525exc Should I buy a 525? If so how much should I offer?

[TheLastByte]

Looking for something a little lighter and faster to supplement my xr650l and I think this bike might fit the bill. I'm hoping there are some owners here who can give me some insight into the typical experience with this bike. The question I'm most concerned about is how many hours these engines last before needing a rebuild with normal trail riding? Also, how do they handle in technical terrain? How about on the road? 

 

The machine I'm looking at has about 75 hours and 1,500 miles on it, all stock other than a lectron carb, and comes with some dualsport lighting not installed. The current owner's asking price seems pretty high at $4500, but he seems to be a communicative, eager seller, which is practically unheard of in Upstate NY where the vast majority of dirtbikes on Craigslist are owned (or "owned") by rednecks trying to flip them. I'm willing to pay a little more than market value for this reason.

 

Thanks for any input! 

[Airboss/oc]

you get what you pay for, an original owner who took care of his machine is who you want to do business with. an '07 525 is bulletproof and weighs 50lbs less than your current ride

[cobra46]

I have an '05 and it went about 350 hours before needing a top end.  I absolutely love my bike and ride it almost exclusively on technical terrain.  The street manners are not so good as it's a dirt bike.  I have taken it on the freeway but I stay in the slow lane.  I'm sure if I geared it taller and balanced the tires it would be much better.

I would think about doing a leak down test prior to buying it.

The price sounds about right if it were in California but plated KTM's seem to command a bit more here than more dirt bike friendly states.  I'm not sure about the NY market.  Perhaps you can pose that question in the Northeast section to get more local responses.

 

[zxsevinr]

I am currently looking at an mxc 525 it’s an 05. Can I get some real world input on that?

[Chas_M]

14 hours ago, zxsevinr said:

I am currently looking at an mxc 525 it’s an 05. Can I get some real world input on that?

What type of riding do you do.  The MXC has an extremely close ratio 6 speed trans which severely limits its range of uses unless the bike is selectively re-geared for each riding condition.  For instance when the MXC is properly geared for tight single-track that same gearing has the engine screaming at way too high rpm's when running at higher speeds.  The wider ratios in the EXC are much better at handling a variety of riding conditions without the necessity of constantly re-gearing with different sprockets.

[zxsevinr]

I am planning on riding it on the street to Jeep trails. I wouldn’t necessarily say tight single track but I’m not ruling it out. I’m looking at two bikes today that are near my price range. The mxc 525 and also a 2003 sxc 625 with a revloc clutch installed

[SnowMule]

Can replace the transmission stack with the EXC trans to get the gearing better.  At that point though, you're probably better off just getting the EXC/XCW to begin with. 

 

Mine's an 07 XCW.  Love it... it's got 30,225 miles on it (and close to 1000 hours) as of last night, before riding it to work this morning. 

It'll go a season, maybe two, on a top-end/going-through.  ~6k miles, ~200 hours. 

02-05's had some minor issues; one of hte idler gears in the starter circuit was weak and got beefed up 06/07.  Same for the valve guides in the head. 

1mm oversize valves helps a lot, replace the soft stock ones for good stainless Kibblewhites.  Greatly increases the valve adjust intervals. 

Replacing the roller bearings in the crank with heavy-duty ball bearings from the 625SMR bike reduces the potential of a crank bearing failure for dualsport use.  Not too hard to do, but you need to clean some of the ID out of the bearing to slip-fit over the crank (It sucks, but it's doable with a brake hone and drill). 

Balancing the wheels helps its street manners more than anything.  (I run D606 rear, MT21 front.)

Handles offroad very nicely.  I'm far from an a-class rider, but it'll eat up woods all day long and my skills are what limits me on that bike, not the bike itself. 

 

For that miles/hours, if it's got a title/plate/dualsported, $4k is reasonable.  No title/plate/offroad-use-only, $2500-3500 is more appropriate. 

 

 

[TheLastByte]

11 minutes ago, SnowMule said:

Can replace the transmission stack with the EXC trans to get the gearing better.  At that point though, you're probably better off just getting the EXC/XCW to begin with. 

 

Mine's an 07 XCW.  Love it... it's got 30,225 miles on it (and close to 1000 hours) as of last night, before riding it to work this morning. 

It'll go a season, maybe two, on a top-end/going-through.  ~6k miles, ~200 hours. 

02-05's had some minor issues; one of hte idler gears in the starter circuit was weak and got beefed up 06/07.  Same for the valve guides in the head. 

1mm oversize valves helps a lot, replace the soft stock ones for good stainless Kibblewhites.  Greatly increases the valve adjust intervals. 

Replacing the roller bearings in the crank with heavy-duty ball bearings from the 625SMR bike reduces the potential of a crank bearing failure for dualsport use.  Not too hard to do, but you need to clean some of the ID out of the bearing to slip-fit over the crank (It sucks, but it's doable with a brake hone and drill). 

Balancing the wheels helps its street manners more than anything.  (I run D606 rear, MT21 front.)

Handles offroad very nicely.  I'm far from an a-class rider, but it'll eat up woods all day long and my skills are what limits me on that bike, not the bike itself. 

 

For that miles/hours, if it's got a title/plate/dualsported, $4k is reasonable.  No title/plate/offroad-use-only, $2500-3500 is more appropriate. 

 

 

Fantastic post, exactly the info I was looking for! 

[UH1H]

I've got an 05 450 MXC dual sported and titled.  At first i played with the gearing, ended up with 13/50. First gear is a little high, the 13 tooth is good for single track, two track and FS roads.  The close ratio is fun when things get a little faster, bike rips through the gears. I can cruise at 65 mph between trails.  I wouldn't shy away from it, love mine.

Edited September 25, 2018 by UH1H
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