I paid $250 for the RD and I have a 72 Kawasaki H1 500 that I picked up for $350 that I'll rebuild eventually. Hard to believe the money people are willing to part with for old two strokes.
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Interesting motorcycles, not XS650
- Thread starter Kevin Werner
- Start date
I had the 250 version of that Kawasaki triple, traded it in on a Toyota pickup truck.
Me too! a 74 S-1 250, my first bike.
Economy cycle is another good parts source. And Yambits in the UK.
Mine was if I recall correct a 1972 Gold paint
Mine was Gold with, IIRC, small red and yellow stripes w/ a black border stripe separating them.
Yep, I remembered correctly. Jus' like that one!
I was just looking for a picture but that is just what I had.
I recall my wife at the time who work at the high school in AV department liked to joke about blowing the doors off some of the kids who tried to race her down the road from the school! She was a bit over 5'4" and not much over 125lbs so that Kawasaki probably didn't know she was even on it!
They surprised a lot of Honda 350 riders. I had mine in the 10th grade. Soon found out that parents wouldn't let their daughters go out on a date on a motorcycle.
One thing that Kawasaki did not like was running for any length of time nice and easy in town at speeds under 35 mph. Would start to foul the plugs and took some good open road running to get it running good again.
Yep, I tried every heat range there was and if you didn't ride the snot out of it, you'd foul the plugs. That was really the first thing I wrenched on. It taught me what NOT to do.
One other "problem" I had with mine was most of the time I used it to ride back and forth to work which was only a little more than half a mile. It would often never get warmed up and there would be condensation built up in the points area that caused misfiring. My "solution" that seemed to help was to drill a small drain hole in the bottom of the points cover. A little crude but seemed to work.
Yep, thats an old Jeep trick too. Drill the distributor cap mount and put a vent line up higher on the firewall. Not so much for waterproofing, but more to provide ventilation so condensation wouldn't build up....worked like a charm.
GaryInVA
XS650 Enthusiast
Yup, that was pretty much a given with 2-strokes of that era. I ran a ratty old YDS7 250 and it would clog up in town driving. You reached the open road, opened the throttle, watched the cloud of blue smoke in your mirrors as it cleared its throat then, once that burned off, the magic number was 5500 - at those revs it kinda forgot it was just 250 cc. Wipes away a nostalgic tear . . .
Forget what the S-1 was Red-lined at but recall just once I held the throttle wide open to see how it ran and went a couple 1,000 past the red line and backed off. I really thought the points would be bouncing or the carbs would limit it but no!
GET YOUR BOB MARLEY GOING WITH THIS:
https://www.bikeexif.com/custom-tri...18d59081fe1810a47.jpeg&utm_campaign=BEX231018
https://www.bikeexif.com/custom-tri...18d59081fe1810a47.jpeg&utm_campaign=BEX231018
