I'm looking at a 05' KFX 700 as my next machine. Can anyone give some constructive cirticizm or praise for this machine. I've owned Polaris (gasp!!!) in the past, but I ride with some Kawi-holics so I figured I'd give it a look. I've read in other forums about problems with the plastic cracking...any truth to that? Can anyone give an unbiased opinion on how it would compare to a Scrambler 500 HO? Thanks.

 

well the kfx is like 100-200 pounds lighter,somewhere around there. i think that the kfx is only a 2 wheel drive and the scrambler can go into 4x4. umm thats about it im not to familliar with those machines.

 

I think ( LE ) plastic was a little brittle.... But the green and orange is fine....
I might add, if you keep it rubber side down. You won't have issues with the plastic

 

My green plastic is fine, ive had no problems with it that I havent caused. Dont buy it to outrun your buddys banshee or yfz450 cause it wont. If you want a sporty utility quad, its the king! I love mine and but I dont compare it to raptors or yfz's, although I can smoke them... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Thanks. I'm not looking for anything to race or jump, just a nice reliable trail machine that can hold its own with scramblers, stock raptors, 400ex's, etc...I'm coming from a 250 2-stroke. Even with the HSP speed kit, I get completely walked on. Just want to keep up and have a comfortable trail ride and as few breakdowns as possible. Anyone else have anything to add??

 

The LE plastic is more than a little brittle, it will crack if you sneeze around it....ok, so not THAT brittle but much more brittle than the orange and green. The V is a very fun ride too, the bigger you are the better the V is for you. I was never comfortable on a raptor which is the main reason I got the V. I'm 6'2' 210, and I needed a good sized bike. The main issues I've had with mine so far is with the way I ride, the rear shock was too harsh for me. i had to upgrade to an Elka, which was a little extreme, I think a Works heart transplant would have helped greatly, and would have been alot cheaper, but I dont think anything would compare to the full upgrade to an Elka or top of th eline Works or Axis rear shock. Another cool thing is with the V you can change the whole temperment of the transmission just by swappng the primary spring out, takes about 10-20 mins.


Hope this helps.

-Ross

 

Thanks for the forum info ManicHaze. Not sure what the LE plastic is. On the Kawi website they list color options as blue, sliver and of course green. It looks like '05 had a red too. What is the LE so I can avoid it. Also, where is a good place for Kawi aftermarket mods (pipe, clutch kits, etc). How is the KFX in the mud and sand as far as overheating and such??

 

the LE means limited edition not sure what color it was though. i have seen a lot of V's in the sand with no problems. they have a big fan to help cool the engine.

 

The KFX keeps cool well, I have had no problems. Yes in 05 the limited edition plastics were red and silver. You can tell its limited edition because it has black lines going all over it that look like lightning. The new 06 plastics include blue which replaced the red, i dont know if its brittle or not yet, but it looks like its made of the same stuff. The 06 silver on the other hand looks like its normal plastic like the green and orange. I believe they discontinued the orange color in 06 unfortunately, that was my favorite color.

There are lots of places to buy mods and aftermarket stuff for the KFX 700 and its hard to say whats the best...e-bay always seems good though. Some mods that are on my list to get are a Muzzy exhaust (its 2 into 1) but sounds like a V8, and a CDI or a timing advance key (6* key) The key is cheaper, but is a pain to install and is risky, lots of people have screwed stuff up installing them. A cdi is just plug-n-play, replaces the stock cdi ignition. They both basically do the same thing, they advance the timing curve to improve performance.

The best mod in my opinion as far as "bang for the buck" has got to be primary clutch springs, they are damn cheap like 15-25 a pop. You can also install shims that change the stall and shiftout of the spring. While stock you don't want too much shiftout, but I dont want to get into the technical aspects of the springs i'll leave that up to KevinM's site www.700v.com

 

The LE plastic is just weak and brittle?...yea...if you flip it!

YEA RIGHT! HAHA Ive killed cam-modded YFZ's