Kawasaki EX500
Thu, February 4th, 2010
A much younger Tanshanomi checks out the EX500 at its 1987 introduction
scanned from my personal archives
| 1987-2009 Kawasaki EX500/Ninja 500R | |
|---|---|
| Performance |   |
| A fine engine that makes decent power for a 500 twin and has just enough of that traditional vertical twin 'rum-pum-pump' to be entertaining. Just be careful not to judge it in comparison to a multi-cylinder 600 sport bike, or its high-12-second quarter mile time will seem weak. | |
| Handling | |
| Cheap components and frame are a bit wiggly at the limit compared to today's bikes, but decent enough to have been a popular club racer in the late '80s, and still okay up to 7/10th or so. | |
| Looks | |
| Quite nice, though we've seen them so often, for so long, it's tough to view the design with fresh eyes. Better before the unfortunate 1994 restyling, which tried a little too hard to look racy, and I prefer it without the needlessly gauche belly fairing. | |
| Reliability | |
| For a price-point motorcycle, it will put up with unreasonable amounts of abuse. Unfortunately, as a price-point motorcycle, they were all bought by boy racers who thrashed them horribly. Find one originally bought my someone over 30 and you'll get a creampuff bike at a bargain price...but finding such an example is a tall order. | |
| Practicality |  |
| When I first saw the EX500, I thought it would be wonderful do-everything mid-sized machine for riders mature enough to be unfazed by newest superfast mega-machines. Despite its reputation as the bike every squidly kid laid down on the tarmac throughout the '90s, that's still a fair assessment of it. Older models have a less extreme riding position. | |
| Desirability | |
| A bike that's been unfairly relegated to 'beginner bike' status. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| In a perfect world, the EX500 would get much more respect. But it's not a perfect world, is it? | |