Friday, April 19, 2024 | Opferman Motors
 

1971 Kawasaki KE100 - First Motorcycle




This is a 77 Kawasaki 100 but it looks similar. You can see the carberator in the side of the bottom casing in this picture.

The yellow bike looks more like the bike I used to own. The bike I owned was yellow and it had the same seat as that bike.

This is the first dirt bike that I had purchased. It cost me $40 and I had this bike for a number of years. The bike was 5 gears all up as opposed to the standard neutral being between gears 1 and 2. This bike started to run weaker after years of riding and after replacing broken parts with home made parts. The bike needed rings and probably required a bore to the next size. The bike never had any compression though and you could actually start with it with only a half kick of the kick start. You could actually start it by hand even if you gave several tries.

I owned the bike for 5 years before I got rid of it. The most valuable piece of the bike was the fact that it had fox air shocks as the rear shocks which made it worth while for a trade. I bought a 1979 CR 125 in good condition that was being sold for $300. I gave the guy this bike and $260 instead so after 5 years of riding I got my money back out of the bike. I have actually always gotten my money back or more on any bike I have ever owned.

I have a video of this bike somewhere but no pictures. The picture shown is an equivlent bike and not the actual bike I owned. The strange part about this bike more than the gearing was that the carberator was not behind the cylinder as most bikes but it was actually in the side of the bottom casing. The thing leaked like crazy though as it had a drain on the bottom of it.

 
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