Maintenance & Technical > KX250 / KX125

My 1990 KX250 Motard Build

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LukeG:
I finally thought it was a good time to share what I have been up to with my 250 since I joined. I bough a 1990 KX250 from my father in-laws neighbour which had been parked for about 8 years. It was sitting in a little garden shed getting full sun on it every day. The forks were absolutely cactus, the outer tube on the uppers was starting to oxidise and corrode, they were coming apart as if they were cast iron. Anyway here's how the bike looked when I brought it home.




My plans for the bike are to make it into a road racing motard so I can use it in period 6 historic racing. I already have a DRZ 400 that I raced until on of the crank bearings let go mid race. Everyting on the bike must be period correct so I needed a decent set of forks to go on it. Ebay scan and found a nice pair in the UK. Took the newer forks and the shock to the local suspension guy and asked him to do what he could with them to make them better for road racing.

Things like this are always a nice thing to find!


I tore the bike down as best I could, half the bolts were rusted or the threads stripped. The top end actually looked pretty good but there was no coolant or oil in the thing and the crank seals looked well past their use by date.

LukeG:
I plan on getting the frame, sub-frame and shock mounts powder coated but I need to make a new mounting tab for the radiator and get a few holes in the bottom of the frame repaired before that happens. The engine has been completely stripped and I am off to get the cases repaired and vapour blasted some time this week. The engine looks like it has had a hard but loved life. The PO just putted around on it through the bush. What happened before that I don't know. All I know is the main bearing holes in the cases have steel bushes in them, there is some weld repairs in places and there was about 1/8 of an inch of sealant between every mating surface.
I will do some more updates tomorrow.

sandblaster:
Cool build Luke.
Vapor blasting will make those cases look better then new  :-D
Post lots of pics  8-)

LukeG:
Can anyone please tell me the colour Kawasaki painted the swing arm back in 1990? I want to make it look original from a distance, I know it's grey but what shade, mines too scratched up and worn out to get a decent sample to colour match.

Brute:
Man! I hope you got a good deal on it. It looks a bit worn! Course projects don't always make sense on the 'money' end of things. I probably have twice into my KX5 street legal SuMo what it is worth.  :-o
Try and not do that any more though.  :-D
Good luck with the build and keep the pics coming!

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