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KZ250 Bobber

5K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  venturesomerite 
#1 ·
So, I wanted to make a cheap bike. Like, beyond cheap. My purpose is to build skills and a semi cool bike is the bi-product (hopefully).

I started with a 1980 Kawasaki KZ250LTD which I purchased for about $250. The PO claimed that it had a bad starter. After some investigation I found that it actually had a bad starter clutch and the flywheel had a magnet broken in half. I managed to get the starter clutch back to working order but I couldn't get the flywheel ANYWHERE. The broken magnet caused the flywheel to be unbalanced and I feared that it would cause a problem in the crank down the road and that it may be unsafe to ride.

So, I tabled the project for a few weeks and kept looking for the flywheel. I was about to give up on the idea when I came across the opportunity to buy a Chinese clone of a XR200 for only $150. It was quite a beater to be honest, but, the engine ran great. I rode it all summer and never cared much about it until I moved to the city this last fall and no longer had space to ride it. Thats when I came up with the idea to swap the motor out of the dirtbike to the KZ. It has a stator, so I wouldn't need to really modify it much and the idea of kickstart seems cool

I dove in head-first. I pulled the motors from both bikes in one day. Turned out that the dirtbike motor fit in the rear two mounts without much effort but it was a mile from the front mount. I took the motor back out and cut off the original front mount. While I had the grinder out it decided to chop the rear of the frame about 8 inches, chopped out the battery box, stripped the paint off the gas tank and cut off the passenger foot pegs.


I knew that I would need to do some welding to get much further with the project. After a few weeks I finally bought a cheap welder at Harbor Freight and taught myself to weld on some scrap pieces of steel. After a few days of practice I had the confidence to weld on the Kawi. I started small by welding the rear of the frame up the way I wanted it to be, then I fabricated a front motor mount.

And thats pretty much where Im at. I could probably get better at welding, but, I've literally only been doing it for a week. I know its not really that cool, not worth the effort, not fast and so-on. But it's cheap. If it were a better bike I would never have had the courage to do this much and I would never get the skill I have attained. Please let me know what you think, and any suggestions you may have!
 
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#5 ·
Important thing is penetration, you can get clean looking welds with practice in time.
 
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