Who knows anything about old Kawi's?

[adamf2]

My chicky bought me an old 1976? Kawasaki KT-250. It runs really good and is in pretty good shape (the fenders are a little bent). Her dad was telling me that they are apparently really hard to find and almost considered a classic? Any truth to that? If it is true, I won't beat the shit out of this thing, but if they are a dime a dozen, i'm going to. I'll post up pics later on today.

[adamf2]

KH, I thought out of everybody you would be the one to know all about this thing.

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Hmmmmm, I was never much of a Kawi fan. I always rode Yamaha's since I was sponsered by them.

OK what I can tell you about your Kawasaki KT 250 is it MOST DEFINATLY is a RARE bike! Re-store this bike! Kawasaki wasn't known for it's trials bikes and this is a real gem. Don't trash it whatever you do!!!!

To give you a idea just how rare it is there are only 2 people on Bike Pics Site that have one! That should give you a idea just how rare this bike is!

They were only made 2 years 75 and 76.

[adamf2]

Thanks bro! That's exactly what mine looks like minus the tail light. I need to get new fenders and the tailight assembly, polish it up a little bit. Actually, I need to bring it to the car wash and shoot all the mud off of it (I brought it out to a mud pit yesterday). It's in great shape and runs awesome. It starts on the first or second kick every time. Needs a new gasket somewhere (I found a bluish green puddle underneath it this morning). I almost looped the bastard yesterday clutching up a wheelie. It comes up A LOT faster than my f2 lol. Thanks though bro. I'll post pics in a few minutes.

[adamf2]

Here you go. It's a little muddy like I said before, but it's in great shape. It does need the forks to be gone through and rebuilt too. They are WAY too soft.

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by adamf2

Thanks bro! That's exactly what mine looks like minus the tail light. I need to get new fenders and the tailight assembly, polish it up a little bit. Actually, I need to bring it to the car wash and shoot all the mud off of it (I brought it out to a mud pit yesterday). It's in great shape and runs awesome. It starts on the first or second kick every time. Needs a new gasket somewhere (I found a bluish green puddle underneath it this morning). I almost looped the bastard yesterday clutching up a wheelie. It comes up A LOT faster than my f2 lol. Thanks though bro. I'll post pics in a few minutes.

Awesome! That bike is a "Trials bike" not trail bike. Theres a big difference. It's mean't for very slow going over extremely difficult terrain without putting a foot down. Put a foot down it's called a "dab" 5 dabs your out of the running in a section. A crash is a 5, a full stop with both feet down is a 5.

Trials events uasually have several sections. Some look absolutly impossible. The stuff todays guys can do on Gas Gas or Beta's is truely mind boggling.

But it's a great example of a Rare bike the Japanese tried to make to compete against the Spanish manufacturers like OSSA and Montessa. (they were the bikes to have back then)

It's also a great bike to wheelie. A good trials rider can wheelie forever without even thinking about it.

Don't try to learn to wheelie on that bike though it's too nice to tear up. Which you will in learning to wheelie LOLz That bike is a real classic.

Your Girlfriend gave you a valuable old bike. I love old bikes, and have trashed too many of them to recall. If I had them today I'd make them into a living room art piece and ride it a couple times a year in parades like I do with my RD 400 Daytona Special. There were 5 of them at bike pics, now 6 I put mine up too



http://www.honda.co.jp/HDTV/HRC/WCT-race2004-rd03/ modern day trials video. The new bikes are 4 strokes!

Some pics of a event in Japan. New trials bikes are unreal. Weigh 170 - 175 with fuel ready to ride! Thats the new Honda Trials 4 stroke made by Montessa which Honda just bought the factory.

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by adamf2

Here you go. It's a little muddy like I said before, but it's in great shape. It does need the forks to be gone through and rebuilt too. They are WAY too soft.

Very nice bike!!! Nice paint on your Honda too!!


Actually the forks are supposed to be soft for maximum contact with the ground. Also they are ridden slowly most of the time and the soft suspension allows the rider to preload it and bunny hop to position the bike better for the next obstacle..... Although old Japanese dirtbikes all had pretty lame suspension stock.

The good tires are Michelin Trials Universals very soft sticky tires that run 3-4 pounds of air in them for grip. These tires are mega expensive about $190 for a rear! They arent like a knobby, more like a very soft radial with a block tread pattern to get maximum grip.

Watch that video on the Honda site you'll see what I mean. They do seemingly impossible things on there bikes! Malcom Smith called trials riders the Magicians of the Motorcycle World. They make stunters look like begginers.

[bpmull]

I've seen some trials events on TV before. Some of the stuff was unbelievable, I just never thought a motorcycle could do some of the stuff those riders were making them do. And when they crash, it's like "Wow, I hope they didn't just die". Jagged rocks everywhere, someone's bound to get impaled one of these days.

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by bpmull

I've seen some trials events on TV before. Some of the stuff was unbelievable, I just never thought a motorcycle could do some of the stuff those riders were making them do. And when they crash, it's like "Wow, I hope they didn't just die". Jagged rocks everywhere, someone's bound to get impaled one of these days.

You know the REALLY amazing thing is the injury rate for Observed Trials is very low! It's said to be one of the safest types of motorcycle competition there is. Thats why you will see so many old codgers riding in trials events!

Hard to believe but true!

I saw one event in Las Vegas where they were riding up the face of one of the water features which was a massive man made waterfall with giant boulders all slick and about 10 feet apart. Dam guys were balancing on the back wheel hopping from rock to rock!! Just amazing stuff to see.

Like you said it's so radical that you wouldn't believe a bike could do that unless you saw it for yourself!

The world champ is a 17 year old kid Geoff something that is really talented.... works magic on his bike

Douggie Lampkin is another world champion. He's in one of the pics above.

[adamf2]

Originally Posted by Krazy Hawaiian

Very nice bike!!! Nice paint on your Honda too!!


Actually the forks are supposed to be soft for maximum contact with the ground. Also they are ridden slowly most of the time and the soft suspension allows the rider to preload it and bunny hop to position the bike better for the next obstacle..... Although old Japanese dirtbikes all had pretty lame suspension stock.

The good tires are Michelin Trials Universals very soft sticky tires that run 3-4 pounds of air in them for grip. These tires are mega expensive about $190 for a rear! They arent like a knobby, more like a very soft radial with a block tread pattern to get maximum grip.

Watch that video on the Honda site you'll see what I mean. They do seemingly impossible things on there bikes! Malcom Smith called trials riders the Magicians of the Motorcycle World. They make stunters look like begginers.

Thanks bro. Yeah, the kawi will now be respected more . Thanks for the compliment on my honda too. I actually painted that myself (tooting my own horn for a second). The forks are obviously fucked. When you push down on the handlebars, you can hear air escaping from them. You can actually feel it too. Yeah, I'm gonna try to find somebody that makes/has parts for this thing and begin restoring it. It runs EXCELLENT. Thanks again for the compliments.

[Krazy Hawaiian]

Originally Posted by adamf2

Thanks bro. Yeah, the kawi will now be respected more . Thanks for the compliment on my honda too. I actually painted that myself (tooting my own horn for a second). The forks are obviously fucked. When you push down on the handlebars, you can hear air escaping from them. You can actually feel it too. Yeah, I'm gonna try to find somebody that makes/has parts for this thing and begin restoring it. It runs EXCELLENT. Thanks again for the compliments.

LOL if ya can hear air coming out then the seals are gone south for the remainder of the season hehe... Seals are fairly easy to change, the thing you will run into on old bikes is the fork stanchion tubes are rusty or pitted. (The chrome thin tube that slides inside the leg. If they are rusty and nearly every old bike will ne then the "correct" way to fix it is buy new tubes. What happens is the rust will break through the chrome on the tubes and where it does the sharp edges of the chrome will shred any seal you put on the fork in just 5 - 10 strokes it will ne pumping oil out like crazy.

If you cannot locate any new fork tubes a "african engineering" fix I came up with will also work. it just isn't as sano and some people don't believe that it works but it does.

What you do is take the forks off the bike. On the bottom of the fork leg is a Allen bolt thats in a recessed hole. Use a impact or a hammer and a couple sharp blows on the allen wrench to break the bolt lose. Unscrew it all the way. Then pull the fork apart. Now is the time to change the seals which are in the lower leg under the black wiper boot.

Hell if your restoring it you may want to polish the aluminum legs while there apart. Once you have them cleaned up (the original finish was a nice semi polish like you get with steel wool then clear coat the legs so they stay that way. The factory had clear on them but such a thin coat it almost washed off.

The fork tubes are the problem and here's how to fix em. Clean them super good using a contact cleaner or brake cleaner. Then using some Ultra Fine wet or dry paper that you can get at napa sand the pitted areas really good. Ultra Fine is about 2000 grit so it doesn't seem to do anything. Sand in a circular motion around the tube not in line with the tube.

Even with such fine sandpaper the scratches if in line will allow oil to weep out very slowly try to sand at a right angle to the tube. So the scratches go around the tube. You cant see them but there there.

DO NOT use any rougher sandpaper than 2000 Ultra Fine! That will make deep gouges in the leg and make sealing it impossible. Just take it easy and take your time. Its a good TV project, something to fiddle with when sitting in front of the idiot box with a cold beer!

Just make sure its all clean and there is no more rust in the pit. You can use a acid rust treatment to kill it off. Its important to make sure there is no rust in the pits.

Clean the tube with laqure thinner or a similar solvent so there is no oil or grease around the pits. Some fork oils have silicone in it so you need to get any of that off the leg for this to work.

Now the black magic.... get some JB weld and mix a small amount up making sure to get it right and mixed well. Use a squeegee and spread a coat of JB over the pits making it very thin. Let it dry over night or bake it in a oven for half a hour at 250 degrees. When its really good and hard take your Ultra Fine paper on a flat block that is actually flat, check it with a straight edge. You want it to lay perfectly flat on the fork tube and simply sand the excess off on the fork leg.

JB weld is great shit, it will fill the pit and when sanded with the super fine wet sand paper it will provide the perfect surface for the seal to keep the oil in! Sounds hokey but if done right you can resurrect the most messed up fork tubes and they will work just fine. I've done it several times.

If the pits are small and they always are when your done you will be hard pressed to see them on the finished tube. Plus the seals don't get shredded and the oil stays inside where it belongs!

**note when reassembling the forks put some thread locking agent on the allen bolts that hold the damping rods in the fork so they don't come out and the forks come apart