KZ250 Brake Cable Alternatives

Brought my KZ250 in for a roadworthy and I asked them to fix the brakes at the same time. I'd already de-glazed the shoes and drum, but they replaced the shoes and machined the drum, and said it was as good as it was going to get, and gave me my roadworthy

But the brakes are still scarily bad. I can slow the bike much faster with the rear brake than the front! The only thing left is the cable. I tries replacing the cable with a spare from my brother's KH100 and it was an improvement - but that cable is too small and doesn't mount properly.

It has been discussed here about them before, but getting one made from motionpro is difficult, as I would need to order it in (I'm from Australia). Not impossible, but are there any other off-the-shelf cables that would work? I have changed the handlebars so ideally I would want it to be 10-15cm shorter. I'm going to try ringing around some more local places, but not many seem to do custom brake cables.

I can buy them from bikebandit, but I'm looking at over $100 once it's landed for a cable that's too long. Just looking for some other options.

What KZ250 is it? Assuming a CSR or Ltd, I'd look into getting a Fr Br cable from a 250 Standard model if there is such a thing. Or a KZ200 Standard if any of those had a Fr drum brake. Or maybe a bigger dirt or dual sport model along the lines of the KH100 you tried. At Partzilla you could check to see what other models use the same Br rod adj nut, then try to figure out if any of those might work. Most of the bikes in the x-ref are from the 70s & the nut is for the rear brake on some of them, so finding a suitable cable from one of those models might be difficult.

Disk brake. Have you considered getting a Fr disk brake. The 79 KZ200 for example has it & it has the same fork seals & upper triple as the 250-D1, so the forks n stuff should swap over easily.

Part obsolete. Not sure what cable you saw at bikebandit, but if oem, they may not be able to get it --- before ordering a cable from any place, verify that it is in stock and not part obsolete or NLA. In the past bikebandit has been bad about that.

It's a 1985 KZ250-W1 LTD. And yeah, I've been looking at front brake cables for some other bikes, but it's finding one that I know is compatible that's the issue. Good idea looking for models with the same rod adjust nut - however most of them are for the rear brake. The only ones that use the same part on the front are the KZ250 models. I might contact motionpro as they still seem to be the best option - hopefully they can do some reasonable shipping

Disc brakes: I rang around a few wreckers a while ago, but the earlier KZ's aren't too common here - I got one reply who had a set of forks and wanted $300 for just the forks. But I'm keeping my eye out.

Part Obsolete - I'm glad you told me this - they seem to be the only one who don't have them as obsolete, so they probably don't have it either!

So I've found a place locally who will make one - they're called Flexible Drive Agencies. Don't know about price yet, so hopefully not too expensive...

Just as a follow up for anybody with the same issue in the future, Flexible Drive Agencies in Australia made a fantastic cable for me - it look and feels far better than the original, and works perfectly. I asked for a slightly shorter cable as I have changed my handlebars and that was no problem.

Price came to $70 AUD (so about $52 USD) - cheaper than ordering one in