KR-1S.co.uk Forum

Found some pictures of my KR1S, being campaigned in the Scottish SS400 class in Scotland.
1990-something-or-other.
Note the pink silencers.
DEP were marketing coloured silencers for moto-x bikes, but I was their first order for road-bike ones.

ooooh i never did pink .....

was it a standard bike then?
how did it/you do?

My first year of racing was on a KR1.
I did reasonably well on it, for a novice.
I expected great things from my second year, especially getting the KR1S.
Unfortunately, it took a while to get it sorted.
I bought it with a full Harry Barlow tune, which was too peaky.
I eventually got it sorted by Stan 'the man' Stephens.
He transformed it to a flexible bike, with plenty of drive.
It used to spin the rear in second, out of slow corners.
Still needed copious amounts of Silkolene 'Pro-boost'.
Umpteen piston failures though.
The handling was difficult too, with the forks being particularly bad.
No feedback, so the odd crash and the dented confidence that ensues.
So results went down the pan, apart from one second place and fastest lap.
I switched to RGVs after that.
If I thought the KR1S was unreliable, the RGVs were a lot worse.
So much so I had to retire to due lack of funds and motivation.
I have seen this bike on the road, in my area.
Never found the owner though, unfortunately, or I'd buy it back.

been waiting for ages for a thread like this. the era of eye damaging dayglo colours!! any more pics? are you racing/thinking about racing again?

Kr's were never dayglow, that was left to the pretty boy poseur bikes like the rgv

These were the days you must have taken the livery from the 80 icons the fabulous LC years. I had 250s and 350LCs one with a 375 tuned motor. I could rebuild that one with my eyes shut at night, seized 3 times in one week, was probably the micron spannies with standard jetting..
Great times. I mhave the photos somewhere if you are interested i will post them soon....

I have loads more photos of the 'S' in action, but they'd all need to be scanned (old fashioned, proper photos!).
I'll see what I can do.
Here is a photo of the KR1 that preceded the S though.
Good old Avon AM22/23's and having to raise the front mudguard to cope.
Helluva grip though
Had to chamfer the brake pedal to stop it grounding.

i remember the avons as well my brother ran them on both his kr1s's

A real racing KR1...awesome

lovely bike mate. post some more pics and pray tell a few stories

Stories?
God, so many!
Like me forgetting I had new pads in and seemingly outbraking the entire field into the hairpin.
Thought I'd made it too, but the 'S' forks let me down as I tried to turn in.
I almost went from 'zero to hero', but just ended up looking a chump.

My brother was campaigning a KR1 in the same class too.
I remember seeing his bike up against the tyres in one race, with a bunch of concerned marshalls around him as he lay on the floor.
I'm already thinking he's broken this or that, turns out he'd whacked his knackers on the tank and couldn't get up.

lol!!! kr1 in race trim looks beautiful. race against any names known in british racing/raced at national level at the same time?

I know what you mean about the forks - mine were shyte.
Braking into a hairpin was like trying to ride a numatic road drill, the thing would bounce around so much, it gave me blurred vision and would literally 'tear' the tyre!
In the end, I replaced the whole front end from my spare KR1.
The RGV was Soo much better in that respect, but the back was more prone to step out, oh, it also put a leg out of bed too. Standard RGV pistons would not last more than 3 meeting before escaping down the spannie. I used YZ125 pistons in the end.
I think the KR1's and RGV's were subject to early teething problems, unfortunatley, the public still seem to think the KR1 is still a hand grenade

Its good to see that both bikes have come a long way since the early 90's though

great pics, love the pink

The Garden project had a set of brand new AM23's fitted to it just before the last time it was ridden by its previous owner. Unfortunately the bike was then parked outside for 10 years.
Just for a laugh I chucked them on my road bike and went for a spin. I came back pretty sharpish..... A lethal combination of astonishing instability and zero grip made for an 'interesting' ride
They're now sat in the back of my garage probably never to see the light of day again (and that would be too soon).

Mike

Another funny story for you.
At the time, the 'top dog' in Scotland was a bloke called Andy Bradford.
He rode a KR1S.
He actually ended up testing Kawasaki's prototype 250GP bike, when they were thinking of making a return to the class.
Anyway, I digress.
I made my usual call to Avon one day, to order some tyres using my ACU licence etc.
My name is very similar to Andy Bradford, so when I gave my name the bloke at Avon said

"You're doing quite well up there, aren't you"
"Err.........................yeah?"
"Right, we'll send you some special compounds to try"

Haha!
This went on for some time, they either never twigged or didn't mind.

I used to use the Avons on the road too.
Believe it or not, I used to commute on my race bike too!
There is one little village en-route, where schoolkids used to wait for their buses.
I used to go kneedown round the corner every morning.
The kids loved it.