argh, the mid to late 90's when Husabergs and Husquarna's ruled the tracks....there wasnt a big block jap shitter that could come near them.
Who could forget that lump of lard that Kawasaki built. That KLR650 that was close to 700cc and was a shocker, I think it was 145kg stripped out and fitted with Ohlins front & rear. If i remember correct even Mike Landman had a crack at running it before he wised up and bought a CR500.
I just thought I would clear up a couple of things about that lump of lard that Mike Landman rode. I built that bike in 95 along with a couple of KLX250/300's ready for the 96 Thumper Nat's series which I sponsored a couple of riders in. We did the whole series and knew we would be behind the 8 ball because of not having a light weight purpose built four stroke motocrosser to go up against the euro bikes that we winning at the time. Anyway having a Kawa dealership at the time I had no choice but to try and modify a couple of trail models and give it a go if we were to be involved. The
KLX650 was always going to be a porker at 122kg's wet but we were able to make very competitive power and that year it holeshot 4 or 5 of the main races, be it only for the first half lap or so but to the riders credit finished in the top 10 in more races than not that year. So if that constitutes a lump of lard then I guess we were guilty of building one.
It was either 97 or 98 that Brian Trollope from Kawasaki in Victoria rang me up and asked would I loan the bike to Mike for the Vets class that year. After getting mike up to talk about it and making sure he was under no illusions of the bikes ability I agreed and he did a number of meetings before he decided that he would never win a race on it although he said it never lacked in speed just handling with it's weight and suspension. Anyway we had a go.
As for the KLX250/300 we ran in the stand alone 300 class, my rider won most of the races and the series that year. He even won a round at conondale on the white steel tank model after someone wrote a test in ADB saying it was the worst trail bike on the market so I got one and ran it for one meeting before the genuine 300 arrived. Come time for the round write up in the next ADB surprise surprise no mention of the white one winning.
Here's a couple of pic's of the offending bikes at the Thumper Nats in 96.
Also from memory that modified TTR250 built by Cisco's for Yamaha Australia and ridden by one of my riders won the 300 class a year or so later.
Stan.
