Title fight 2000 KX500 vs 2011 KX450F ANDY WIGAN
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iKAPTURE IMAGES
BIKE HEAD-TO-HEAD
A decade after winning the last 500cc Aussie MX title ever staged, can the KX500 still claim to be the biggest, baddest dog on the moto block? Or has the new KX450F got something to say about that?
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hort of a large-calibre semiautomatic weapon being waved in your face, few machines evoke more fear and respect than a 500cc two-stroke motocross bike. Products of Europe in the 1970s and evolved by the Japanese in the 1980s, these 500s epitomised raw, explosive, terrifying grunt. They were brutal, unapologetic and unforgiving, and
became the universal symbol for the hospital Emergency Ward in twowheeled disguise. But how relevant is that proscription of the 500cc two-stroke these days? Is the fear, respect and reverence once reserved for these 500s beginning to wane with the passage of time? Surely these rebadged relics from the late 1980s
can’t still be kings of a moto-jungle now populated by high-tech, alloyframed, fuel-injected 450cc thumpers. Or can they? Exactly how does the old KX500 – arguably the most powerful of all the 500s – measure up to Kawasaki’s latest Open-class motocrosser, the recently released 2011 KX450F? After all, the KX450F has itself established a reputation for
class-leading power ever since it was first released in 2006. Yes, the time had come for the two meat axes of motocross to stand toe to toe; to determine whether yesteryear’s prize-fighter is still packing a knockout punch, or whether the new-generation KX450F had finally earned the title of top dog.
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