Unlike many people that test these bikes or write on internet forums, I spent a great deal of time around the 500cc machines, as my best friend competed in the AMA Nationals in the late 1980's. While being his mechanic, I learned a great deal about how to ride these machines... I had good "teachers" to observe up-close and in person... you may have heard of some of them. Ricky Johnson, Ron Liechen, Jeff Ward, JMB, Jeff Stanton and many others...
There are some important techniques to riding these machines properly. Now for a little background, I consider myself a small bore kind of guy, just love the 125's and all the work required to make them go fast.
When first riding the CR500 you discover very quickly (if your paying attention) that you can not ride it like a 125 or 250 and expect to live or to have low lap times. You just make a lot of noise, destroy rear tires and tire yourself out.
These machines are tame little bunnies when ridden correctly!! How many people will actually say that?? LOL
To achieve this tame power delivery is simple, as soon as the bike starts pulling a little bit, shift up to the next gear. Yes it almost sounds like it's going to bog, but it just pulls. You go through the gears quickly and realize that you have arrived at the next corner carrying a great deal of speed, more than you had thought because the bike was not revving! So fast that it's almost impossible to slow down for the corner.
The bike I used was my best friends machine and he was amazed at how fast I was able to get around the track...
Now if you have test riders that are used to 450F's that rev to the moon, this style of riding would be counter intuitive. In a word they would never think about it. When ridden in this fashion, the CR500 is a scary monster and extremely difficult to get around the track safely, never mind quickly!!
Like miedosoracing has said, after a few days of riding these bikes, you realize that they have all the power you could ever want or need and that it is indeed easy to go fast. But you better be in good shape, because you have to really brake hard on these things and muscle them to change directions!
In a word... they are a BLAST!!