New to the board (1980 KZ250 LTD)

Hello all,

I am new here and am saying hi. I picked up this bike yesterday for use as an around town commuter and errand runner. I needed something a little bit faster than my Zuma 125 for short highway jaunts. It has 11,000 miles on it and needs a little work, but is in pretty decent shape.



It reminds me alot of my very first bike, a 1981 Yamaha Exciter 250. Anyways, I am going to search the forums for ways to make my 250 better. Thanks for letting me join!

Welcome Mr. Head. Welcome to KZR. Bike looks clean...good luck with the 250...parts can be difficult to source for the smaller KZ's.

welcome,
cool little bike.keep us posted on what you do with it.

leon

That is one clean little bike you got there!
At this time the 250's still aren't worth alot. But for what you want, a commuter, I would just keep up the maintenance and appearance. Changing only parts as necessary, and for comfort. Maybe different bars, shocks, etc. Keeping all of the original parts for swapping back if need be to sell.
Nice score and there will be a lot of help on here for you.

did whoever you bought it from have the exhaust with it? If not your best bet may be to find something aftermarket. Not sure whats available original wise but like someone else said the smaller KZ bikes don't have as much parts around now. I've had a lot of luck from ebay for my 440, but there may be more for my 440 than the 250.

Check out ebay none-the-less!

Should be a great commuter.

Best of luck, put pictures up as you work.

T.

Yeah it has the exhaust still. It's stained pretty good and I can't seem to get it to shine up well. I've tried wd-40 and steel wool, and turtle wax chrome polish and haven't had good results.

Before pic:



The bike is also kicking out of 4th gear under a medium/heavy load now. It goes back down to 3rd. I figure it's just worn out (11,000 miles), or maybe I'm not shifting it with enough force into 4th. I don't consider it a big deal, I just shift into 5th.

Only got 45 mpg on my first fill up, but I've been idling it and warming it up alot since it's cold right now.