Kawasaki KH250A5 1976 CANADA information

Despite making advanced disc valve two strokes, Kawasaki became famous for their piston ported, high performance triples. The KH250 was a lower powered follow on from the S1 250. Power was down from 32bhp to 27bhp, but this was not as bad as it sounds!

That early 250 was extremely fast for it’s capacity, and extremely thirsty! It is true to say that some US V8 five litre cars could deliver higher gas mileage than a hard ridden S1!

As well as it’s thirst, it’s high state of tune made it fragile, the centre of it’s three cylinders overheating, causing the early model to run more often as a twin than a triple!

So the later KH series was easier to ride, had a more sensible fuel consumption, and was inherently more reliable. This good looking, and by now dated machine was completely trounced by Yamaha’s LC250, being a lot slower, heavier and with much poorer handling. But when that three cylinder engine is on song, few motorcycles sound better, and that styling was just so right!

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