Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1366987
April 2021 358 The 550s were intended to be more of an open-terrain play bike (read desert racing) than a weapon on the motocross track. Gobs of torque anywhere in the rev range can move that 240 pounds mammoth with effortless grace up any flat land or incline you throw at it, some mes at an impressive rate of speed. You go fast without no cing it. The bike is very stable at high speeds. Any big bore is impressive in the power depart- ment, but big two strokes have a very special character. They feel like four strokes. Are they for everyone and everywhere like a modern 300? Ab- solutely not. Are they fun to ride? Oh, yeah. How can the experience of riding a big bore be put into words for non-owners? Hold on ght, you're riding a catapult, aim and twist. Short shi ing and rider weight are unfazed. What I like the most is that the longer wheel base is confidence-inspiring at speeds with li le to no headshake. It's not a bike that will or need to spin to the moon to make some very healthy power and torque. In stock form, the low-end grunt monster has a wide and delicious mid-range a erburner and then ends the symphony for the senses at around 7000 rpm. In the handling department, the conven onal front forks do a great job at soaking up the bumps and was top-shelf equipment back then. For example, an Öhlins rear shock was standard equipment on the 1995 and 1996 models 440/550 alike here in North America. The 500 SX had it too, but it was a European model only. In the chassis department, the chromoly steel frame does a tremendous job isola ng the rider from most vibra ons. I would lie to you if I would tell you that the bike is at ease in the east coast woods and ght single-track. That is not what this bike was meant to do. The smaller displacement variants of the bike are the ones you want to consider for ghter trails. Back in the day, this bike was a top gun in the California high desert or in grueling races like Finke desert race in Alice Springs, Northern Australia. Before wri ng this ar cle, I took the me to talk on the phone with three guys who were KTM dealers before and during the 1990s in Australia and in Holland. From their perspec ve, KTM as a compa- ny was much different back then, read smaller and managed like family business as opposed to the gigan c corpora on it is today.