Kawasaki AR80

[Skub]

A chap on the Club Kawa forum just completed a restoration on this little bike. I thought some may be interested in the comprised pics.

[Yorick]

Why????

[wull]

Why not you absolute walloper? You really are a top tier pleb


Kudos to the fella, he’s made a cracking job of that.

[Count Steer]

I really like these 'rust to riches' rescue jobs. Not really bothered what they do them to, it's just nice to see a job done well - from basket case to 'better than new'.

[Demannu]

Nicely done. Bet the toughest part of the resto was finding a semi decent clutch basket!

[Rockburner]

I wanted one of them when i was 16...

[mangocrazy]

Tremendous job, but why does he need 3 sets of exhausts? It's actually in better than new condition now. The paint and powder coat is better than anything Kawasaki applied as OE. It's not a bike I'd have used as a starting point, but each to their own.

[demographic]

I totally get the idea of doing up a bike like you had when you were a kid.

I'd quite like a nicely done up Fizzie, DT50's can fucking rust though.

[Bigyin]

I wanted one of them when i was 16...

Me too but no chance of affording one at 16

I totally get the idea of doing up a bike like you had when you were a kid.

I'd quite like a nicely done up Fizzie, DT50's can fucking rust though.

My boss at work had a Honda MT-5 as her first bike at 16 but sold it at 17 to fund her next 125 but a few years ago managed to find a half decent one after searching for quite some time. It was a non runner and she managed to find, what appeared to be at the time, the only original packaged carb for it in the UK as well as an original tool kit. The bike gets ridden but only on nice days to local bike meets at 37 mph.

She regularly gets offered a few grand for it

[KungFooBob]

Fancied the 125 in my teens, I assumed the 80 was water cooled like the 125, but obviously not.

[Taipan]

A guy i used to work with was restoring his GT185 that he'd abandoned in his parents garage when he was still living there in the early 80s. He'd amassed quite a lot of parts that were new old stock. Spent a fair bit of money too. Sadly I lost touch with him and cant find him on social media either, which is a shame as i'd love to know how it turned out. Must be quite athing to rebuild your own bike from your yoof!

[demographic]

Fancied the 125 in my teens, I assumed the 80 was water cooled like the 125, but obviously not.

Same basic engine as the 50, a few mates had the 50s and one or two had some 80 parts on to make en faster.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Fancied the 125 in my teens, I assumed the 80 was water cooled like the 125, but obviously not.

Same basic engine as the 50, a few mates had the 50s and one or two had some 80 parts on to make en faster.

I know someone who had an 80 registered as a 50 when they were 16.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

A guy i used to work with was restoring his GT185 that he'd abandoned in his parents garage when he was still living there in the early 80s. He'd amassed quite a lot of parts that were new old stock. Spent a fair bit of money too. Sadly I lost touch with him and cant find him on social media either, which is a shame as i'd love to know how it turned out. Must be quite athing to rebuild your own bike from your yoof!

I had one, I don't want another one.

[mangocrazy]

Must be quite athing to rebuild your own bike from your yoof!

I essentially did that with my 350LC, but I wasn't exactly a yoof even in 1980 when I bought the bike new...

[Felix]

I am an 80cc as my first legal bike, DT80. Three of us learning at the same time one had a XT125 and the other a DT50. There is a road up the side of Edinburgh Castle what is bloody steep. XT raced up, My 80 was dropping gears but made it and the 50 fell over. How we laughed at the poor sod

[The Spin Doctor]

I had an AR80, one of the very first in the country... no reason other than I looked at it and wanted one. First production Japanese bike with rising rate rear suspension!

Absolute bloody hoot to ride... 65 flat out, wheelies off the throttle in 1st and 2nd (just) thanks to the incredibly low gearing, and massive stoppies too once I'd replaced the OE tyre with something with some grip and knocked up a fork brace to stop the knitting needle thickness forks twisting.

Should have done that before I lost the front end braking when a ped ran out in front of me on the Aldwych. Lying on the road looking at at the front wheel of a Routemaster bus and wondering if it was going to stop before it ran me over wasn't the best moment of my biking life..

Taught a girlfriend to ride on it, she had it stolen, I recovered it from some town on the Essex coast where plod found it before we even knew it had been stolen.

Finally converted it to a 50, tuned the nuts off the motor and went Moped Endurance Racing. Finished 4th at the first ever event at Birmingham Wheels.

Eventually sold it to a mate of a mate.

I would love to have it back.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I rode a 50 in 1983 when I had a TS50, the TS was faster, more comfortable and neither of them were fast enough to worry about handling.

[ZRX61]

We raced a modified AR50 in the original Moped Mayhem series in the mid '80's. It had an extra transfer port machined in the cylinder which uncovered a hole machined in the piston just below the rings to get a bit more fuel into the cylinder.
It was also running Yamaha wheels & brakes, off a TZR250 IIRC.. We could out-brake everyone else on the track

It was dayglo pink with black polka dots...

[ZRX61]

I know someone who had an 80 registered as a 50 when they were 16.

I took my test on an S3 400 triple badged as a 250 at 17, things were a bit slack regarding legality in Cornwall, one guy in the village rocked up to school on a BSA A7 when he was 16.