Rich Aitch
Retrobike Rider
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I saw one of these when I was leafing through an old copy of Bike Magazine- a motorbike mag- and thought that looks "Right". It's the way that some bikes look like they are going to be a good ride. I'd never heard of a K.M.B 450 though and the only Kawasaki pushbikes I was aware of were those bargain kids full suspension jobbies that are dressed up to look like a motorcross bike with no engine. This was clearly a machine of quality though and the more I found out about it the more I wanted one. Defender- retrobike member- has one and gave a pretty good reccomendation, so when I saw one on Ebay in Wigan I bid on it. I got it cheap, probably because people associate Kawasaki's with chain store and internet only bikes.
It'd been outside for three years but was in better condition than my 1991 Marin Muirwoods that had apparantly been in a back yard for ten! It had some bad scratches on it but Kawasaki Racing lime green is an easy colour to get hold of. When I tilted it onto it's back wheel to get it down some steps though a load of rusty water poured out of the chain stay drain holes onto my feet.
So far it is a bit hard to tell how it rides, the front tyre was underinflated, with a kinked tyre valve- they really annoy me, the left and right elastomers were screwed into different depths and the headset had worked loose. I haven't used it since I got it home, I don't really want to give it much stick until I get replacements for the perished rubber fork gaiters, as I'm not sure about the quality of the chroming on the fork sliders. So for the moment it's been pushed right down the to do list. But I still think it has promise.
It'd been outside for three years but was in better condition than my 1991 Marin Muirwoods that had apparantly been in a back yard for ten! It had some bad scratches on it but Kawasaki Racing lime green is an easy colour to get hold of. When I tilted it onto it's back wheel to get it down some steps though a load of rusty water poured out of the chain stay drain holes onto my feet.
So far it is a bit hard to tell how it rides, the front tyre was underinflated, with a kinked tyre valve- they really annoy me, the left and right elastomers were screwed into different depths and the headset had worked loose. I haven't used it since I got it home, I don't really want to give it much stick until I get replacements for the perished rubber fork gaiters, as I'm not sure about the quality of the chroming on the fork sliders. So for the moment it's been pushed right down the to do list. But I still think it has promise.
, it looks very original if a bit used, I would say the paint has faded a bit?
