Hello, I have now had my Rebel 500 for 3-4 months. I have put on all available mods, but still don't like the seat height. So I'm probably going to get the scrambler kit to raise the seat.
I like Honda, and I have a CRF250, and it's twice as fast as this Rebel-500. On the CRF I have the TNT ECU which means no limit, and I can configure the EFI. I have done all available mods and it is JOY to Ride.
With the Rebel, there seems to be no after-market performance mods. Why is this? I have asked lots of people and they just say "I don't know, and I don't know anybody that does"
For the ECU there seems to be an outfit ECU-SHOP in Thailand that sells an ECU, but expensive and you must go through dealer-network, and I like to install it myself. In the USA there is the Dyno (5+-year-old tech, no upgrade of hw for years ), and that's about it, but there's next to nothing online about actual performance and experience from others.
In my life whenever I bought a new bike, and that's from dirt bikes to Harleys, I always change everything, remove all factory stuff, and make them "FAST". But for this Rebel-500 it seems that they have 'closed' this bike for this.
In Thailand, there are tons of stuff for the CBx bikes and 150s, but nothing for performance for the rebel.
...
Besides all the cosmetic stuff the first thing I did to the rebel-500 was put on a good exhaust, which made it sound better but had no performance gain.
The rebel has been on the market for 3+ years, but there is nothing on Youtube except making them pretty,
I guess I bought the Rebel-500 because it was a cheap 500cc base frame bike, I paid less than $6k new, and most of the other bikes of this engine size are twice as expensive, I was thinking this was the base, and I would just put on mod's to make it fast, like in the USA you can buy a head-kit (Chinese) for a Harley 883 to take it to a 1700cc, for about $250 USD. Lots of stuff, or even valve kits, for the CRF there are tons of things you can buy to make them fast.
For the Rebel 500, there is nothing.
For me driving the R500 is like driving a bus, and my legs hurt from that position, I upgraded the seat and it still didn't help, I'm not sure how much height the scrambler seat buys.
Most people say the R500 is a 'girls bike' as it can fit a 5' woman rather well, meaning she can touch the ground. I'm not tall, only about 5'11'', yet when I sit on the Rebel I find my knees up above my waist. This is a terrible position for long riding.
...
I'm rather surprised that on the entire surface of the planet earth there is NO after-market stuff for making the Rebel's FAST, maybe in time but from talking with shops, they don't even sound interested, what's up? Does anybody know?
Maybe there's some 'secret' GOV deal? Or maybe Honda has closed this motorcycle and locked it like a 'locked cell phone'. Who knows?
I'm an engineer so in time I'll find the schematics, China sells ECU chips for about $1, and they are all the same, every ECU on the planet uses the same chip set, after that it's just glue to stabilize, and tune the chip.
Top-End kits? Valve Kits, EFI mod kits, performance mods for getting more fuel?
I don't care if I burn up the engine, that's part of the fun of retooling the engine and making it better.
I like Honda, and I have a CRF250, and it's twice as fast as this Rebel-500. On the CRF I have the TNT ECU which means no limit, and I can configure the EFI. I have done all available mods and it is JOY to Ride.
With the Rebel, there seems to be no after-market performance mods. Why is this? I have asked lots of people and they just say "I don't know, and I don't know anybody that does"
For the ECU there seems to be an outfit ECU-SHOP in Thailand that sells an ECU, but expensive and you must go through dealer-network, and I like to install it myself. In the USA there is the Dyno (5+-year-old tech, no upgrade of hw for years ), and that's about it, but there's next to nothing online about actual performance and experience from others.
In my life whenever I bought a new bike, and that's from dirt bikes to Harleys, I always change everything, remove all factory stuff, and make them "FAST". But for this Rebel-500 it seems that they have 'closed' this bike for this.
In Thailand, there are tons of stuff for the CBx bikes and 150s, but nothing for performance for the rebel.
...
Besides all the cosmetic stuff the first thing I did to the rebel-500 was put on a good exhaust, which made it sound better but had no performance gain.
The rebel has been on the market for 3+ years, but there is nothing on Youtube except making them pretty,
I guess I bought the Rebel-500 because it was a cheap 500cc base frame bike, I paid less than $6k new, and most of the other bikes of this engine size are twice as expensive, I was thinking this was the base, and I would just put on mod's to make it fast, like in the USA you can buy a head-kit (Chinese) for a Harley 883 to take it to a 1700cc, for about $250 USD. Lots of stuff, or even valve kits, for the CRF there are tons of things you can buy to make them fast.
For the Rebel 500, there is nothing.
For me driving the R500 is like driving a bus, and my legs hurt from that position, I upgraded the seat and it still didn't help, I'm not sure how much height the scrambler seat buys.
Most people say the R500 is a 'girls bike' as it can fit a 5' woman rather well, meaning she can touch the ground. I'm not tall, only about 5'11'', yet when I sit on the Rebel I find my knees up above my waist. This is a terrible position for long riding.
...
I'm rather surprised that on the entire surface of the planet earth there is NO after-market stuff for making the Rebel's FAST, maybe in time but from talking with shops, they don't even sound interested, what's up? Does anybody know?
Maybe there's some 'secret' GOV deal? Or maybe Honda has closed this motorcycle and locked it like a 'locked cell phone'. Who knows?
I'm an engineer so in time I'll find the schematics, China sells ECU chips for about $1, and they are all the same, every ECU on the planet uses the same chip set, after that it's just glue to stabilize, and tune the chip.
Top-End kits? Valve Kits, EFI mod kits, performance mods for getting more fuel?
I don't care if I burn up the engine, that's part of the fun of retooling the engine and making it better.