KAWASAKI KR-1S is this bike worth buying?

**glanzav** · 17th December 2005, 01:03

91 KAWASAKI KR-1S。250CC。（SP limited edition）6speed。2stroke。black/ green。new WOF。9000km。after market mufflers.aftermarket suspension.like new。very fast。
$4500。

is this bike worth to buy in this price? how fast is it?

any coment will be very helpful. as i am new in this forume and want buy a race bike to have fun.but don't know any thing about bikes

cheers

**Mooch** · 17th December 2005, 01:38

The KR1 -S SP was the quickest 2 stroke in its day and the 2 strokes don't get any better than that. Providing it's got the right ECU (not the restricted Jap domestic version) it will should do roughly 215 kmh and should make 62-64 HP at the crank. The bike weights in at around 120 kg so is lighter than most road going 250's. Brakes on these are excellent as well, the front brakes came from the ZZR 1100 so you'll need to watch out for unplanned stoppies.
The gearbox is a close ratio unit which is ideal for keeping the bike in the power band. Having a smaller engine they don't make much power until the revs hit around 7,500 rpm, then it's off and hauls very nicely

Petrol wise, it will use the same amount of fuel as a 600 cc bike.
If you’re a learner rider then you'll need to be careful with the power and speed until you get the hang of cornering. I learnt to ride on a KR1, as long as you’re sensible you should be able to stay on it. A younger learner rider ended up crashing my old one on a test ride by failing to take a bend with too much speed.

Price wise 4,600 is about right, possibly on the low side. KMs wise it's very unusual for it to only have 9,000 kms. One thing to note is that most of the Kr1 Sp's hit the rack track, an easy way to tell is if the sump plug has a small hole for a wire retainer. In which case the bike maybe in for an expensive rebuild.

Hope this helps.

**Dafe** · 17th December 2005, 03:40

I also learnt to ride on a KR1 SP model.
They have shitloads of stonk.
You will need to be very careful, the acceleration is very erratic. Somedays it won''t pull too hard and others, it will go nuts! This got me in trouble a couple of times......
Neat bikes but as I'm told, the KR1's had their design fault. They frequently have major engine issues, luckily I never ran into any.
I wouldn't pay more than $3300 for one of these, at the $3,300 price it would have to be mint.
I paid $2,200 for mine back in 1993.
Unlucky for you, Wheels of Thames just sold the tidiest one I've seen for over 5 years for around $3,200.

**Racey Rider** · 17th December 2005, 06:41

I had a sp for a short time.

9000km sounds a bit suspect. If its correct and bike is in tidy condition, it may be worth that much. They are getting hard to come by now.

A bike like that I would certainly get checked out at a shop before buying.
Easy to buy a lemon!

Racey

**cowpoos** · 17th December 2005, 08:23

KR1-S are the bees knees....I ownd one....and it always had me grinning from ear to ear....bloody quik....can be a bit nervious on bumpy roads at times [headshake]...they crash well to...I had a few offs on mine...
power valves can be a problem....and are....but other than that reliable

sounds like a good deal....but at 9K I'll have it checked over by a bike mech!!!

**glanzav** · 17th December 2005, 09:52

thanks for your replys and advices. its been very helpful.
so the zxr250 or cbr250 are much reliable than kr1s?
and how much does it normaly to fix a power valve?
cheers

**FROSTY:Me** · 17th December 2005, 10:04

gosh darn it I hate saying this BUT -- I was racing 250 proddie in the days the KR1 nad then the KR1S were on the track.
Dont get me wrong they are bloody good bikes with the normal power valve gumming up issues all highly strung strokers had--we all accepted it and it was part of the maintainence.
I was still riding my TZR250 and was doing battle with guys on KR1's -they diddnt seem to have straightline power over me .

If a race type stroker is what you want i would actually go for the later model (ARGGG) RGV250's Basicly suzuki just improved and improved the RGV whereas for New zealand the Sp was as far as kawasaki went in development.
If you are wanting a "taste" of racing I would either buy a cbr/zxr 250 and race in streetstock class at manfeild or taupo --or better still --buy a BUCKET racer--like the one for sale here for $500 and go see if ya like it before committing real (sorry bucket guys) money to your racing.

**nsrpaul** · 17th December 2005, 10:09

bugger the kr , buy an nsr instead

**stanko** · 17th December 2005, 11:39

Try to buy them all before they run out !

**Nutter34** · 17th December 2005, 15:55

Originally Posted by stanko

Try to buy them all before they run out !

Man, you have my dream collection.
LC (have a black one), reverse cylinder (had one of them, cool bike), RZ500 (mines got motor issues). Is that an NSR400? Bugger! Not too nuts about the RZ though.....

Knew some people with KR1-S's. They went well but needed steering dampers...... As said before, the '91 on RGV's would probably be a wiser choice if you want a 250 2-stroke.

**Mooch** · 18th December 2005, 13:13

Originally Posted by FROSTY

gosh darn it I hate saying this BUT -- I was racing 250 proddie in the days the KR1 nad then the KR1S were on the track.
Dont get me wrong they are bloody good bikes with the normal power valve gumming up issues all highly strung strokers had--we all accepted it and it was part of the maintainence.
I was still riding my TZR250 and was doing battle with guys on KR1's -they diddnt seem to have straightline power over me .

If a race type stroker is what you want i would actually go for the later model (ARGGG) RGV250's Basicly suzuki just improved and improved the RGV whereas for New zealand the Sp was as far as kawasaki went in development.
If you are wanting a "taste" of racing I would either buy a cbr/zxr 250 and race in streetstock class at manfeild or taupo --or better still --buy a BUCKET racer--like the one for sale here for $500 and go see if ya like it before committing real (sorry bucket guys) money to your racing.

Remember the RGV's doing well, believe they also had a better spread of power , but I also remember the a "standard

" 87 TZR that was quicker than a Kr1-s on the back striaght of Manfield (no draughting either) . I remember having a frank discussion with someone around the time saying my KR1 could go a lot faster should I want to race it. It sounds like it wasn't always a level playing field.

**inlinefour** · 19th December 2005, 09:34

used to race the blokes on the kawasakis when the magpies was not watching. The RD I had to work harder, the TZR was easy. However giving them snot all the time requires rebuilds and plenty of maintiance.

**gav** · 21st December 2005, 20:14

Is this the same bike as per the opening ad? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-43435092.htm

**Mooch** · 22nd December 2005, 02:23

Originally Posted by gav

Is this the same bike as per the opening ad? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-43435092.htm

Looks like my words are famous, does the person selling this want to give Spankme 10 % commission for the write up and using my kiwibiker text?. Also, give the rims a bloody good clean up. Not that hard, bit of dynamo and water ....

Here's a Pic of my old KR1 , was kept immaculate for a comparison and had 33,000 kms at the time of this photo.

BTW , I believe Aaron Slight raced KR1-S earlier on in his race career.

**F5 Dave** · 23rd December 2005, 08:35

Stanko you barsteward! You have a clean looking Stinger, I want one for some illogical reason.

Re the KR1, the rings in big ports used to fret & pull out the ring pegs which would cause the ring to rotate & destruction was not far away. TZ pistons would fix this. Really they should be treated as a race bike & not used on the road unless you are prepared to rebuild them before they die.