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Offline SachsGS

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Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« on: March 27, 2011, 04:15:29 PM »
I've heard of these but never actually seen one.
http://spokane.craigslist.org/mcy/2285992336.html

                                  ;D ;D
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 04:20:53 PM by SachsGS »

Offline factoryX

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2011, 05:52:37 PM »
their cool until you blow one up :o. If remember correctly they had magnesium cases, and the vibrations from the motor cracks them(this is why you see them with 600cc street bike motors, or the occasional cr500 motor). Suzuki have always done things weird, including the 1985-86 lt250r's, which had floppy rods from the factory. One of the cool things about the quadzilla motor was that it had a counter balancer.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 06:10:48 PM by factoryX »


I ride an 03 yz250, wait 04, wait 05, what ever, they're all the same #$@% YOU!

Offline SachsGS

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2011, 08:47:00 PM »
I know its hard to compare a quad to a bike but how much power did the LT500 have compared to a Honda CR500 of the same era? As well,were they 5 speeds and they were liquid cooled? Thanks. ;D

Offline factoryX

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2011, 10:08:19 PM »
I think it was pushing about 51hp... slight mods made it push into the 60's, and they were 5 speed. If this quad was built correctly like the trx250r was, it would have destroyed all competition. What killed it was the fact it was damn near unridable for trails, so it was mainly used as a dune bike.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 11:23:02 PM by factoryX »


I ride an 03 yz250, wait 04, wait 05, what ever, they're all the same #$@% YOU!

Offline ford832

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2011, 03:54:55 PM »
From watching a couple of local guys of a number of years ago ride them,they also jump very front end low.Always a good thing :D
I'd rather a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy.

Offline factoryX

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2011, 06:30:03 AM »
 ;D.
 Don't get me wrong, this was the fastest production atv ever released, but it had problems.


I ride an 03 yz250, wait 04, wait 05, what ever, they're all the same #$@% YOU!

Offline MyckMcClung

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2011, 06:49:35 AM »
A kid I grew up with and his Dad were into 3 wheelers he had a stock red Tecate 250 and his Dad had the green race version w/ an extended swingarm  and a KX500 motor in it. It was stupid. They let me ride the 250 once, and I was doing alright on it, drifting some turns, until I caught a rock and flipped it. To this day I have never felt as much pain as when that thing landed on me. and my body is 60% covered in tattoos.
If a pair of 2" brass balls isn't working, I doubt that the 3" model will make much difference.

Offline factoryX

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2011, 06:53:16 AM »
Hey leave trikes out of this  ;D.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 07:12:28 AM by factoryX »


I ride an 03 yz250, wait 04, wait 05, what ever, they're all the same #$@% YOU!

Offline MyckMcClung

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2011, 07:37:59 AM »
LMAO, same thing IMO
If a pair of 2" brass balls isn't working, I doubt that the 3" model will make much difference.

Offline opfermanmotors

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2011, 08:17:59 AM »
Suzuki did make a 500 after the RM afterall, eh?  They dropped out of the big bore race pretty early on.  It would be cool to mount that motor in a bike, but based on the comments of it being crap perhaps not such a good idea.  Perhaps that's why suzuki got out of the big bore motor market so quick, they were incompetent.
Modest beginings start with a single blow of a horn, man.

Offline SachsGS

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2011, 06:40:18 PM »
It's strange that Suzuki would go through all the trouble to design that 500 ATV motor and not make it adaptable to a motorcycle.

 I once rode a 1984 RM500 back to back with a 1981 Maico 500 and it was quite surprising how much more powerful the Maico was,it felt like it had at least 10 hp on the Suzuki.

Offline opfermanmotors

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2011, 08:03:36 PM »
Someone who had a RM500 tried to tell me they had a lot of power however, comments like yours and magazine articles have always said it had too tall gearing and was weak.  From what I heard, just like Yamaha, they f*'d up the 465 by releasing the 500/490
Modest beginings start with a single blow of a horn, man.

Offline SachsGS

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2011, 07:29:07 AM »
I actually owned an 81 RM465 and it was a VERY nice handling motorcycle but it was gutless,that thing would have been lucky to break 40hp.My 1983 Maico 490 is in another league compared to those old RMs. :D

Offline factoryX

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2011, 07:52:31 AM »
I'm not surprised to say the least to see Suzuki give up on big bores so quickly. Their idea of performance during this time period consisted of sloppy rods, and luck.


I ride an 03 yz250, wait 04, wait 05, what ever, they're all the same #$@% YOU!

Offline maicoman009

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Re: Suzuki 500 Quadzilla
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2011, 11:59:49 AM »
My past experience with the Suzuki LT-500 "Quadzilla" was about 1987-88 when a good friend & I were out in his 1977 Pontiac Trans Am that had a 400ci engine & ran quite well for a trans am. One of his friends owned a LT-500 & he said follow me on the back roads & let me know how fast you have to go in the trans am to keep up? So we followed the 500cc quad on a blacktop & some gravel roads for roughly 3 to 4 miles & I could'nt believe how fast the 500cc quad went!!! I was just a passanger in the T/A but I was keeping track of the speeds we were hitting & the fastest we got before we barely got on the rear of the quad was 95 mph!!! I truly could not believe that Suzuki LT-500 Quadracer could go so fast! I wish Suzuki would have put a reliable 500cc 2-stroke engine that ran that good in a RM-500! :o