto-decompressor stop bolts just sort of started falling out of some 02's (faaaahk) so I replaced it before it had the chance... Bolts bouncing around in the top end = a very big mess. It's a neat "little" motor... I didn't split the cases last time I had it out, so I'm interested to see what the guts look like. Those Austrians seem to know what they're doing...


Wheels I'll probably hunt down on Ebay... Them shits is expensive in the retail world... The wheel set from Hard Parts doesn't look too bad... any experience with them (is that what youre running)? I thought I could save a bunch if I laced them myself, but it doesn't really look like that would save me all that much.. at least not enough to justify the hassle of ordering (and probably re-ordering) spokes and fabricating a truing stand. Just not worth it...


Hmmm... stator cover... hadn't thought about that... probably need an EXC cover to go along with the EXC stator. I can guarantee I would have figured that one out the hard way. I guess they have 2 EXC stators... a K2 and a K3?.. I think the K3 puts out more juice... I'll have to get to the bttom of that... I've also read over on ThumperTalk that my year (2002) was the last year before they down-sized the SX stator... so that's something to look int as well... Even if that's true, I doubt it puts out enough juice to run the legally necessary crap, though. My RFS manual covers the EXC too, so I've got some more cross-referencing to do.

Thanks for the cush drive advice... I had been leaning in that direction... good to hear that the average, non-sponsored (free tranny parts) guys are running without... not to mention some stock dual-sports.

[R7]

Honestly, I don't even know what type of wheels I have with the KTM, I bought it as a SMC and it came with the dirty wheels and the motard wheels. I'll check tomorrow and see what they are.
When I researched the wheels for my YZ, it wasn't even $100 difference to buy a complete wheelset vs buying the parts and lacing them yourself. My YZ I bought the excel rims with talon hubs fully assembled from East Coast Wheels. I don't like dealing with ECW but they do have the best prices, just takes and extra 5 or 6 phones calls and 5x as long as it should to get your parts. I have no complaints with the parts from them though, just takes a long time to get....

I found out the hard way that I needed the stator cover. I ran home from the dealer all giggity giggity with my new part and after 10 minutes I found out it didn't fit And after the second trip is when I found out the mounting bolts were different as well. Your year may be different though so I'd check the part numbers?? I'm sure people have different ways, maybe less expensive to get the wattage needed but it's simple and that exc wire harness will make your life easier for wiring up your lights.
The stator in mine puts out 150 watts and everything seems fine, 14.4 volts at a idle with the lights on

[Tricky Mike]

Originally posted by R7

The stator in mine puts out 150 watts and everything seems fine, 14.4 volts at a idle with the lights on

Damn. That's impressive...