VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P137
find some power in the low end,
before finally realizing that they
were chasing their own tails.
"Back down at sea level, we
found that the low-end lack
wasn't brought on by the altitude.
It just wasn't there. It was missed
when plonking up hills or trying
to get the front wheel up over
obstacles at low speed."
Meanwhile, the KX250 was
earning high praise from the
crew, even suggesting that the
production machine "may be the
best competition dirt bike ever
to come out of Japan. Sounds
hard to believe after the Honda
Elsinore and the Yamaha YZ250,
but the Kawasaki seems more
rideable and easier to maintain
than either of the other brands."
Electronic ignition was a rela
-
tively new thing for motorcycles in
1974, so the fact that the KX's CDI
worked well was worthy of a men-
tion from the staff. The 34mm Mi-
kuni was responsive throughout
and the powerband was steady—
no flat spots. "Throttle response
is A-1 all the time from any place
in the rev range. It seems what
Kawasaki has done is design
an engine for motocross from
scratch, with very little ancestry
attributable to the F-11 of yore…"
There it is again—the com
-
parison. The KX is, of course, a
nearly perfect machine and not
at all like its slacker brother.
"The Kawasaki F-11 enduro
will puzzle you if you've ridden
its motocross counterpart," CN
wrote. The KX had great low-end
throttle response, "which seems
so noticeably lacking in the F-11."
The rear suspenders on the
F-11 bottomed out and wore
out. The forks were fine, the tires
were a compromise, "excel[ling]
in neither area [street or dirt]. On
the street, the F-11 could reach
80 mph, more than what was
needed during the gas crunch
era of the 1970s, which led to the
introduction of the 55 mph speed
limit, even on major highways
and interstates.
Motorcycling needed bikes like
the F-11, along with the Suzuki TS
models and Yamaha's DT lineup.
They were simple, fun and ver
-
satile motorcycles, and they did
everything okay, though nothing
very well. The F-11's faults were
inherent. Magazine staffers were
relentless. The two Kawasaki
250s might've come from the
same family, but that's where the
similarity ends. One excelled at
its designated purpose. The other
predictably failed to do what was
an impossible job—do everything
right and do it at a high level.
Remus was killed and Romu
-
lus founded Rome. Cain slew
Abel and Marcia Brady dated
the big man on campus, while
a crazed Jan conjured up an
imaginary boyfriend who even
called her on the telephone. The
KX250 is still around, albeit in
four-stroke form. The F-11 was
last seen being ridden by George
Glass.
CN
Subscribe to nearly 60 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives
The F-11 didn't meet the high
expectations of the KX250, but it
did get the CN staff to the Rocky
Mountains and back. Try that on
the KX250.
Cycle News reviewed
the 1974 Kawasaki
F-11, the street-legal
dual-sport off-roader,
in the same issue,
and we couldn't help
but, perhaps unfairly,
compare it to the
KX250.
