KX Riders

Maintenance & Technical => KX500 Original => Topic started by: kiwikx500 on May 06, 2006, 01:53:19 PM

Title: Year of my bike ?
Post by: kiwikx500 on May 06, 2006, 01:53:19 PM

Just curious to the exact year of my bike,have been to kawasaki.com but 96 on can only be looked up,its meant to be a 1990 the id numbers are KX500E-001132 so it "looks to be on the money" Can anyone confirm the year please ? Cheers  8-)

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: demographic on May 07, 2006, 01:38:51 PM

As my manual is at a mates with both of my 90 models I can't help you there mate but if your forks are 41mm upside down Kayabas with gold anodised fork legs your bikes a 90.

Before that (apart from one I have seen which was an 89 works KX/SR500 bike so had better suspension anyway) they had right way up forks and the 91-93 model had 43mm upside downers with blue anodised forks.

This is one of mine (the one with the unbroken rear subframe :-() in Supermoto trim.
(http://img.photobox.co.uk/74995954b47a80385335d0ad2de0f4b4bd466f8afb7671f98e5e04e9.jpg)

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: kiwikx500 on May 07, 2006, 06:23:08 PM

Cheers,Theres a bigger photo of mine in the gallery,my forks are upside down all silver,a m8 found out his was a 93 when he made the silly move of selling it,but was told it was a 94 when he bought it.

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: gowen on May 08, 2006, 04:39:55 AM

What is the VIN number of your bike? The numer you got is the engine # which I could find but not here. The VIN is on the steering head.

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: demographic on May 08, 2006, 06:05:32 AM

Quote from: kiwikx500 on May 07, 2006, 06:23:08 PM

Cheers,Theres a bigger photo of mine in the gallery,my forks are upside down all silver,a m8 found out his was a 93 when he made the silly move of selling it,but was told it was a 94 when he bought it.

Yours looks newer than a 90 anyway, don't trust Bikepics with the pictures of the bikes being the right year as some of the people putting pics on there don't know their arse from their elbow.

Strangly enough they never seem to claim they are older than they are though :roll:

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: kiwikx500 on May 08, 2006, 11:32:48 AM

Cheers Gowen, I got that number down the side of the steering head,i will have a look later for more numbers.Demograph when i got my K5 2 owners before me completely "went to town on it" the swing arm was mint like it had been done in a spray painters bake oven (was untill the chain flew off) and the frame looks the same - those numbers Gowen said about on the side of the steering head are not very deep like they have had a layer of paint over them.Yep the K5 sure is easy to totally change the look of the actual year.8-)

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: Spider on May 08, 2006, 12:05:18 PM

If your bike has been powdercoated (bakers oven) you will find it hard to read the vin because the paint is rather thick with that process. I thought yours was kind of short.

Title: Re: Year of my bike ?
Post by: Arigato on May 08, 2006, 03:38:32 PM

Isn't it also on the side of the engine?