Green a two stroke but not a KR-1

TwoStroke Institute · Post by **TwoStroke Institute** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:25 pm

Lucky enough to do some work on this old beauty, a 74 KX 450, has some nice touches SS spokes, magnesium hubs and backing plates and a plastic tank.Did 2 races in the desert and stored since, sent out to Aust in boxes assembled here.Add a $20 ebay nickel plated C&J swingarm, a few weeks work on the pipe and viola !
Anit see a purdy thing, seems a shame to get it dirty

Post by **alimorg** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:37 pm

Nice, must have the teeny weeniest front drum!
Cheers
AL

Cliff · Post by **Cliff** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:48 pm

That looks fun!
Reminds me a little of the YZ 400 we rode as teenagers in the late seventies

. We were lucky as my mates brother gave it to us, thinking now, maybe he didn't really like us much

.

mgtkr1 · Post by **mgtkr1** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:36 pm

dont be fooled by its innocent looks, this s the original widow maker from khi. surely a bike worthy of showing AND competing in vintage mx. very nice, kawasaki easily made the nicest looking 70's strokers, esp the mx and road bikes with high level pipes ect. 2 of my fave road bikes from the era is the original 500 triple and the samurai(i think its called that?)

Cliff · Post by **Cliff** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:27 am

Just to add, i mentioned above "i dont think he liked us much".
I meant that i think he wanted to actually kill us! Those old strokers had a knife edge power band and sounded wicked.

TwoStroke Institute · Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:40 am

Yeah the front drum is way smaller than the rear, they were a bit of a torque monster rather than the peaky widow maker. It's really light probably 80-90kgs.Was bought for a song to............

scooble · Post by **scooble** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:01 pm

I had an old Yamaha IT465, no powervalve and not at all peaky, like said before, a real torque monster. Still wanted to wheelie in every gear though.
Not too good at part throttle, it liked to be wide open or shut.

preferably wide open

Took it on a proper MX track once and was blown away as to how fast it was on the really rough stuff

0-pain in 3 seconds!

Cliff · Post by **Cliff** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:25 pm

When i was 14, it was was peaky! =D>

mgtkr1 · Post by **mgtkr1** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:35 pm

would love an aircooled mx, gotta be one of the rawest, intimidating looking things on two wheels all while been beautiful in a twisted way. i really like the maico and big ole husky's ect. the it465 was apparently a bit of a weapon in its time aswell, lucky scooble had one, would love just vto ride one. promised myself a big bore mx bike like a cr or kx500

Sheik Yerbouti · Post by **Sheik Yerbouti** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:22 pm

It is pretty, good work there lozza. Did you make the pipe?
couple of the spokes dont look too stainless

Similar one on evilbay, 400 though:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1975-Kawasaki-KX ... dZViewItem

TwoStroke Institute · Post by **TwoStroke Institute** » Sun May 03, 2009 2:52 pm

Yep that's my handiwork, can assure you EVERY one of those spokes are very shiny, just something to do with the camera/flash/night/whatever.
That very trustworthy Parramatta Rd used car salean has been trying to "sell" that KX for quite some time.

TwoStroke Institute · Post by **TwoStroke Institute** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 2:41 pm

For anyone remotely interested this bike is featured in the lastest issue of VMX magazine.