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back in time.....simple times....indy 500 times..

10082 Views 115 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  too slow
6
looking at a pretty clean , fairly low mile indy 500 edge 04'.

slow fuji engine, i know. thinking learner for the girlfriend/ low maintenance loaner / back up.

can get it and delivery for $1500 cad (1150 usd). all in.

2800ish miles. might get used twice a year maybe by me. should be a fairly easy to maintain low dollar sled for awhile i hope.

way down on power to comparable ves 5s i know. but heres some questions ;

reliability;

are these as reliable as there ves cousins ?

gas mileage ;

10 mpg about what i can expect?more?less? cheap minieral oil ok for these?

clutching / gearing ;

want to leave the jetting stock , no pipes or mods of any kind cause i know its not a performer anyway. but if i can throw a gearing change at it and theres a proven good clutch set up to make it less doggish in trails id like the input. can you run the same gears in these as the ves edges? team primary springs in these ? 10 series weights ? i got a drawer full of that stuff already so if i can source all or some of it to set up this thing a little better, great.

heated grips is the list of creature comforts and im sure the shocks will need an upgrade after a season. should be a pretty light sled.think theres a button secondary on these eh?38 mikunis?


any other input appriciated. pics of sled below..garage kept, unmolested.

apollogize for the grainy photos.cell picture of a laptop screen. no cracks , tears , rips or damage of any kind.used it once last winter, ran great.video of it running and pics under hood im waiting on.

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dug up a spec sheet.

gearings 1.9 to 1. 74 p,21/40.

maybe my rmk 600 stock 19-39 72 p would help spunk up the little 5?

doubt it ever see north of 80 mph anyway.2.05 to 1? too shallow u think? 21/42 maybe like the 440 fan gearing??(2 to 1)

wtf is a 5 m weight?
Their a reliable sled if not messed with period. You can tweak the clutching for more performance, but i'd not go further unless its planned only to be raced. I had all sorts of combination 500 indy mods back around 92, even oval raced one with an slp rz 500 top end. The fuji 500 engine just doesn't tolerate engine mods well that produce more heat.
As far as the weights, you mean 10m5? Those sleds stock had 49.5 gram weights i believe with a gold spring that had low engagement.
no mods of any kind as stated.clutching and gearing for a little more bottom end.bout all im after here.

other then that i want to change the case oil and clean the carbs and go with this one

whats the mpg look like on these?



theres an 02'xc sp thats here for 1000 bucks.runs really strong and looks like its been beat to death.seats destroyed etc,.

spose i could buy it for the running gear and swap it into this body for lols if the fuji takes a dump
Remember that a nice low engagement RPM is a good thing for novice riders. You mentioned girlfriend for example, depending on how comfortable they are with machines like this, something that leaps of the line (so to speak) can be scary, you don't want it up a tree. It's likely pretty much bulletproof as is with just a bit of maintenance, why tempt fate by messing with it?
just figured a sled thats been around 20 years there be lots of decent trail set ups kicking around.i already own a drawer of gears so why not.

ive never considered clutching or gearing mods ' lol.

you got a point though.maybe its best to leave it alone stock and tame for the first year anyway so misses dont crash er immediately lol
Do you know the owner? I ask because that's pretty low mileage, and it takes 10 seconds to adjust a odometer to anything you want it to read
the mileage seems low, but it makes sense.im on the west coast of the island, hes on east.typically when were getting snow they get rain and most sledders on the island head over here, but majority of the population lives on the other coast.

they basically gotta truck them 6 to 8 hours to use them. winters have gotten more and more pathetic , resulting in many low mile sleds up for sale over there.

they buy em , drive em twice a year , back in the garage. im not suspect of the mileage given his location. its not strange to see here.
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As far as mpg, depends how its ridden and the conditions. You should see around 12 mpg on groomed trails as long as everything is stock. I would think the newer style rack carbs would deliver sharper throttle response to. When i converted my 38 round slides to tm flat slide 38's, it was a big difference.
To be honest i never became a fan of the fuji 500 unless totally left stock.
yeah maybe its best to just leave it stock then. i want it reliable more then anything else. its only going to be a putter anyway.

clean er up and send it.

good race for my buddies 550 tundra fanner for lolz
Even my Indy trail uses more fuel than my 500/700/800 Edge sleds did. But those edge sleds with the fuji motor were pretty darn good sleds, just leave it completely stock. I mean go through it front to back and set everything up properly. Run it the way it came and enjoy it for a nice trail cruiser that gets you home at the end of the day.

And if being honest I think a 500 ves or non ves or 600 ves is just as reliable, better on fuel, more power and easier to get parts for the motor.
ive had 4 edge 600 ves models, all 05's.

never saw more then 10 mpg on a good day on any of em. usually less because of how i drive them.

id prefer a xc sp, but this came up so cheap and not much use its hard to say no.

an obvious big step back in performance, but as a back up / loaner/ misses sled, i think it fits the ill ok.

i still held on to my 2nd rmk edge 600 ves.
A local crankshaft rebuilder named Ray Hitchcock told me back in 1990 that he had to restraighten hundreds of Polaris 500 twin cranks for Polaris. Apparently, they were very weakly built. Beware.
did they catch it by 04?id hope so lol
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Hope so. My riding buddy just bought a 2002 Edge 500.
what kinda mileage and price ? good deal?
There's a ton of parts around for a fuji 500 twin, just comes down to years. I can't recall how many of those engines i blew up over the years, but definitely at least 3 a year were epic failures at 9600 rpm till i went with a 95 fuji 600 triple which didn't turn out much better.
Imo, the ves 500 or 600 is the way to if wanting to run them hard. Don't even think of it doing the same with the fuji 500 twin.
stock im told they only spin 8 k max. i guess the above is why u stress keeping it stock.

its weird, ive read threads that people say this is arguably one of the most reliable engines polaris built, but on here the opinions appear quite abit different.

if its a timebomb i might just as well pass.i thought the thing was bulletproof.
so clean it up , and ride it and should be ok for a long time .i mean its under 3000 miles and i know going in its not fast and wont try to make it such.

i never had intentions of spinning 9 k with porting and pipes anyways lol.

i will say though, i like this graphics package much better then my rmk's. i think it looks kinda mean. be nice if it had a xcr 800 motor in it later lol
Seems i recall the 500 fuji l/c started using those rack flat slides around 00, or 01
so same carbs as a ves 600?
I know they had flat slides, but never saw one that had a high output decal....gotta wonder if that was added by the owner from some other model. I had a 2001 xc 600 ves edge. I think it had something like high performance 600 on the hood.

Yep, just different jetting.
older white wedge xc's/xcr 600's had the 'high performance' sticker running down alongside the hood venting.
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Idk if the later edge indy 500's came with ryde or fox shocks...probably not. if the case its not going to ride as smooth in rougher conditions as the xc edge.
rear track is fox.i think its a non rebuildable junker fox though.front is the walmart esque arvin gas shock.
No engine pics?

IMO it's hard to go wrong for $1,500 CAD. I had an older 500 Indy, it was a 1998 with the X-10 rear skid. Decent little sled for smooth trail riding.
said he was going to take some and a video of it running.still waiting on both.

unless its a total mess in there , i think the price in todays market is a steal too.its why im talking to the guy about picking it up.

you should see some of the abesolute junk on classifieds going for way more then this.guys moving in a month or too he says, aint got storage at the new spot for it.
Ive never seen a non rebuildable fox shock
well thats good then. i just assumed.
I had few sleds that had some sort of bs like that. Just can't recall them all. I think those later twins had some ves decal to.
variable exhaust ' written on them yep
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yeah still on the fence. i may just run my 600 ves the season and say screw it. if i can get that stupid airbox hitting steering post ' bs / rich bogginess out of it finally
I agree to everything you said. as for the gen 2 being fast on top... there is no wonder Polaris put the 800 xcr triple in it. however it sure would have been an awesome experience had they put that combo in the edge. they had the thought because the early edges had the 3rd nipple on the air box for the carb vent.
i read that somewhere before that they intended to do that but something about poor sales of the triple made it not worth the cost to them.

id sure as hell buy one though.
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I think I have a pretty good knowledge of 90s and early 2000s Polaris sleds..but which gen had the 500 liquid Fuji? I'm not remembering that one.
wedge, gen 2, evolved, edge.
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