The Kawasaki KSR 110 as Road Racer
While most Kawasaki KSR 110 motorcycles bear mostly a vestigial resemblance to their mini-motocross ancestors, you'd hardly guess there's an unaltered Kawasaki KSR frame and engine lurking under this MotoGP style roadracer's aerodynamic skin. Even more unexpected is how well these radically reconfigured machine navigate a road course. A few laps on a properly fettled Kawasaki KSR GP bike might convince you that roadracing is the most inspired mutation to the Kawasaki KSR 110 yet.Surprisingly few changes are required to complete an Kawasaki KSR GP conversion. You'll need front and rear suspension modifications, clip-on handlebars, rearset footpegs are a must to create a roadrace-appropriate riding position, and bodywork is a no-brainer now that there are several manufacturers who have several kits in the collection to fit the little KSR 110. Rolling your own Kawasaki KSR GP style is essentially a bolt-on endeavor.
The Kawasaki KSR has a highly tuned and modified engine, it uses the Takegawa 178cc bore-up kit. The Takegawa replacement cylinder and cylinder-head use a ceramic coating to reduce friction and the ceramic coating retains less residual heat from combustion and therefore the engine remain cooler. The Takegawa performance kit also includes a racing camshaft, 26mm Mikuni replacement carburettor and inlet manifold for high air-fuel mixture flow, and the performance kit also includes a performance air-filter.
We rode the modified 85kg Kawasaki KSR GP on a race track, officially used for karts. The 2009 Kawasaki KSR 110 based machine was a stunner, but with zero set-up time meant the handling was less then optimal, on the other hand, still it was a revelation. Our 65kg Thai test rider was able to give a Kawasaki Ninja 250R a hard time, especially in tight cornering.
Nothing brakes better than a motorcycle this light, and abundant cornering clearance, coupled with right-now responsiveness that's only possible from a less than 85kg package, encourages tight lines and high corner speeds that result in surprisingly quick lap times.
