2021 KTM 500EXCF: Can One Bike Do It All? We Think This One Can.

what's up motor buddies mike here from tacoma co taco tours we are on the slick rock trail at moab moab utah uh we're doing a little sunset rip solo slick rock sunset ride and uh just highlighting a few of the features on our taco moto bike this is the bike that we use as a test platform it's a 21 500 this bike has got some baja miles on it and some idaho we did the idaho grit one on this last year it was about a half run we ran out of time on that run there were a lot of downed trees a lot of issues with just getting through those trails so because of that we weren't able to complete the full grit run but it was a good attempt so we've just completed a couple of changes to this bike since the idaho run i i made one video while we were in idaho and i meant to post a couple more and i kind of screwed up and i deleted them somehow on my phone so i never got around to making any follow-up idaho videos so this is sort of a part two of that but then there's some new stand-alone stuff on on here that we'll talk about so this bike has been i guess continually upgraded one of the things that we work hard at doing is refining the package so i think what we're after is trying to create an exe machine an exe platform that is multi-use it's a it's a bike that excels at um a lot of the categories that it's in but it's not the best in class in certain things so case in point we've been a couple of days up here in moab running around doing some of these really cool technical trails and we've had a grip of 300 tpi bikes and those are arguably more suited to this kind of technical terrain this sort of riding and the 500 is a little bit out of place because of its displacement because of the weight and um so what we've tried to do with this machine is come up with a platform with a formula i guess that gets this bike as close to a multi-use machine as possible so with this bike we've we've conquered a bunch of moab miles this is a good platform to do like a tour of idaho or idaho type ride you could do bdrs on this you could take this and do all sorts of things that ordinarily you might need two or three bikes to accomplish with one you're able to again you're not excelling at any of those one categories but you have a machine that does incredibly well extremely well very competent at all of those and so a guy can have one bike to do lots of things instead of having a bunch and for some of us who have maybe limited garage space or limited funds or we just don't want to fool around with setting up and outfitting multiple bikes um arguably the the 500 exc platform to me anyway is the most versatile machine out there and so we've got some stuff on this that we continue to to improve and refine to make it even more so so looking at this bike um in comparison how we had it trimmed out in idaho we've got a couple of new additions i think we've put on some p3 frame guards we took off the cherokees which are great we just threw these on because i happen to like the look better than the plastic the carbon fiber is super cool i think we had the pipe guard on there before so that's not new as far as i can remember got the graves on here so when we were in idaho we ran the stock muffler with the resonator intact pro moto billet end cap and an ultra silent insert and that's an absolute winning formula i really like that so some of the advantages of that that that setup is you have a pipe you have a muffler that came with your bike so there's no additional cost other than 149 for the end cap and it's super durable you we banged that thing really really good up in idaho and you don't really care if you smash it because it's that stock muffler so you go with something like an fmf 4.1 or a q4 or or the the rct system or the graves here and now you've sunk some costs into a muffler and guys are often worried about the scratches and dings that they're going to get and that's just going to happen that's the reality my view is that motorcycles are toys and i am i have a good time playing with my toys and so my toys get scratched and banged up and uh if you have a different view then you'll probably want to stick with the stock muffler throw a promoter on which is a fantastic solution i happen to love it the graves offers a step up in performance and a reduction in weight and huge up in the looks as far as the bike goes so this is in my opinion the best muffler for the uh big boar thumper ktm bikes we've we've tested it against some of the fmf products and then the stock one like i just mentioned and i as far as the dyno numbers go i'm not really gonna pump that because the honest truth is a lot of these make within one or two or three percent of each other so the reality is uh there's a lot of marketing that goes into a muffler there's a lot of um salesmanship that happens in the muffler game and what you're looking for is how does it feel as far as where is the power curve where are the power dynamics happening rather than what the what are the dyno charts look like because as we know and have talked about before dyno numbers are easy to fudge easy to fake people make them up people lie about the numbers so having a dyno number or or representing with a graph what the what the dyno number is to me is like looking at i don't know a rich guy's financial statement it's probably a lot of smoke and mirrors and a lot a lot of one-sided gamesmanship to gain some sort of advantage over someone else so um and so it goes i think with a lot of motorsports components and especially motor mufflers and maybe some of the some other power components so what is it about the graves that i like i like i like the look a lot i think it's fantastic i also like that it pushes the power dynamics lower in the throttle sweep so i run it with the end cap end so it comes with this little db insert this db killer and it's very effective it's incredibly effective at knocking down the sound it also pushes down the power band a little bit lower than it would be otherwise so without it it's a straight through pipe and then with it you've got nice resonance nice back pressure just a very deep i love the sound of it and it happens to work incredibly well as a package with the get ecu and the taco motor maps and the traction control knob all together you know and you could you could bundle into that the recluse cx that for me represents um all of the right components for making this for getting the power to the back tire in ways that preserve rider energy in ways that maximize the cross adaptability of this bike so again back to kind of where i open up with i'm after a machine that doesn't peg the needle in only one category and you can do that and we can do that for you too so and i get those requests from time to time where a guy will be building a snow bike or a super motorbike or we helped set up a guy who's a flat track racer and so if you need to specifically hit a target of bullseye for a specific kind of riding discipline that's fully doable and totally on the table and we help guys do that all the time i don't do that with my own personal bikes so this machine here is really what i'm talking about it represents a multi-disciplined machine that i can do anything with and so i'm constantly trying to refine this and find weaknesses and then plug those with you know new methods or new components to make it as as broadly adaptable as possible and i think at this point after two days of really beating the hell out of this here in moab i'm beyond impressed with with that power package again the recluse cx and then the graves and the getty cu and traction control and the taco maps that by far has been the best setup and it's it's better than any other muffler muffler setup and we when i was in idaho we ran it with the power commander a jd tuner uh the dobeck ejk and the vortex all sort of back to back to back and i like them all and i have only good things to say about every one of those components and for certain riders and specific after specific things they're at different price points they have different sort of objectives that they're trying to accomplish and i really like those components for sure um so where i'm heading in you know the direction i'm going with with my bike and and what i'm after on a personal basis the get ecu is is the one that i've chosen um for some of those reasons i talked about traction control and the idea there with everything i'm doing is energy conservation for the rider and then maximum performance and maximum capabilities another thing i've added since the idaho bike is full race tech revalve and respring and well no i need to pause that i did not respring this because i'm within the writer weight so stock springs are 1 65 to 185 and i'm i'm just at the top end of that thing i'm about 175 and then you know with gear so that's probably 185 190. i happen to like my springs to be i like my bikes to be a little bit undersprung intentionally set the sag correctly but i like the spring to be just at the top and there are others who like to pick a spring they may be at the bottom end and they'll pick a spring more towards the top end so some guys will like an oversprung or undersprung or very correctly sprung and i happen to i happen to like them if they're a little bit on the soft side and that lends itself well to this rock bashing kind of riding that that that i like to do um and so what the racetec kit did is it converted the the explore 48 was previously when it was stock is uh is an underwhelming system and it's a split function fork so you have one is compression one is rebound and so what happens with the racetec kit is you um you split everything apart you tear it all apart and then you now we now have two mid valves whereas the other fork only had one so now we have two and then down on the bottom we have two compression adjustable compression valves where um in the stock one we had compression valves but they were not adjustable so that is a dramatic improvement in terms of just the the technology and the hardware inside of the forks and then in the shock we put in a bladder and then the gold valve system as well and so some of the benefits that i've experienced running this here in moab is just the pillowy softness i was telling somebody the other day it feels like it's a hovercraft now so we're on a dirt road say like a double track and just you've got all the rocks and gravel of a double track and it just seems to be incredibly smooth and float right over the top of that handles the whoops night and day difference over stock i hated hitting whoops on the stock bike in fact it had to slow i'd slow down and handle stock works or whoops differently than i can now with a setup so i can hit these try i can charge whoops much faster something else too i noticed about the rear end with this new setup is i have a lot more confidence going into a drift than with the old the the oil there were a couple of times where i was in a drift on a double track and i thought i had lost and i run moose so let me talk about that really quick we're running the motors tractionator enduro s t in the rear so that's rsi so that's um uh no the i t so in the rear it's the motors fractionator i t the enduro i t intermediate train and in the front the same tire about the soft intermediate that for me is the the money compound the money setup and on the stock shock there were a couple times where i had to slow down and look back to see i felt like the rear tire had gone away like you know i run moose but it felt like it was a flat tire or a very low tire in the rear and it just i just realized now because of the the improved performance the dramatic improved performance of the rear shock that it was basically just the uh the the rear tire not being in contact with the ground as well as it is now it's it's much much much better the other thing um that i've noticed too is the ability to charge into square edges uh that was something that was it would often bottom out the other suspension and then the adjustability of the clickers so the the the the recommended setting from racetech was one and a half out on the on the compression on the bottom on the bottom clickers and then i adjusted it another half turn and that was instantly noticeable and so small changes small adjustments to the clickers produces a very noticeable and a dramatic improvement and result and in the stock suspension i remember going full out and compression and then full in and rebound and not feeling a difference and not really being able to do much as far as the clickers go so the new race tech setup is unbelievable it's incredible i wish i would have had it in idaho i did i intentionally went to idaho with the stock suspension to get a feel for what that would be like and you know it it was not terrible but it was there were so many times where i would be in a um a section where i just knew what a tuned uh valve race tech suspension felt like and then i was just disappointed that i didn't have that there and it was my own fault because i chose to do it on stock anyway just as a bit of an experiment and so this is going to be so much better when i go up to idaho again this summer and we we try another attempt it'll be dramatically better so that is a massive improvement love that i don't see as i just stand here look i mean there's a few minor things but nothing really of note probably to talk about just little fit and trim pieces i think the radiator guards are different so i believe i had the um uh let's see these are the enduro engineering now and i like these because they're a full they protect the radiator the whole width of the radiator down the side and then oh we had trail tech before and the trail tech are like a lot of others where they do a great job of protecting the front so any damage coming into the radiator great job but not much if any on the sides so that is an upgrade that was needed um for the bike let's see i'm looking at a couple little bling things so i put the spec bolts spec bolt has a um really cool dress-up kit so it's like a motorboat dress-up kit and they're different than the stock nickel plated galvanized ktm bolts so there's that a little bit of a oil leak there on the seal for the oil filler cap oh it took a big hit so here's just a little update report notice how this foot peg has got a big kink in it that's from hitting a big rock now if that was steel peg it would do the same thing it would bend um some of this is a pro moto billet evo air foot peg and because of the really high quality aluminum that they use it bends and that's what you want there are some of the lower quality asian import foot pegs that i have seen pictures where you take a hit like that and it'll break and it'll crack and so yes i have a bent foot peg no i'm probably not gonna try to straighten it out although you know i may i may you know what i will there you go i'm gonna do it as an experiment to see um but i would rather that foot peg you can see the contact area there i would rather that foot peg bend like that as opposed to what could happen and i've seen this where the center pivot shaft here will pull out and it'll it'll crack the frame split the frame and then you've got frame damage as opposed to some foot peg damage so i can straighten out that foot peg or just change it out i may do it make it like i said i may straighten it and then we'll do sort of a long term review on how that goes so um not that unusual to bend uh promoto where some of the other import pegs will likely the aluminum pegs will likely break so in my opinion that's what i want that's good uh let's take a look at this headlight now that's different so this is the e.t racing out of poland um look at all these bugs on here down by the colorado river earlier picked up a bunch of bugs so this is the eight so this is known as the dual eight so there's dual rows eight lights eight led lights in there and then it's um advertised as 4 400 lumens on the low and then 8 800 on the high and that's also 4 400 watts or 44 watts versus 88 watts and the stock bike this stock exe bike has about 150 160 watts available for lighting so more than adequate we're going to do some long-term testing on this light it holds a lot of promise i really like the look of it it's very unique i've had a couple of people comment on how unusual it is and it is it's attention grabbing that's for sure and then as far as the adjustability the one thing i don't like about it and this is this is similar to the stock setup is you've got the the bracket here if you can see that and that's how you swing the light in and out so in my opinion the moto minded setup is the ultimate as far as adjustability because you can just reach down with your hand and move that up or down so that is maybe at this point the one ding against it but the little bit of limited lighting or night use that i've had with this i'm super impressed with it and like it a lot um we threw on a takamoto co-branded tucker strap so these are made by trucker tugger in utah and then we just had him embroider our you know with our our font our name on there stoked how that turned out um okay so down here on the foot pegs once we upgraded with the race tech i took off the cherby's lower fork lug protectors because those were more cosmetic than functional and these these are really good and super durable because we've got now we've got our expensive race tech kit components down around the bottom so i wanted to have some protection there i threw on the str i don't think i had this for idaho front caliper guard and this is carbon fiber and it's got um probably hmdw hm htmw the um really good ballistic nylon plastic as a guard here around the edge that's taken some good hits and it's gotten itself scratched up so that those would be dings that otherwise would have been transferred into the rotor and you know the reason why you want to protect your rotor is as this thing gets bent and sweeps through the pads it will aggressively accelerate the wear of the pads and you can you can tune those out on your own you can take a file and when you have dings on your rotor on the high points usually up on the top so you can grind those out with a file no big deal and then we threw you through the rear one this is fiberglass and they call it g10 that's the material that they use there and you can see how many more dings the rear has and the rotor is clean and there's no no um it's not deformed anywhere so it's doing its job so that's sort of a look at our long-term tacomato shot bike and a review of what's been going on with it maybe i'll make a mention about the twisted development carbon fiber bars continue to absolutely love them they just impress me these are not for the only the only maybe ding on them is the fact that the the hand guards are not real crash resistant they do tend to bend in i had a tip over and on some rocks and so it it pushed this in and then it changes the eyelets here it sort of changes in the bar to the center so i love them they're incredibly flexible they they dampen vibrations they work really really well for keeping um arm pumped down there's so many benefits to them really happy with them we have a video that we're working on right now we're going to show all kinds of bar setups and then compatibility with like flex bars and stabilizers lots of other pieces and components so look for that coming soon all right live at this moment anyway from moab utah it's beautiful gonna continue on the slick rock trail it'll be a nice sunset ride head back into town for tacos for dinner and um in the comments let us know if you have any questions about this bike or setting up your bike we're happy to talk to you we prefer to text or email the phones sometimes are hard to get to we might be in the dyno or we might be out on a ride so if you call be patient with us um we may prefer to have you send us an email instead um or we're out here in moab or in mexico or somewhere cool and we hope you do the same so um happy to help you get your bike set up so that you can go out and get some adventure

Channel: TACO MOTO CO

Views: 20,581

Rating: 4.8713827 out of 5

Keywords: Ktm, Excf, Dual sport, Enduro, Adv, Ktm 350excf, Ktmexcf, Ktm excf, Husqvarna fe, Husqvarna, Taco moto co, Ktm and husky, Best dual sport, Get ecu, Power commander, Bdr, Lab2v, La Barstow to Vegas, La to Vegas, Moto minded, Seat concepts, Scott’s stabelizer, Pro moto billet, Dirt bike, Vortex ecu, Light adv, Adv light, Renthal, Acerbis, Fork shrink, Taco moto co., Taco mike, Mousse, Motoz, Shinko, Super cross, Enduro motorcycle, Exc-f, Fe, Fes, Xcf-w, Xcfw, DYNOJET, Dobeck, Ejk, Ecu, moab

Id: Z4nKAu26z6s

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021