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Brought the Old Girl Back to Life!

titelines

By titelines
in Motorcyclists

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titelines Experienced

titelines

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Posted

I'm so excited to have my bike up and running again. Just a short history of this 1985 Kawasaki KE 175.

We've always had enduros in our family and I learned to ride at an early age. I spent thousands of hours riding in the expansive woods across the street from our house. From as early as I can remember I'd come home from school, call my buddies and we'd ride until the sun went down. We did all of our own maintenance and really just loved every minute of it. My dad and I would take them to the Northwoods and ride for days on end, exploring as much as we could, getting to remote areas and fishing etc.

I went off to college in 1987 and that was pretty much the end of it. My dad stored the bikes in his garage and that's where they stayed..until this year. My dad started clearing out the garages, and he basically signed both bikes over to me. Thus started the process of restoration.

I decided to take on this bike first. With a lot of help from a buddy at the cabin (he's a mechanic), we rolled her out this past weekend.

After 25 years in a garage, it was in surprisingly great shape. Nothing had seized up. The tires were great and held air..no flat spots. We tore the engine apart and cleaned everything to as close to spotless as it could get. We cleaned the carb out twice, dropped in new plugs, a new battery etc. The gas tank was spotless! All the wires were in good shape, the seat was good.

Dropped in some gas and fired her up. Lots of blue smoke to start, and it didn't want to idle much at first, but we ran a couple tanks of gas through her and it got much better.

The new tags and plates are in the mail, and I'll be getting my endorsement next spring. Not looking to do any heavy highway riding, just a lot of trail riding at the cabin and maybe a few day trips to Ely, Grand Marais etc. and to the office in town.

Just really excited to have it back in my garage. too bad the riding season is almost over frown

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do from here? What gas should I run through this? Any additives that I should look at? I'll add SeaFoam when I put it away for the season, but anything else I can do to help the old girl come back to life?

Thanks!

The other bike is project #2...a 1972 Kawasaki KZ 125. That's in progress.

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leech~~ Grand Master

leech~~

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Nice Work! She looks great! That's back when they use to make comfortabel seats! Love the Enduro's now called Dual Sports! I've had a few over the years. smile Watch running to much additives through a 2 cyc motor so you don't end up thining out the oil to much! frown

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titelines Experienced

titelines

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Thanks guys,

Any reason to run 91 octane through this bike, if even for a little while? I'll run Sea Foam through the first couple tanks to help clean it out a bit.

I'm going to change the oil fairly quickly just to make sure there aren't any shavings or anything in there. Other than that, any other advice to help "break it in" again after so many idle years?

Leech - Love your rides. Always loved the on/off road option of the enduros.

BTW - This was the last motorcycle that we bought when I was a kid, so I only really rode it for a year or so. Would you believe that it only has 450 miles on it??

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leech~~ Grand Master

leech~~

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Thanks guys,

Any reason to run 91 octane through this bike, if even for a little while? I'll run Sea Foam through the first couple tanks to help clean it out a bit.

I'm going to change the oil fairly quickly just to make sure there aren't any shavings or anything in there. Other than that, any other advice to help "break it in" again after so many idle years?

Leech - Love your rides. Always loved the on/off road option of the enduros.

BTW - This was the last motorcycle that we bought when I was a kid, so I only really rode it for a year or so. Would you believe that it only has 450 miles on it??

Not sure how old you were then but there would have been "no way" I would have let that thing sit that long with out having bald tires and a burnt out motor that Dad didn't want to fix! laugh

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JOHNBIGDOG Proficient

JOHNBIGDOG

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Thanks guys,

Any reason to run 91 octane through this bike, if even for a little while?

I would run 91 non oxy ONLY in this bike. Ethanol sitting in a carb. for long idle times tends to do a lot more harm then good.

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titelines Experienced

titelines

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I'm with ya' leech. I would've ridden this thing into the ground, but off to college I went...In hindsight I should've taken it with me..it would've been a blast to have this thing in Flagstaff smile

Thanks for the advice guys!

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