Kwaka triple early 70's

Magic looking bike, have never ridden the 250, rode a 500 long ago, very fast bike but they all had issues (over heating)
From memory they were thirsty as hell, nothing more.

 

Hey Noah
I would start with ebay here, if no joy then ebay uk would be my next stop.
The British love the 2 strokes and with there population as opposed to ours,
plenty of parts. Have a good look before you buy, just to make certain that
parts are available. Good luck

 

Oh they were popular, alright. Problem is they are 40 years old and have been thrashed to death by successive generations of new riders.....

My friend had a KH250 triple at UWA as his first bike in the early '80s. Fun little bike but even then, it had seen better days.

Good ones are still around, but like everything, you have to pay for them. The last KH250 models (B5?) were probably the best of the bunch and were being sold heavily discounted in '82~'83.

Ian B.

 

Hi,

The best approach is probably look for 70's and early '80s UK articles about the KH250 / KH400s. I lived in the UK for a while in 1980 (17) and was just getting into bikes. The 125 learner laws were not yet in force and you could still ride 250s on L plates, so the bikes to have (if you could afford the insurance as a 17 y.o.) were used Suzuki GT250s, Yamaha RD250 and Kawasaki KH250s. if you had the $$$ you could get a spanking new Suzuki GT250X7 or Yamaha RD250LC. You could still get the Kawasaki KH250s, but these were seemed (and were) outdated next to the Suzuki X7 / Yamaha 250LC. At the time IIRC Kawasaki was pushing their Z250 Scorpion 4-cyl twin, which was a lot of bike for the price and more refined than the KH250. At the end of 1981, I can remember seeing KH250B5s being sold w/ heavy discounts in an effort to compete with the Suz / Yam. If I had a time machine, I would go back an buy a dozen of the KH250s - they had an attractive green / white and black paint scheme. But it all ended in tears in 1982/83, when the sharp increase in teenage deaths due to someone with no riding experience being able to plunk down the cash and ride off on a brand new X7/RD LC. Although I didn't agree with it at the time, looking back on it, it was the right move - we didn't yet understand the 250ss weapons waiting in the wings like the Suzuki RG250 Gammas / Yamaha RZ250 YPVS etc. An interesting note for the KH250 is that dealers would offer tuned / faired versions to compete, complete with expansion chambers. I remember admiring the brand new KH250 a friend of a friend was showing off just before graduation in 1980. Bright Kermit the Frog green w/ fairings and Micron (?) chambers and 2 big red incongruous L plates. A week later he stuffed it into the side of a Ford Transit in an intersection and ended up in a wheelchair.

Look up information about Higgspeed / Allspeed / Micron and other suppliers / tuners from the '80s in the UK. Many of these guys are still in business and all at the time offered chamber options for the big 3 Japanese manufacturers. For a very brief period in the mid-70s, early 80s, the UK was an exciting place for those looking to make their 250 that little faster.

Ian B.