Vintage Motocross Works Bikes and Production Models
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Featured here is Dave Thorpe’s 1981 Kawasaki SR500. Dave Thorpe raced this bike during the European GP season and was Kawasaki’s only works GP rider. Considering he was still recovering from a badly broken leg during the 1980 season, Dave’s results were very encouraging.
Featured here is a 1986 works Kawasaki SR500. This bike was raced by Georges Jobe during the 1986 500cc GP series in Europe. It is currently owned by Lee Jackson in the United Kingdom.
Featured here is a 1982 Kawasaki SR250. This bike belongs to Mark Hilderbrand of Night-mare Racing (http://www.nightmare-racing.com/). Mark has been collecting and restoring for several years has a very impressive collection. This is the second bike Mark has provided us an opportunity to showcase.
If you are restoring a Kawasaki and are in need of quality reproduction plastics, graphics or advice on what is right or wrong with your restoration, Night-mare Racing is the place to go! Mark says he has had the opportunity to meet some very special friends along the way and we here at VintageWorksBikes are glad to have the opportunity to share another one of his very rare bikes!
This bike was first raced in the first few Supercross races of 1983 though it’s actually a 1982, single radiator version. It was raced by Kent Howerton during the Supercross series. Jeff Ward raced a twin radiator version that year.
In 1982, Kawasaki was still perfecting their disc brakes. The disc brakes were primarily used on dry race days and the drum brakes used during wet and muddy races. Notice the black spokes. They were used on a limited number of the works bikes that year.
Very trick works linkage. A great deal of time, effort and research went into perfecting the suspension components on these bikes.
Featured here is a 1983 works Kawasaki SR500 and a 1987 works Kawasaki SR500. Both bikes were raced by Kurt Nichol in the 500cc GP World Championship’s.
Featured here is Brad Lackey’s 1980 Kawasaki SR500. This was Brad’s last year with Kawasaki and the bike represents Kawasaki’s best effort at producing a machine capable of winning a championship. Brad finished a disappointing 2nd in the world championship race behind Andre Malherbe. Brad signed with Suzuki and later made history by winning the 1982 World Championship 500GP Motocross series.
The following bike is a “works” 1988 Kawasaki SR500. It was last used at the French MXDN in 1988 when Kurt Nicoll finished 2nd in the 500cc World Championship to HRCs Eric Geboers. Kurt won the British 500cc Championship and Kawasaki Japan presented the bike to Kurt as thanks for all his hard work through the year. The bike was prepared through the season by Kurt’s brother Aaron Nicoll .
Some interesting points: Kurt used a production rear hub in the bike laced to a factory rim as the super light factory rear hub was prone to bearing damage. The bike is now re-united with the factory hub. It has special bend Renthal bars that are one off from the Renthal factory in England . The bike is 100 percent complete and is regularly started.
The bike was owned by the Nicoll family from 1988 until Dave King purchased it.
1982 was Thorpe’s first full year of racing GP’s in the 500cc class. He won several races on this bike and finished the season in 6th place.
Featured here is a 1978 Kawasaki SR380. This bike is very rare as there were only two made. The first 1978 SR’s that were made had the long sharp angled shocks. Apparently it did not handle well so they had to redesign the frame and suspension angles. Because Thorleif was not competing in the 500 class, they did not bother sending him the new frame design for the 380, instead they sent him 2 new 250’s with the new design.
This bike has not been restored, only cleaned and cosmetically touched up .
