My 1988 Kawasaki Concours
Posted on July 26, 2008 by WPS
In: Motorcycles
I had been having my eye out for a cheap bike for some time. It's been a while since I've ridden. So I turn around and go back to look at it, and no, my eyes had not deceived me, it did say $1200 on the windshield... oh, it's a Kawasaki, with 73thousand some odd miles on the clock... no wonder it's so cheap.
I wouldn't have believed it... but there it was... so I got the phone number, and went home and googled Kawasaki Concours. Turns out there are forums and an owners club and a whole community of owners devoted to this bike, some reporting over a hundred thousand miles. And it looked pretty good for the age, other than the tape on the seat, the down and dirty cowl repairs, and of course the cobwebs on the taillight. Actually looks better than most of the project bikes I had in the past. So I call the owner and arrange a meeting. Meanwhile, I read up a bit more about the Connie. There's a lot of info available about the bike, including parts breakdown microfiche, and prices on all the parts, lots of tips and tricks, etc... I swore off jap bikes years ago when I got my first Tiger. But now, a marriage, two kids, a home improvement biz, a busted leg, and a bankruptcy and foreclosure later, I'm looking for a cheap bike.
So we meet at the farm stand, and the owner is telling me there's an oil leak, from the shifter shaft seal, "but only when it's parked on the side stand".
I look at the bottom of the motor and there's oil. He says the drain plug stripped and he replaced it with a self tapping drain plug.
He starts the bike and it runs pretty good. The motor sounds pretty noisey, timing chain, piston slap, or maybe needs a valve adjustment? And I can smell the oil burning off the pipes, or is that from blowby?
But there is no smoke from the exhaust, and it runs like a champ after just a short warmup. This means the motor has is wearing gracefully, the rings and cylinders are worn, hence the blow-by, but the lack of oil burning indicates there is no major scoring in the cylinder walls. eh... I offer him $800, we settle on $1000, so I write him a check. I leave my truck, and ride home on the Connie. It goes pretty good, so I ride down to park where my wife and two boys are at the Cub Scout fishing derby. On the way back, some hotties are smiling at me. I smile back, and almost drop it... gonna take some getting used to. It's different, by far the heaviest bike I've ever owned.
But it's red... my favorite kind. Stay tuned...