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Another KX250 Project...

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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Well Rotbox had me thinking, I've never owned a Kawasaki, so I had to scratch that itch and brought home a 2002 KX250.

While the motor is in great shape and had great compression: It's last owner didn't give it the love it needed.


So onto making it awesome.

The guy was about 60 and owned it for I'll bet 15 years, in that time I'll bet he never swapped a rear tire.... lol

Tires were.... toast. Well I guess it's a good drag slick



Front isn't the worst but it's cupping because it was run with so low of air pressure.


New tires. Bridgestone M604.


I always lube my tubes with grease to avoid pinch flats and I also cleaned and polished the axles while they were out.

Mounted:



I've got a bunch of parts on the way, so this thing should be super sweet when I'm done.
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Tonkaman said:
Wow I've never seen such abused tires!

I thought for sure you were going to get a Kawi 125
Click to expand...

No joke, it's my educated assumption that this thing has fairly low hours because it had what I believe was the original chain and sprokets (the chain was riveted not a master link).

I looked for a kx125, but there are almost none of them out there. And I missed the 250 grunt on my play bike after that climb in Santa Clara.
 
Rot Box

Rot Box

Diesel and Dust
Supporting Member
Location
Smithfield Utah
Nice :cool: Makes me wish I would have held out for something newer. I think you'll like the power of the KX engine.. They have a lot of grunt.
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Rot Box said:
Nice :cool: Makes me wish I would have held out for something newer. I think you'll like the power of the KX engine.. They have a lot of grunt.
Click to expand...

I've ridden it a bit around the neighborhood, and it rips! It's definitely... abrupt! I'll bet I just need to clean the KIPs powervalve. But it definitely is more torque on the bottom than my 2004 YZ250.

I put a call into Factory Connection to find me a new rebound clicker screw, hopefully they have one or a new/used fork cap so I don't have to spend $75 on a new one (apparently you can't just buy the clicker screw on its own). :eek:

I've got a new chain and sprockets coming and new brake pads since the rears were basically gone and the fronts were soaked in fork oil.
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
So I was asked WHY a 2002 KX250?
Well the motor was basically unchanged until the end of the KX250 in 2007, but something very special happened on a 2002 KX250. In 2001 (when it was released) Ricky Carmichael cemented his status as "The GOAT" by winning 13 consecutive AMA Supercross races in the premier class that season. An unthinkable record that still stands today.

http://vault.racerxonline.com/2001/mx/intro

So let's just say the 2002 was pretty special; sure Carmichael was on fire, but it's not hard to see why some people say it was the very best year for the Kawasaki.
http://motocross.transworld.net/features/first-impression-2002-kx250/


Should I do a replica RC bike?
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Case protector, a must for all my builds, luckily I didn't have to buy one for this bike :D




Parts!





Safety wire on the new grips.
And ASV levers make me happy.




Rubber mount bars.




Outlaw makes some nice parts.
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Well no one wanted to just sell me the rebound clicker screw so I ended up ordering a whole new fork cap today (Kawasaki OEM),
I won't have it for a week on so and I hope to have my forks back tomorrow, so when the new cap comes I can just swap the caps on the bike.

I've got lower fork covers and a new fork cover guide, along with brake pads on their way too.
 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Well I broke down and paid to have the forks rebuilt, they needed a little more than just seals and fluids,
so I'm glad it didn't do it myself because I made the deal for the price before the shop opened them so that turned out well for me.

 
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Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Changed the oil (it was surprisingly clean) buffed the plastics a bit (Degreaser and 1000 grit wet paper is magic).
I've still got to clean the air filter but that will have to wait until it warms up around here because it's only like 20*F and my wife would KILL me if I did it in the house.

Also I found a great degreaser for caked on 2 stroke spooge is this concrete degreaser cleaner stuff.

I looked for hours to find RC replica graphics... unless I can find them for less than the million bucks they want for fully custom stuff, I probably won't do the RC Chevy trucks graphics.

So for now it's done and ready to ride. I'm going to bring it down to St. George with me and maybe I'll get to rip it a bit in Santa Clara or something after Rhino Rally.

I ripped it around the neighborhood and it's awesome.






ASV lever and perches



Protaper fatbars, Windam Bend.





FMF Gnarly










Factory Effex GripperZ seat cover.



 
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