Wednesday 9 May 2012

Finishing the KH250

I'd not touched the KH for about 3 months, when I got a text off Dave (who sold it to me, and still has another). Are you coming to the North West rally in Blackpool, 25th-27th may? Naturally I said yes, then remembered my triple was in bits in the front room...
Luckily, a load of overtime pay was imminent so I had a good look round the bike and ordered what I needed. I also gt round to sending back some incorrect seals to Simon at http://www.kawasakitripleparts.com/, only 4 months since I first said i would :S Stafford show got me a pair of Avon roadriders £20 cheaper than on ebay, as well as a nice Mikuni oval bore carb for the bantam. That was a good buy, made an adaptor and above half throttle it goes like a stabbed rat. Unfortunately it's far too rich below, so more attention needed there



Anyway, back to the KH250. Parcels of bits arrived, and I rapidly remembered one reason why I'd got a bit fed up of it-polishing up stainless steel bolts is really boring, but once you do a few it looks a bit half arsed if you don't do as many as you can. Even odd bolts, like the one with an eccentric tang to take up slack in the front brake lever:

I also made various little spacers, such as for the shock absorber top nuts (where I'd removed the grab rail) and the headlamp (fitted to generic cheapo brackets)


I've just finished a bank holiday of triple attacking, and it now only needs the carbs rejetting before MOT. Though the battery appears to have died over winter, so might need that doing first. Managed to get it added to my 400/4 insurance policy, which was a lot cheaper than having its own.

                                                                  Work in progress

Getting the electrics to work was a real nightmare, at one point it went fro working perfectly to the main beam warning light coming on instead of the instrument lights. A good dose of electrical cleaner and a wire soldering up sorted that, so far it seems OK.
The last real nuisance was a chaingaurd. I managed to get one off some chinese two wheeled horror at Clarks (local bike fettlers), after some cutting up I produced this:


So thats it-pretty much ready for the road, since 1991. I was still in nappies in 1991.

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