There isn't anything wrong with the reliability of a 'Berg, the problem is the person who maintains, or doesn't maintain the beast. They are a race bred machine and need to be maintained as such. I still have my '03 FE501 which has had nothing more than a top end rebuild, cam chain and a clutch set. It still goes hard and will beat any modern 450F if I ask it to, which is much more than I can say for the WR450F that I stupidly decided to use as my next enduro mount. Nothing but problems and piss poor handling.