August 30, 200817 yr Kim Nelson sent me a couple of photos he took at the Kansas City, MO national, probably about 1976. He says the KT250 shown was ridden by Steve Darrow, who I think is from the SF Bay Area though I didn't find him listed in the current PITS roster. The noticeable changes are no frame tubes under the engine, Miller muffler, and a KX250 clutch cover. The headpipe looks to be stock length, and not a long one like I built for my bike. The photos were rather faded so I did what I could to enhance them, but I'm far from being a Photoshop expert. Thanks Kim! cheers, Michael Edited August 30, 200817 yr by MichaelMoore
August 30, 200817 yr Email me the original files and lemme see if I can clean them up... Oh, and waiting for Mr. Lael to comment.
August 30, 200817 yr Author Dave, I think your colors came out a bit better so I ran your versions through a "dust and scratches" filter and uploaded them. thanks, Michael
August 30, 200817 yr I opted not to use those types of filters as they "muddle" the image too much. I can live with a few blemishes for the additional detail. But that's just me. The originals were pretty bad. I was actually surprised at how well they came out. Still waiting for the rest of the KT diehards to coming crawling out...
August 30, 200817 yr Steve Darrow now lives in Colorado. When I was a kid he would let me ride his bikes. He had to get me started then I would yell for him and he would come out and stop me. No TY 80 back then. Probally was sick of me. The kawasaki Trials bikes are still one of my favorite bikes.
August 30, 200817 yr Two different bikes for sure. One is a 74 type and other is 76 type. The older one must be Darrow's bike. It has the KX kickstarter to go with the KX clutch cover, and apparently a Sammy Miller muffler. This bike must be a fair bit lighter than stock. Just the weight reduction from the exhaust alone would be like 2 or 3 pounds I bet. It looks as if Darrow riveted some white nylon to the skid plate allowing it to glide over those grippy granite rocks. I bet this was a very effective machine. The relocating of the swingarm pivot which I had done to mine, transforms the bike's handling, making it feel allot lighter, and softens up the back end because of the different leverage ratios applied to the shocks. I bet Curt Comer has some KT pics in his archives, and how about Gary LaPlante. Those guys had bikes similar to the Darrow bike and rode them in the nationals. I remember a guy from Texas who rode these as well. His name eludes me at the moment, but I remember he was super nice and a really talented rider. There is also guy from California, who built a mono KT 250 who was at Donner National in 1976. This bike looked so cool, but I understand it didn't work super good. I would love to see some photos of that bike. It had a snail type expansion chamber on it!
August 30, 200817 yr Maybe the guy from texas was Jay Decker. He posted some pics of himself on a kawa.
August 30, 200817 yr It just came to me. The guy's name is Micky Kessler. It's funny how you remember people who you only met once all that time ago.
August 30, 200817 yr would that be the kessler from texas who killed the competition in da 70's he was an awesome rider!
August 31, 200817 yr I think the name you are looking for is Eddy Kessler from TX. Mickey Kessler was a National Motocrosser from the 70s.
August 31, 200817 yr I think the name you are looking for is Eddy Kessler from TX. Mickey Kessler was a National Motocrosser from the 70s. Jay probably ran against both of them...
August 31, 200817 yr Time to go looking through those old NATC results. This guy was amazing. You're probably right about the name, but it's got me wondering. No doubt this guy was well up the results list. I often wondered if they were just one and the same guy doing both. Did the motocrosser ride Kawasakis? OK You have to be right. It was Eddy Kessler. It's been a long time ago. My first race was in 1975, a pitiful attempt to race 100 cc expert on a terrible and slow Hodaka 100B. I never raced in a national mx. Only bush league stuff from 1976 through 1983, and then I was back trialing, 1984 to present, with the exception of my attempt at Rodeo in the summer of 1993 when I travelled on the montana rodeo circuit as a "rookie" bareback rider. That was really something. Anyway I'll dig out those old NATC programs, and look at the stats. Someone's gotta' know the guy.
August 31, 200817 yr Author From this site http://nana12.blog.bai.ne.jp/?cid=5005 are some photos of a trial in Japan with Fumihiro Kato on his KT330 works bike. Kim found this while trolling for KT info. cheers, Michael
August 31, 200817 yr From this site cheers, Michael I'm chipping in $5 to send this poor guys some real tie downs...
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