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About the only good thing to come out of last winter was my quality time putting 1,000 miles on Yamaha's SX 500R.
Usually, I get to test up to six different machines a year. Last season, because of the weird weather the best I could muster was one.
Trail conditions would go from excellent to horrible in a matter of days, with horrible being the norm. The highlines in northern Minnesota were unrideable due to the lack of snow. The ditches were o.k. but do get boring after a couple hundred miles, so the only options I had left were to bang away on the miserable trails and forest roads.
By the end of my 1000-mile test session with the SX 500R my back, butt, and body really came to appreciate Yamaha's Big Bump Suspension. The SX-R was a real sweetheart on the rough and twisty trails and forest roads, and Baby Blue could turn a rough ditchbed into a magic carpet ride!
Other than its 500cc twin cylinder engine and not having an adjustable brake handle and rocker skis, the SX 500R was nearly identical to its bigger brothers the SX 600R and SX 700R. The other key differences were twelve less pounds and noticeably fewer ponies.
From the top down my impressions of the SX-R are as follows. The mid-height windshield is as stylish as it is functional, deflecting all the cold and wet stuff away from face and body. We have been severe critics of Yamaha windscreens of the past. They were non-factors in deflecting cold air. Now they factor well into keeping you warm and dry.
The new two-inch wider handlebars proved very comfortable. We found that the added leverage from the wider bars made a big difference in turning and the way our upper body felt at the end of the day.
The brake and throttle levers were positioned perfectly for my style of riding and were extremely easy to push and pull, requiring minimal effort.
The instrument cluster is stylish with large gauges that are easy to read day or night. The SX-R also came with a standard trip meter making it easy to keep track of mileage from day to day.
One of the creature features that I really enjoyed on the SX-R was the rheostat type hand warmer control. The hand warmers would go from cool to extremely hot or anywhere in between with just a slight twist of the control knob.
In day-to-day performance, the 494cc engine proved to be bullet proof and required no maintenance whatsoever. It was easy to pull over, and-when cold- always started by the third pull of the starter rope.
There are definitely more powerful 500s around. Cat's new ZR and almost any of the US-built Polaris 500s come immediately to mind. But, while not being the most powerful 500 I've ever ridden, the SX-R had some very long legs. Under ideal conditions I observed the speedometer needle break into the triple digit zone. The more normal top speed indicated on the speedometer would be in the 85 to 90 miles per hour range. However, in radar testing we have found that Yamaha and the other sled manufacturers factor about a 10 percent fudge factor into their speedos. If you figure that what we were seeing on the speedometer was only about 90 percent of true speed, you'd be close to what we see as top speeds at our annual shoot-out in upstate New York.
The 500 motor consumed 74.06 gallons of fuel in 1000 miles, for an average of 13.50 miles per gallon. Oil consumption was nine quarts for an average of one quart for every 8.22 gallons of fuel.
The YVXC clutch and transmission performed flawlessly, shifting up and down upon demand.
The cockpit and ergonomics fit me like a glove allowing me to lock in through the rough stuff, then sitting back and relaxing during the few smooth patches I found. I feel that the new 17 degree footrests which are longer and flatter than the old 30 degree rests have a great deal to do with rider comfort, especially on a long ride.
The Big Bump Suspension having nine inches of travel up front and 11.5 inches in the rear soaked up anything I could throw at it and never bottomed once. As an added bonus the whole suspension system is quite simple to adjust. The new 0.92 track proved to be very aggressive and performed head and shoulders above the older 0.75 design.
Overall, I was very impressed with the SX 500R. I found that if I were running with other 500cc machines across a lake I would be looking at their taillights, but once we hit the rough and twisty stuff- they would be looking at mine.