feetupfun

and seven KT250s at a trial (it was pre-organised to get as many KTs together as possible)

and a recent photo of the same bike

here is a photo of my KT taken in about 2003

the "tripod" Kawasaki web page forum went quiet on KTs many years ago when people started using Trials Central and Trials Australia forums for their KT info

Apart from the one damaged lid stud on your airbox,it looks like standard KT Your frame is standard KT behind the shockie mount. The standard seat brackets attach where the brackets on your seat attach I'll have a look in my parts book to see what you are seeing

The Uniflow air filter elements that are sold in the UK are made in Sydney, Australia. They used a KT airbox of mine to design that filter. Fred and Deb KT parts also sell those filter elements. I use them and have no problems. I'll have a look at your photos now.

Here is a bloke selling KT parts on eBay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/KT-250-TRIALS-BIKE-1975-spoke-nipple/111384273025?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140106155344%26meid%3D949a886809fa402c85c3d0d57f0c73c4%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D20140106155344%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D281529908872&rt=nc I'll have a look at your photos soon

Hi Tim I'm one of the KT folk. I have one of my own, and have helped a few people with theirs. I've ridden mine quite a bit over the past 15 years and experimented with lots of things to see what effect they had. The carb is a popular item for use on other twinshock trials bikes so it's not unusual that it is missing The airbox boot shrinks and goes hard with time and new replicas can be bought from Fred an Deb's KT parts in New Zealand. They also have lots of other hard-to-get replica parts for KTs http://kawasakikt.tripod.com/FREDKT.html I don't know why the seats disappear. I have given a couple away to people whose bikes were missing them but have no more left. Front sprockets for 520 chain are available from http://www.tytrials.co.uk/trailandtrialsuk/cat_28895-3-Kawasaki-KT250-Parts.html Rear sprockets are not as readily available, due to being dished. A flat sprocket from Talon with spacer and recessed head fasteners will work. Some people have made sprocket adaptors to allow the use of late model KX sprockets but the last time I saw these being advertised was years ago. What parts look different to the parts book?

Why it works is because the air going in and out of the little hole in the decompressor causes the motor to do work on the air.

did you have to change the jetting to suit the Aspen fuel? I friend of mine tried using ELF "indoor" fuel in his trials bike and the bike required rejetting to suit

You are getting current flowing through the condenser when the points are open, which is normal. Just look for the light changing in brightness as the points open and close

quite amusing, but I'm pretty sure that was no standard Harley motor

Larry yes 12 gauge spokes are fine in principle for steel spokes on a trials bike. It is the quality of the thread forming on the spokes and in the nipples that can be a problem with new spokes

The wires around the spoke crossing positions are to prevent further damage due to a flailing spoke, should a spoke break. Cable ties are also used for this purpose.

I suspect he was measuring the shank or the thread OD of the bolt, rather than the hex of the socket head

I have previously seen that thread stripped on an M80. I picked it up while running a pre-trial machinery examination/tech inspection. I noticed the bolt missing and the rider said the thread in the clamp was stripped.

Thread form and pitch gauges are made for this purpose. If you can't borrow or buy a gauge, use a rule to measure the pitch of the thread (count how many threads there are in one inch). There are thread tables on the internet, or you can post here and someone will look at their tables and identify it. I'm thinking its probably been retapped 3/8" UNC

another consideration regarding the lowering of footpegs is that most of the older twinshocks have quite high seats/rear frame/mudguard relative to the footpegs, and if the footpegs are lowered on them it can greatly limit body weighting in the up and down plane unless the rider has long legs. I am 174cm or 5' 10" with proportionate leg length and found that after I lowered the pegs on a TY250B to level with the bottom of the bashplate, I was often hitting my tailbone on the rear guard and seat when jumping across big obstacles.

I'm 55 and have been competing in observed trials since 1974 and also enduro, hare and hound, MX and trail-riding, which is by a huge margin the most popular form of two-wheel off-road activity. I stopped doing all the fast stuff 15 years ago after I started having a few too many crashes caused by loss of concentration, and now confine myself almost exclusively to riding trials on Twinshock era bikes I studied Mechanical Engineering at Uni in the late 1970s and also did a Trade apprenticeship (fitting and turning), and have worked since 1980 in engineering roles for large companies that have interesting manufacturing processes (BOC Gases, Alumina Refineries, General Electric and the past 11 years at a large coal-fired power station. I love working at old plants that are nearing their end of life, because it is always interesting to find newly emerging failure modes Because I don't get to do trade work in my paid employment, I get great enjoyment from doing trade type work as a hobby, which fits perfectly with my love of Twinshock trials bikes. Tweaking the old bikes is my cup of tea. I have a brother-in-law who also did mechanical engineering and the same trade at the same time who is a wizard with racing engines and is also a specialist welder and we tend to feed off each other's enthusiasm I learned to ride on a 1950s CZ125 road bike in the early 1970s which my Dad had restored and he also restored a 16H Norton and a plunger Tiger Cub during my youth. Back at the time my Dad married my Mum, their only form of road transport was a motorcycle and sidecar. They had to buy a car so they could build a house so that was the end of motorbikes for a few years. His favourite bikes from his youth were his Matchless and his Norton International. I have two teenage kids and I write the trials column in VMX magazine

as suggested by a previous poster, on the model 10 you may find the frame number above the swingarm mount as shown in this photo

Both the 348 and the OSSA are old bikes, but the standard 348 is a quiet old bike and the standard OSSA MAR is a noisy old bike

Maybe it would help you work it out if you listened to an OSSA with a standard muffler

Mk 1 round bowl AMALs behave like that if there is a drop of water in the float bowl

It would take something pretty special to reduce the exhaust noise to that of a 348 Cota