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I recently acquired the bike from a trade in which I had maybe $500 in to start with. The guy didn't really know what was wrong with it and I figured even if it were something major, I could still come out good in the end right? I know NOTHING about Ktms besides what research has told me. You're supposed to have a special tool to separate the timing chain in order to remove the head and that my specific bike was built to go from the showroom straight to the race track. Its ALOT DIFFERENT than a regular 450EXC. Different internals, more brute power, and a different gear box and ratio just to name a few. I took it to a friend who owns the local bike shop here and who has been racing for a long time. He got it to run but the top end of the engine was extremely loud. He said it PROBABLY needed a timing chain, tensioner, valves, and the usual new oil, filters, gaskets, etc. Come to learn after they ordered all of that and it shipped, they tore into it and discovered it needed new rod and crank bearings and why not replace the piston and rings too while its apart. So I did my research and looked up parts. Long story short, he said he would do it all for $850 bucks, which by my research is CHEAP. BUT, Idk. I haven't even rode it once yet. I've only ridden one 450 for a short whil. Not even 15mins. Not even long enough to get used to one. I rode it long enough to know that I wanted one for myself to ride for about a month and try to get used to the power and how to ride it the way its supposed to be ridden. My question is... Should I go ahead and put the money into it or try to sell it like it is and recoop some of my investment? And if I do fix it, how do I know that I will ever get to actually see what the bike is capable of? "Do I really need a 450," as the dirt bike channel guy on YouTube says? I just want to ride it once and see if I think I'll be able to keep it a while or if I'll have to sell it to get possibly a 250f or maybe 250 2 stroke. If noone replies or answers this, the chances are that I will end up spending the money to fix it, and either keep it a while or try to advertise it with ZERO hours on brand new engine rebuild along with the other new parts I plan on installing. If I re-sell, it will have all of the engine rebuilt top to bottom, new tires, brakes, seat, etc. He says in tip-top shape and with a title that I don't have, the bike is worth around $3k. How much truth is there to what he says? Honestly just want other opinions on what I should do. My luck, I'll spend the money and won't even get half back out of it.... Need advice. Thank you. Truly indecisive, TrippyTim

I'm and intermediate rider who rides very aggressively and on hard, but fast-paced woods/cross-country/harescramble riding. Sometimes I'll do technical, really tight trails, log crossings, and hillclimbs, etc. and I also will ride motocross tracks every once in a while. I currently own a 2008 KTM 250 XC-F with a bigger rear sprocket, FMF exhaust, aftermarket piston, and I typically run high octane fuel. I won't be upgrading for quite a while but I am planning ahead trying to decide what to save up for and all that. I'm sure this forum will also help others in similar situations. I'd like something that can top out faster than my bike but something that can accelerate quickly and have more torque as well. The majority of my riding is very fast-paced woods with hard corners and lots of roots and steep hills as well, so I'd like something that can blow through corners and accelerate quickly. But, I also ride a lot of tight technical trails so I'd like something that's torquey and has explosive, yet controllable power and something I can take over big logs and rocks. I'm fine with a bike that likes to be revved a lot as that's what I do on my 250xcf now. I'm used to four strokes although I'll probably adjust to a two stroke very quickly as I ride constantly. I'm leaning towards a 250 XC or a 350 XC-F although I've heard lots about KTM's 125 and 150 2 strokes, the 450 and 500, the wide ratio "w" models of the cross country bikes, and their respective motocross models just because I know how explosive they are. I understand that this is a lot to ask out of one bike but I'm going to be adding a lot of aftermarket parts to whatever I end up getting if it doesn't already have any. Tell me all about these bikes if any of you guys have ridden them! I'm probably going KTM because I've heard nothing but good things about them but I will still consider any other brands as well. Tell me any aftermarket you had to do, improvements to be done or downfalls of each bike, and all their advantages and things they're better at than the other ones if you've ridden more than one of these. This is more of a harescramble/cross-country racing post, but since some of my races have parts of motocross tracks I'd like to hear how they do on the track. Also, money isn't too huge of a concern with me but I will definitely not be able to get a brand new bike. I will be racing so if it's bigger than a 250 then I'll have to be sure that it can compete with bigger bikes. Thanks, in advance!

Alright, so I’m not sure if I’m posting to the right form/thread. My apologies if so. Alright so, I bought this 06 KTM 450sx from a kid that had little to no experience besides this one bike he had; he said “all it needs is the timing to be done right” but claimed he didn’t know how to set it up right and didn't want to invest any more time in it. Surely this wasn’t just the case. So I took it apart and tried putting it back together. I got the chain timing right at least I’m sure I did. Getting it TDC with the timing marks yadayada.. so I found where he was stumped, and just decided to sell it I guess. At first when I found top dead center; the top of the piston was about an eighth from being flush with the top of the cylinder as you can see in the pics provided. Surely it can’t be like that right? I’ve seen vids where their piston comes all the way up. First red flag. It wouldn’t go any higher than that, and yes that is TDC, which is where the notch was located. So I decided to hook the chain back up at so called “tdc” and it probably cranked over twice before coming to a halt. It just felt like something was mating. Now when I took it apart, the piston was actually stuck flush where tdc is supposed to be at (flush with the top of the cylinder). I don’t think it’s mating with the valves as they have a dome and sit above the cylinder. So I took off the cylinder to inspect the crank/rod and sure enough the rod is straight but what came to my attention was these gear markings. As I’m almost positive aren’t supposed to be there right? Also the crank was stuck and I had to wiggle it but it wouldn’t crank unless turned the opposite direction. As in on the flywheel you can turn it over manually clockwise, but once you start turning it over counterclockwise it comes to a stop. This is after taking it apart and setting it up with the piston not being flush with the top of the cylinder. Yes it’s in 6th gear, and yes the chain in on there atm. Thanks for reading, any help is appreciated as I am new to messing with 4 strokes or never really go into a bottom end before.

Thought this mod will be straight forward, but no. Bought a KTM fan for my 450EXC, it come in a nice box, including the fan, wiring, thermalswitch, manual. Trial fit the fan on my right radiator as manual said, looks good: But then I found there are something unlike what it should be... 1. There is no matching available power connector on my bike 2. There is no where on both radiator for the thermalswitch to screw in 😢 In the below photo, circle #1 is the power socket from the fan, circle #2 is the connector to the thermalswitch. Manual said: Current wiring harness, no available outlet: Example of one radiator, no nozzle for thermalswitch: Any recommendation pls? Thanks.