The Story...
So, it all started with a £525 donor bike, bought in Oct 2001. Did I want a 600ZZRZZZZR thing that would do 160mph and looked exactly the same as everyone else had, did I heck. When a boy, I had one of the first race reps you could buy, a Ducati Pantah, as well as my trusty Kawasaki S3A. Three of my buddies had KH400s and together we laid down a trail of smoke wherever we sped. The Ducati was fantastic and did everything so well, especially compared to Z1s and other wobbly bikes, but it did not have the character that the smoky Kwaka had. I developed a strange downwards glancing habit - checking to see if the carbs and K&Ns were still attached and that the the petrol pipes were still connected to the carbs and they weren't going to spray fuel all down my leg. Such fun !
I bought this bike based on the happy memories of yesteryear - I hope I'm right. So, I had previously owned and rebuilt an S3A, S3 and KH400 and felt confident that I would get this one sorted - no problemo. The engine had been rebuilt and sounded OK, but the bodywork, electrics and running gear were poor. Years of expertise should mean no mistakes are made...hummm...I agreed to buy it 'cos it looked OK, then I checked the log book and realised it was a KH250 frame with a 400 engine - properly recorded on the reg. document. Oh well, I'm going to keep it forever so I will make the best of it and I don't need to build it back to original condition. I suppose it was relatively cheap to build with non-standard parts, until my brain was intoxicated with 2 -stroke and I decided to have the bodywork sprayed and frame powder coated £613.. gulp !
Now it is ready for action, after 6 months of gradually coming together in my garage.
MOT time.....
Off I trotted helmet, gloves etc.. Kicked it over, started first kick - fantastic. Warm it up, first gear and I'm off. Second gear, third gear, rev it a bit....it didn't. 4000 rpm and a flat spot the size of the Grand Canyon. So, I thought "2nd gear hold the throttle open and it'll get there", 4000, 4100,4200rpm, oh so slowly up to 6000 and then bam,...my eyeballs squashed against the back of their sockets, my arse was pressed against the grabrail and the front wheel was pawing for air. I was in fuzzy land and the rev counter was at 9000rpm and still going ! "Shut down, shut down!", my mind screamed. Wrist action meant everything. Return to normality, wow what a rush, this thing's mental. So prepared I tested it the same in 3rd gear, and proved the point; massive flat spot 4000-6000 rpm then power (all of it), clutch slip and screaming off like a wild banshee, still pulling at 9000 rpm but I changed up before I got a con rod up my jacksie. Damned un-rideable....
Lessons learnt while building this bike:-
Denco expansions, K&Ns and 105 main jets make for an interesting ride
Some spares dealers are rip-off merchants (it just needs painting guv. see chainguard pic)
Some specialist shops will give loads of help (see costs)
If you see parts buy them, 'cos there aren't many
It keeps you out of the pub
It saves brain cell deletion by relieving you of sharing the delights of a crap TV soap with your girl
I will be riding around on a bike I've built up from nothing, you can't say that about your ZZZRRYYFF thing
You can't get many parts from Kawasaki .
Though, I did get the filter at the bottom of the
2-stroke tank.
The funny bits:-
When I first started it up, I was in my garage. Within a few minutes I was being choked to death by 2-stroke fumes. The front door was open so I opened the back door to create a draught. The smoke went wooshing out the back door, soon to be followed by worried faces checking to see if the garage was burning down !
The first time I started it and warmed it right up, once I had adjusted the carbs etc. I switched it off and it didn't. Don't panic Mr Manwaring, just stall it.... The earth wire to the CDI had come unattached.