1996 KTM 550 MXC

I hate how there’s a character limit in the description. Anyway, this literally is my dream bike. Rode a Honda CR 500 when I was 16 (almost died on 1st gear) and ever since wanted a 500 2 stroke. I’ve also always been a KTM fanboy so when I found out KTM made a 550cc 2 stroke I WANTED IT. After 3 years of searching I finally found one and decided to “pimp it out”. I knew this was going to be my new favorite bike (it is). First off, brand new piston, rings, gaskets, and polished cylinder. The compression is so huge that my dad (he’s around 75kg/170lbs) can stand on the kickstart and it won’t move, at least after the compression stroke when the piston is at the top and compression is the highest. I nearly break my knee every time I have to start it. Brand new clutch, rejetted carb, new kickstart spring. Nothing major there. FMF Fatty pipe and FMF silencer (can’t remember the exact model of silencer). Good luck finding a set of those. Took me a while and could only find a used set. Still works.
The entire front end (forks, black wheel, rotor, brake caliper, triple clamps, handle bars, levers, throttle asdembly, handguards, and clutch assembly) are off a 2008 KTM 250 XCF-W. I did mention the clutch, right? Yes this bike has a hydraulic clutch. I just tapped the clutch pump/cylinder thing into the stock clutch cable hole in the cylinder and ran the line through. Put some o-rings on the other side and small seals, just in case of leaking. Works just fine.
The plastics are off a 1997 KTM 360 EXC with custom graphics and some stickers. They bolt up perfectly.
The rest is pretty much stock just refurbished or replaced, like brake fluid and pads, etc.
This thing is just crazy. I’m taking it for its 1st official dirt ride this weekend. I’ll post some pics and write my impressions. I took it down the street and stuff already…. had me speechless. The hp is 61hp as stated by pulpmx.com in an article about these bikes. It’s not official though. I’m sure my new piston and cylinder has around that maybe more. In reality, the torque is where it’s at. I started this bike off in 3rd gear no problem. You can shift up twice and it doesn’t bog down at all. 5th gear half throttle wheelies make it seem like the bike could have 10 gears. There’s just never too little power. Honestly feels like there might be a little too much power all the time. First impressions: what where the Austrians on when they produced this bike. It’s totally insane. I realized I might make it sound like it’s just unrideable, but as long as you don’t blip the throttle it’s actually quite mellow. Down low it’s very torquee but not to the point where it tries to kill you. I don’t know for sure yet I’ll take it out this weekend for a real dirt test.
I still can’t fully believe I actually have one of these. Since I’m 6 foot 5 inches tall (198cm I believe) and weight 205 pounds (93kg), this just might be the only bike that could actually kill me. Can’t wait to test that theory. #bikelife

Assuming by the time youve read this, the 550 has paralyzed you… is it for sale yet bahahah