WAKING A BEAST

Honda’s CR500 is the big-bore banger that gets the blood pumping for most punters lusting for a vulgar display of power. This stands to reason given the incredible history of the model and the superheroes that rode it, including Australia’s own Jeff Leisk.

But what’s often mistaken is that it wasn’t Honda that started the Japanese 500cc motocross era. The CR500 arrived in 1984. Yamaha’s YZ490J arrived in 1982, followed by Suzuki’s RM500 in ’83 and Kawasaki’s KX500 in that same year. The RM was short lived and the YZ490 was...not great, but to its credit it still achieved good things. Of those three early models, one stands tallest — the green machine. The mighty KX500.

At the height of the 500cc battles, it was