Kawasaki KR250 - Built To Race

This is one of the killer motorcycles built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries over the years. They are featured in the other videos linked in the video and below in the description.
video links
• The Fastest 250cc Moto...
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[@uhtred7860]

With the money i had saved working on my uncles dairy farm in the school holidays, and with a loan from dad, about a week after my 16th birthday in 84, i bought a brand new KR250, and it was awesome. These and other 2 stroke 250s (RG, RZ and the atrocious MVX250🤮) were learner legal in NZ at the time, and my mates had an RG250 and a RZ250 YPVS, the KR was faster than both and had far better build quality. They also did very well in production racing both here and in Australia. I have seriously thought of getting another, and a friend of mine has a very nice one i could probably get, but a few things give me pause. One, they are quite small, and im over 6'. Two, parts are now VERY hard to come by, at one time, even in the 2000s, most wreakers here had one or two sitting down the back, those days are long gone. Pistons for example are impossible to find, NOS or pattern, I know 2 KR250s rebuilds that have stalled due to lack of pistons, Also the bores are nikasil coated (so no re-bores) you have to get them recoated. You can use pistons from one of the Italian 125s, same bore & stroke and the ring locating pin is in the correct position, (Cagiva mito i think) but you have to use their rods, which are shorter so you have to machine the barrels down, it a bit of a faff around, but hey, needs must.

[@barebonesmc]

it can be hard with parts for the old uns, i know that well from the bloody Laverds lol but be good to manage to keep another going 🙂 what is it they say - where theres a will theres a way 🙂

[@mercoid]

I would love to see you do a full video of the KR250.

[@barebonesmc]

It’s happening but it will be a while. Lots of dead ends n even more rabbit holes lol

[@Jrv3192]

Sure it wil be worth the wait keep up the great work

[@barebonesmc]

Cheers Jonathan

[@uhtred7860]

@@barebonesmc Can't wait. Try researching in NZ or Australia, they were sold new here, and theres a strong following with lots of knowledge here.👍

[@barebonesmc]

@@uhtred7860 cheers mate, i do search worldwide (the joys of translation can be fun lol) if you have any links or contacts, let me know, but youtube doesnt like them so youll have to send them via the website barebonesmc.com/contact-us/

[@SLAPPERG]

Brilliant , I want one , or an RD400 or a ...... list goes on.

[@barebonesmc]

glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂

[@upsidedowndog1256]

Cool bike! It has Kawasaki 1984 written all over it. I will have to visit a bike dealership or 2 today now, doubt I will see anything this cool, but just maybe...

[@barebonesmc]

hope you had fun lol

[@upsidedowndog1256]

@@barebonesmc 2021 H2SX for $25K, less than 2K miles. A bit much for bike #8.

[@barebonesmc]

@@upsidedowndog1256 that sounds a lot, there are a fair few coming up for sale already here, people jumped in quick and then realised how daft the concept is on English roads i think lol

[@xvdd1]

I think Walter Kaaden and MZ were the first to go the racing tandem twin route in 1969/70 unfortunately they ran into problems and these were possibly going to take to much time and money to fix there was a 125 and a prototype 250, prior to this they were developing a 3 cylinder 125 but the regulations changed and only 2 cylinders were allowed.

[@barebonesmc]

Cheers for adding this. as i have often said, if we could amass the combined knowledge of all the subscribers we would have the most comprehensive motorcycle encyclopedia ever 🙂

[@xvdd1]

@@barebonesmc To be perfectly honest I have a fragmented memory that can only give me a hint but that hint can be the start that is needed for a search engine to flesh out the bones of a fact, bottom line is I use a search engine like anybody else, lol.

[@barebonesmc]

@@xvdd1 join the club mate 🙂 the problem now is all the part truths and forgotten bits everywhere

[@xvdd1]

@@barebonesmc You are absolutely correct sometimes the hard work is in seeing the woods for the trees as a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth this situation requires much time sifting through search results to be able to take a stab at the facts.

[@barebonesmc]

i guess i also see it from a different perspective because of the work i do on the different websites, i have to analyse what is being promoted in the searches, and honestly, this year has been a bloodbath. google has changed all its search criteria and even some massive sites were just wiped out, and there is so much AI generated content now, it is starting to drown everything else out. and once there are 4 or more AI generated sites saying the same thing wrong, google begins to accept that as the right answer and then starts to demote sites with different opinions . it is a bit of a mess at the minute there was an official leaked document from google that went back to 2019 with the advertising department requesting the search developers made the results worse to increase search time so they could hit revenue targets, and that has happened since. the joys lol @@xvdd1

[@seanhammon6639]

Fascinating!

[@barebonesmc]

it is, and now someone has talked about a Walter Kaaden link ive got to explore, its a real rabbit hole lol

[@lorditsprobingtime6668]

A deep dive into them would be very interesting I think. Essentially being 2 separate engines, one behind the other sounds like a weird patched together at the last second, just to have a race bike but, it sounds like such a successful idea that it just can't be by accident. I'm still completely lost as to why or how since it 'should' be added extra weight and 1 engine in a V configuration 'should' be just as powerful yet lighter but the success of these proves there's something more to it than I've seen so far. Obviously they are a great bike, but why?

[@barebonesmc]

im sure the idea came from the bike Gilera couldnt get to not explode lol, the bicilindrico was really quick (with 180 degree firing) but it just exploded all the time. im thinking 2 smaller cranks each with less effective reciprocating mass plays a part in the whole equation, but i'm still digging, and some of it doesnt make much sense, i guess sometimes theory and practice can give us different results 🙂

[@lorditsprobingtime6668]

@@barebonesmc Ha! Well put. I hadn't really thought about it before but, that pair of separate LIGHTER cranks could maybe make for a much snappier, responsive throttle which would be helpful, I think?
I knew nothing about the bike before you covered it but, it's certainly interesting, plus, despite it maybe appearing as if it was a quick fix patch of some sort, apparently has very thoroughly proven itself as a good design, counterintuitive to me yet obviously very good. A damned interesting design at the very least. BUT, can it beat Allan Milyard's V10 Dodge Viper engined monster lol. I swear that guy isn't just a mad genius, he's got to be a magician or something like that. Some of the bikes and engines he's built over the years are absolutely amazing.
And BTW, I went faster than he did on that Viper engined beast, just not carrying a passenger, I never even would consider going that fast with someone elses life at stake. He was setting a record so I can't knock it, especially since his was all done under tightly controlled conditions. He almost got to full throttle too lol.

[@barebonesmc]

@@lorditsprobingtime6668 like i said, the more i dig the more the story evolves 🙂 as to Alan Millyard, he is a genius, i want his inductive pipe bender though lol, i just wish he'd dump that idiot he uses on TV, Henry Cole is probably the most annoying man i have ever met lol

[@lorditsprobingtime6668]

@@barebonesmc Is Henry Cole the guy that was on the back of his V10 Viper engined double up passenger speed record with? I did Google him and he looks like the guy I remember from that video.
Believe it or not, I've somehow only very recently followed up on this wizard character of legend called Alan Mllyard! I know, shocking isn't it. You're not kidding though, he's an absolute genius and seems a hacksaw and file are his 2 main tools lol. I've gone through a few of his older videos about the 5 or 6 cylinder Kawasali 2stroke plus the V8 and V12 Kawasaki 4 stroke engines. Oddly I loved the sound of the V8 one more than the V12 which surprised me.
It's a little sad seeing his amazing creations in some bike museum, especially one in the wrong country instead of out wowing people as running bikes, then again, at least they're kept as perfect as he built them. I just hate the thought that as with an American bike museum, even a museum near where I was living, they had a lot of bikes, many probably donated yet THEY then sold them, same with the one near me that had several working steam engines and lots of other great equipment, all donated yet rather than giving them back, they sold them and that pi**es me off.
Apparently I'll have to look into this "inductive pipe bender" since I currently know nothing at all about it, it sounds interesting and if he's got one and you want one, I can only assume it must bend pipes without any shrinkage on the bends, something I hate seeing with exhausts.

[@lorditsprobingtime6668]

@@barebonesmc I almost forgot. There's a channel I've started following recently called " 2STROKE STUFFING " where he's building, testing, find problem and sort that out on a home made 50cc 2 stroke engine in a bike. Last run he got it putting out 7 hp which may not sound a lot yet but, he's still bug sorting and that was at around 19,000rpm! I have seen him get up to 24,000rpm in an earlier test so it's a pretty serious bit of gear and he's hoping to make it the most powerful 50cc in the world, all in his little workshop using hijacked teflon coated saucepans and various more exotic materials and lathe and a fairly decent CNC machine. If you don't know it already, it's definitely an interesting journey seeing each new test and hearing that thing SCREAM lol.