[montibank]

Are you kidding me? It's a race bike. Look at the intervals for replacing parts on it and you will find that going 5K+ miles is WAYYYYY over recomendations and is an absolute testament to how well KTM builds their engines.

Try this on a CRF450 and I'd be surprised if you made it 1500 miles before a complete failure.

Agreed, everything you said above is dead on! But take a look at the 525... Will anyone argue that the 525 is slower (or less of a race bike) than the 530? Both race bikes? Well people I know (and have met in person and LOOKED at their bikes) claim 16,000 miles on a crank. No I didn't ride all 16k with them, but why would they lie?

Yup, its a race bike. Don't buy into that crap about not designed to go 5000 miles+ bullshit. Newsflash they are out to make a profit, and if they can save a buck on a part they will. The 530 is a step back from the 525 IMHO.

~

Michael

 

[Skully25]

my old 450 crank lasted 15000 miles did change the crankshaft bearings at 8000 miles but I never touched the actual crankshaft.

 

[montibank]

my old 450 crank lasted 15000 miles did change the crankshaft bearings at 8000 miles but I never touched the actual crankshaft.

Thank you! Again 525 > 530.

 

[y2todd]

I was looking at the 530 recently and the salesman told me(and he was serious) that the bike only needs 3000 mile oil changes and 6000 valve checks. "like a car" he said lol
Long story short i wont be buying from this dealer.

 

[r1racingxxx]

what d oyou guys mean by a cush or dampened hub

 

[rockrawler]

Rubber inserts in the hub to dampen or cushion the load that gets put on the tranny from having a larger, grippier tire that doesn't just spin out like a dirt tire in dirt.

Love my 525!!!!

 

[1badktm530]

WOW this is ann old thread!!

My own experience with the 530:

I bought an '08 530 EXC-R brand new in Sept. 2008 and gutted the can, re-jetted it and converted it to sumo immediately before I even rode it (street use only).

I have the non-cush type rear hub, always ride with the map select on full power but never race it and try not to rev it to the sky very often (key word - try).

I only have about 3.5k miles on it now but I am still very happy with the bike, never had a problem with it and it moves like a bat out of hell.

I change the motor oil and gear box oil religiously at 500 miles and haven't seen any metal shavings or pieces in the oil (other than a little fine glitter from normal wear and tear).

I did a valve check at 2000 miles and they were still right within spec so I probably won't check them again until I get 4k miles or so on it.

I run my bike both around town and out on the highway 65-75 mph and it pulls great (it's been up to 100 mph several times) and the 6th gear is spaced nicely for highway/freeway speeds.

I have done several 100 mile highway trips on it without any trouble/oil use etc. but I would recommend a softer seat for long trips.

I would not hesitate recommending this bike for street/sumo use but I would recommend (and I have been intending to purchase) an aftermarket oil cooler/resevoir for the bike to beef up the oil capacity, extend the oil change intervals and to help keep the oil temp down.

I think this might be the smartest 400 bucks I will ever spend on this bike:

http://www.joeracerproducts.com/index.php?module=newktmoilcooler

or

http://www.hondaoffroadparts.com/KT...530-Oil-Cooler-Kit-by-HT-Racing/prod_676.html

 

[700RR]

this may sound very contrary by don't go by the manual guidelines for maintenance or rebuilds. it all depends on how you use and treat the bike.

I already noticed that keeping the engine oil in the 530 for more 15 hours doesn't work. you need to change it sooner since it only carries 700 cc's of oil.

here's what I do on my 530:

engine oil: every 5 to 10 hours
tranny oil: every 15 to 20 hours
valve checks: so far every 30 hours but since the new exc's work with shims I'm expecting the 530 to need less valve adjustments than the previous models. on my '05 450 exc I checked the valve every 30 hours, on my 530 I need to put a little more hours on it before I can determine how often the valves actually need work, only got 36 hours on my bike so far but so far I'm upholding the same 30 hour interval like on my previous bike.
rebuilds: at the rate I'm going (which is about 75% hard street riding, no commuting, and about 25% trackriding) I'm looking at tearing down the motor at about 250 hours. my previous 450 saw the same punishment and revved even more and the motor was still in great shape when I tore it down at 225 hours.

if you're just using the bike for commuting I think you can easily go to 300 hours before you need to tear down the motor if you stay on top of your other maintenance and nothing else goes wrong. there are some issues that might pop up, one is the camchain tensioner issue and the other is an oil seal that likes to give way on some bikes. it varies from bike to bike, some have gone a 100 hours or more and haven't had any issues while others might have 50 hours and allready replaced the seal or tensioner twice. so far I'm still good.

Great reply
Thank you

 

[Hartger]

Hello Guys,

Thanx for sharing this information. I also ride a 08 530 and i recently bougth some supermoto wheel with cushion drive. For now i am riding on dirt tracks and off road tracks. I change my oil every 4 hours and gear oil ever 12 hours. This on advise of my friend who is a ktm dealer here in Holland. Don´t look al the miles you made but do you maintenance by the hours!!
For the rest, Great Site, drewling here by all the photo´s and the sunny weather is see. It rains to much. Within two or three weeks i will get the wheels under the bike and try it out.

have a nice day.
Greets Hartger

 

[BMuu]

I'm almost embarrassed to ask but when did KTM make the oil and gearbox oil separate? I have a 2006 525 with 5200 miles and 141 hours and all is running great, motor is all original!

 

[707]

In 08 they went seperate w/ the oils.

 

[ekms377]

I figured I would give you guys a few engine details about my 530.....

15k miles
650 hours

Only valve checks have been done to it but mtc has been done religiously by local shop. They can vouch for this post if there are any doubters. Still on original top-end and crank. The 530 is a beast......and reliable if you change and measure oil and clean filter regularly.

Never been tarded......just dual sported.

 

[crash279]

I figured I would give you guys a few engine details about my 530.....

15k miles
650 hours

Only valve checks have been done to it but mtc has been done religiously by local shop. They can vouch for this post if there are any doubters. Still on original top-end and crank. The 530 is a beast......and reliable if you change and measure oil and clean filter regularly.

Never been tarded......just dual sported.

What part of Texas are you in?

 

[ekms377]

Dfw.....Keller to be exact.

 

[crash279]

Dfw.....Keller to be exact.

You need to come ride with us! There is a group of us in the Saginaw/Lake Worth area. We do a bit of dual sporting too.

 

[Five30]

Hey, I'm riding my 08 530 to work at the moment. Too much fun

 

[wsmc831]

Nobody should doubt that 'some' 530's...or even most, don't have problems. I think it's been proven that the ring design of the 08's is not good, and there are issues with oil pumps, valve seals, valve seats...etc.

Mine, at nearly 200 hours was still running great, but was using oil...simply changing oil and doing general maintenance is no guarantee these problems won't happen. Personally, after many races (Norcal, Ama and Mexican enduro's some fairly common problems started to manifest themself, but were easily fixed with updated parts). It can be a great bike, and personally will be converting it to street use in the next 12 months, but I'm still not a fan of the split oil. I would bet at 650 hours your engine would be VERY happy with a rebuild, at least a top end.

I figured I would give you guys a few engine details about my 530.....

15k miles
650 hours

Only valve checks have been done to it but mtc has been done religiously by local shop. They can vouch for this post if there are any doubters. Still on original top-end and crank. The 530 is a beast......and reliable if you change and measure oil and clean filter regularly.

Never been tarded......just dual sported.

 

[Five30]

Wsmc,

I replaced my 08 rings with 2010 rings. No more oil usage/loss.

But, it's gotta be said that prior to the rings change at 65hrs, by the time I went to change the oil, there was just the minimal amount left. Which was handy because it saved getting rid of more old oil

With the 08 rings I got rid of it all over the country side.

 

[Skully25]

I figured I would give you guys a few engine details about my 530.....

15k miles
650 hours

Only valve checks have been done to it but mtc has been done religiously by local shop. They can vouch for this post if there are any doubters. Still on original top-end and crank. The 530 is a beast......and reliable if you change and measure oil and clean filter regularly.

Never been tarded......just dual sported.

I honoustly would love to know your ring gap... at 650 hours It would shock me if there were any rings left :lol: even for an RFS 650 hours is a stretch.

what wmsc said, regular maintenance is no garantee the bike will last. at the time I felt like I was wrenching more than riding... my 530 got me so paranoid I literaly checked everything every time the bike was used :bannana:

after my second rebuild it looked like I had all the kinks worked out, but by that time I was so fed up with it that I got rid of my 530 before it got it in it's mind to take a crap again for whatever reason.

mine might have been a lemon, but compared to the guys running RFS bikes there's a lot more riders encountering issues with the XC4 bikes.

 

[Gino]

Hey guys, without getting into to much detail, was the problem with the new motor specific to '08 and 530's?? Did the 450's have issues??? Are they still having issues with '09,'10,'11'12's????

I knew the 08 530 were iffy at best, but I never really paid much attention as I had my older RFS. Now I'm in the market again for a newer bike........