Kawasaki KH250 Review

Overall Rating

Retro fun for forty somethings wanting to be 17 again!

Horrendous fuel consumption.

I own a restored 1978 model Kawasaki KH250b2 in Candy Lime Green. I did the restoration myself as a labour of love (and on reflection - stupidity!)
I first saw the little Kawasaki looking well used and tired on ebay in 2006, it was an original unmolested example like I'd owned back when I was 17 with all matching numbers and a history which takes it back to the man who got it out of the crate, the bidding was up to about 500 quid and I decided I wanted it on a mid-life crisis whim and bid 600. A couple of days later I received an email telling me that my bid was successful so arranged a trip to some far flung Yorkshire village where I went and parted with the readies. Once back home and panting, sweating and tripping over things like a love struck teenager I quickly donned the old gear and took the old KH out for a spin. It took me a few moments to think about how to actually start the thing after all these years and being used to modern automatic push button gizmo's - key, choke, kickstart - yes I remember. One swift kick and the old triple crackled into life with those three smoky exhausts emitting a steady stream of burnt oil, left it a minute or two on tickover to warm her up and just on tickover the noise, the smell - my God I was 17 again! The ride was a hoot as the bike crackled and smoked along, take a bend and the frame felt like it had a hinge somewhere in the middle; this coupled with what seem like Teflon coated tyres made the handling interesting to say the least; back on the straight and a fast open stretch in front of me and well - you can guess what's coming! Yes I clunked my way down to third and let her rip and despite that whining, wailing triple engine rising to a screaming banshee-like howl near the redline and leaving an environmentally destructive smokescreen behind me - well - nothing really happened in terms of acceleration - I'm sure it was faster than this when I was 17!
I nevertheless returned home with a smile on my face that met somewhere around the back of my head and raced indoors to play my Clash album loudly and toy with the idea of spiking my hair up a little.
I used the little Kwak for about a week after that until it broke down for the third time with dodgy points and condenser - remember those? It ran out of petrol twice the calculations done later brought the mpg to about 20!!!
Undaunted the following week saw a middle aged buffoon making a pledge to return the little KH to it's former glory and setting about with spanners to strip down the bike to it's last nut and bolt. The weeks wore on and in a bid to create a masterpiece I had begun to act like one of those mad scientist's wanting to breathe life into his dormant 'project' I began to spend money like a fool having shot blasting, powder coating, re-spray, new chrome, new upholstery, new exhausts, new handlebars, mirrors, brakes, nuts and bolts etc, etc, etc ... 2 grand later and after lots of hammer rash and blood blisters I had a stunning little 'as good as new ' Kh250 which looks nice but I'm never going to make my money back on and which now after the novelty has long since worn off stands forlornly in the garage unused, rusting and fading away all over again until some new middle aged buffoon who is trying to be 17 again comes along and parts with his readies. The KH250 - an expensive way to make you feel 17 again - hair dye would be a lot cheaper.