The magazine for fans of classic and twinshock trials, motocross & enduros

The Dark Path - Kawasaki KDX 175

…by coincidence we were both on a windswept hillside outside of Wooler when the path burst into the light. Actually it was this smart little KDX that burst into the light from Mike’s box trailer. It was followed by a tirade of Aberdeenshire, blaming me squarely for the whole thing. “Moi?” I simpered? “Surely not?” But actually he’s right, it is almost all my fault as, after a jar or two in an Aberdeen public house, I suggested he join me for a spot of trials riding.

Mike had come late to motorcycles, for one reason and another, and had at 37 just passed his test and was all fired up to try all sorts of motorcycling. “Oh aye, I’m up for that,” he says, “what’s trials riding…?” he soon found out, very quickly acquired a GasGas and, by his own admission, began to have a whale of a time in off-road sport.

The world moves on, I moved south, we kept in touch and then Mike started enduroing, modern enduroing on a selection of tasty Japanese and European machines. He always felt those of us involved in classic sport were a bit mad, an observation probably quite accurate. He’d had a wobble on the editor’s B40, seen his Triumph in hill climb action and happily stuck to modern machines until the lads at Vinduro got their claws in to him and said “try a proper machine”.

This ‘proper’ machine came Mike’s way after a weak moment on the internet when he found he was the successful bidder on a 1981 175cc KDX Kawasaki that hadn’t been used for quite a while. When it eventually arrived at the Aberdeenshire residence of Mr Robertson, it was apparent that it hadn’t had a spanner near it for years. With an engineering background – and farming too – fettling a classic two-stroke wasn’t a problem, as it was Japanese and metric, his spanners fitted and our man dived in. There were initial problems with seized oil plugs and a scary moment when the only way it seemed possible to fill the gearbox/primary drive with oil was by tipping the bike upside down and pouring it in the drain hole. Luckily the filler plug did respond to gentle persuasion and all was well.

The first ride

With all the basic servicing out of the way, and the bike ready for a test run, Mike prepared to experience 1980s two-strokes. There were a number of differences from his modern enduros – braking was one area that was ‘interesting’ and much email footage and phonecalling was expended before Mike was certain the drum braking system was as good as it could possibly be. It wasn’t helped by everyone he spoke to about it saying the same thing… ‘yes, that’s how they were’.

What showed up during the first rides on the KDX was that the clutch wasn’t quite right and the bike was not pulling as well as it should. There was plenty of time spent on the clutch and in the end Nick Scott at Motoduro pulled a good clutch of his own KDX and sent it north. The carburettor was pulled apart and cleaned out, reassembled and found to be a bit better, good enough as it turned out, for nine or 10 laps of a big course but still not 100%. In the end though, for the first event, the KDX did what it should do, provided its rider with a whole load of fun and set in motion the route to an IT 200 Yamaha. Why? Mike’s a big lad and the extra capacity will be useful so, if anyone is in the market for a KDX then there’s one, ready sorted now, available in Aberdeenshire.