Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. . PROJECT BIKE IMS Kawasaki KLX650 dual sport "T hi s gu y thinks Ii k e I do ," I mumbled to myself when I first laid eye s on the bike. It was the night before the Cycle News Du al Sport Jam boree - an annual event our pu blication organizes in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Be a r, Califo rnia. IMS manager Dave Doughty had offered to let me ride his pe rsonal mount - a dirtonly Kawasaki KLX650 that h ad been modified for serious off-road use...an d th e n made street legal. As Doughty unloaded the bike from h is van, I ad mired the bea utiful Kawasaki by the light of the campfire. Several of my Cycle News colleagues were a lso lee ring shamelessly a t the bike, glazed looks in their eyes and spitt le forming in the corners of their mou ths. They had arra nge d for a sorry collection of OEM du al sport bikes, and their jealousy was transparent . Associate ed itor Donn "Style King " . Maeda was the first to break the silence . "Umrn, I think we should all take turns on th e b ik es, so that e a ch of u s will k now w ha t th ey all w ork lik e, " he chirped hopefull y. Ad salesman Forrest H aya shi an d ass istant editor Sc ott Rousseau both nodded the ir heads vigoro us ly in ag ree men t. Coincidentally, Maeda and Hayashi had lined up a pair o f Su zuki DRSI25s for th e rid e, an d Rou sseau wou ld be p iloting a Yamaha XT225 Serow. They could ad d all three of their moun ts' d isplacem ents togeth er, and my KLX would still have an extra 275cc on them . . "Don' t even th ink abo ut it," I retort ed, h ap p il y watchi ng fo r lorn looks replac e th e ir o p tim is tic ex p ressions . Th is w a s a du al s por t bike a fter m y ow n heart , and I didn't int end to sha re it, even if it d id mean I'd ge t no help writing th is s to ry . On e yea r ea rlier I h ad ri d de n a s ta n da rd Ka w asa ki KLX650 dual s po rt b ik e in th e sa me event, and wh ile I h ad fun , I wa s not impressed with the machine 's off-road prow ess. The bike wa s designed with a 60 / 40% s tree t/ dirt ratio, and boasted suc h features as a fading rear b rake, racin g-slick tires and a fighting weight th at ri va led that o f th e Queen Ma ry (the boat - n ot th e lad y ). I prefe r 'a stree t / d irt prop ortion of abou t 1 / 99%, and I h at e cos t-cu tt ing mea sures lik e n on -adju st abl e s us pe nsi o n co m po nents. At the '93 rid e I had noti ced a KLX dirt bike that had been con verted by Baja Designs for dua l sport use, and it see med like a much better solu tion. I w as ecs tatic when I go t the call fro m lMS, inv iti ng m e to rid e a si m ila r machin e. MX DUAL SPORT ~ 0'\ 0'\ ...... rr) N l-< (l) ..0 E (l) ;;- o z 18 The dirt capabilities of the IMS KLX should be apparent in its history . The b ike s ta rte d life as a Kawasaki Team Green machine, which wa s ridden to the wi n in the '93 M amm oth Mounta in Four-Stroke Expert class by none othe r than Ty Davis. Doughty bought the bike from Team Green, made it stree t legal (b a re ly) and m odified it to s uit h is needs. Jud ging by hi s KLX, Dough ty will certainl y never be accused of costcu tting . The list of updates he made is ex te ns ive, and few of th e mo d s are che ap. This is an interesting machine, and wh ile we wo uldn't expect the avera ge dua l s p o rt enthusias t to build a repli ca , the b ike may give you som e ideas. Team Green took the '93 machine out of th e crate and h a d th e motor ma ssaged by Curtis Sparks, a former professiona l ATV racer who has gained a reputation as a capable four -stroke builder. "I was trying to build a bike that would compete against all the real high-level four-strokes, like ATK and Hu saberg," sa ys Sparks. "The Kawasaki is pretty heavy, so I had a pretty big handicap to overcome there. I wanted more power everywhere, and I wanted it to be snapp ier . Tractability isn' t really a problem By Chris JonnumlPhotos by Kit Palmer with motocross, especially with Ty Davis on the bike." Sparks bumped up the compression, replaced the piston, performed extensive head work and installed different cams and matching valve springs. He al so shaved so me weight off the flywheel. Davis used a 41mm carburetor, but the stock mixer was slapped back on . when the bike was sold . Spa rks sells the parts necessary for a Ty Davis replica, and he'll install them for you if you like. For reliability, Kawasaki installed a Barnett Series K.Kevlar clutch kit, which consists of both fibe r and metal plates and heavy-duty springs. One extra plate

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