kawasaki factory r and d engineer and rider

[C.J]

I own an 87 LT250R and seeing that LT take the holeshot from the Honda made me giggle like a school girl LOL

[maxdallasfan]

The original John Deere Gator was a klt. Did kawi retrofit the dump box and extra two wheels, or did John Deere do this? Can these items be removed to return the klt to normalcy?

[barnett468]

Hello

Sorry I can't help you there I have no clue. The only KLT's I know of are 3 wheelers, the only JD GATORS I know of are 4 wheelers. With the exception of racks, Kawasaki never tested ANY accessories on an ATV while I was there so I know little if nothing about the accessories other than what I saw in the catalog..

The only other accessory they ever tested while I was there was there was the front flotation "enhancer" for a Jet ski which I was assigned to design.

[barnett468]

kAWI never would have gotten involved in retro fitting any other mfg's parts or kits while I was there.

Thanks for the question, sorry I wasn't much help.

[JasonB]

in for more stories and responses! Thanks for joining!

[barnett468]

Hello JasonB


Thanks for the kind words.

Been here for 10 minutes now tryin to enlarge your avatar photo, lol. Uh, Oh, here comes the wife gotta go now, lol.

[JasonB]

lmfao

thats actually my GF, she had a dozen professional pictures taken as a gift to me for an anniversary last fall. I have 5x7's of that shot and an 8x10 of another that a moderator would ban me for posting

[barnett468]

lmfao

thats actually my GF, she had a dozen professional pictures taken as a gift to me for an anniversary last fall. I have 5x7's of that shot and an 8x10 of another that a moderator would ban me for posting

Well thanks for sharing, lol!

[C.J]

In one of your earlier post you said you had an LT to look at when making the T4. Why copy the LT front end? The LT sucks on jumps an all. It's a flat track bred machine. Why not copy the Honda geometry? Also, why did y'all flip the bore and stroke on the T4 engine? By flip it I mean like (these are just numbers so don't flip out on me) say the bore x stroke for the T3 was 67 x 69 the T4 engine is 69 x 67 Like I said, not the actual numbers I don't think. And if that aint right don't go super hater-aid on me either because not had the opportunity to own a Tecate I haven't done much research into them.

[barnett468]

In one of your earlier post you said you had an LT to look at when making the T4. Why copy the LT front end? The LT sucks on jumps an all. It's a flat track bred machine. Why not copy the Honda geometry? Also, why did y'all flip the bore and stroke on the T4 engine? By flip it I mean like (these are just numbers so don't flip out on me) say the bore x stroke for the T3 was 67 x 69 the T4 engine is 69 x 67 Like I said, not the actual numbers I don't think. And if that aint right don't go super hater-aid on me either because not had the opportunity to own a Tecate I haven't done much research into them.

Hello CJ

Interestingly posed question, not to worry, won't "flip" out and go "super hater-aid" on you whatever that means, lol. I don't consider your questions to be posed in a negative way. It's late and I have to go but I'll answer more thoroughly later. For now a Honda was not even built at the time Kawi designed their original model. They did not "copy" the LT front per say. The original t4 prototype had a front end which performed noticeable better under more conditions than the Suzuki. The bump steer was noticeably less on ours than the Suzuki also.The whole vehicle was different dimensions than the final production version. The FINAL product was deemed not suitable for the target market by everyone in US r and d including myself most of all. It ended up being some new engineers dream project in Japan. We tested all bikes on THE Carlsbad mx track, nasty. We would clear the finish line table top with all but their version.

Thanks for the question

[C.J]

ah ok makes sense then. no honda to copy at the time lol. Id love to have seen the T4 yall came up with, maybe then they wouldnt be the big turd that we all know and distaste today!! LOL im just joking but they did turn out to be one of the bigger jokes around. Kinda like a polaris!! HAHAH!! Thanks for the response man!!

[barnett468]

Hello CJ


The answer to your question is I don’t know. I was not involved in initial engine design, this was all done in Japan and I simply had to work with the bore/stroke they sent us. I worked with port changes, pipe, carb, head, gearing, engine cooling and clutch etc. as far as the engine part of it went.

The tecate t3 and the kx 250 shared the same bore/stroke until 1987. In 1987 the kx model switched to the 64.7x70 bore/stroke combo.

The 86 t3 bore/stroke was built to match the kx models. The first t4 was a 1987 model so it seems reasonable to me to think that since they obviously thought the new bore/stroke worked better for the kx’s they simply did the same for the t4’s..

Since the 86 tecate 3 was a new model they wanted to get another year out of the engine molds to make it cost effective so this is the main reason the 87 t3 is NOT the same bore/stroke as the 87 t4 and 87 kx250 models. All the mfgs new the ban was coming anyway in dec 1988 so there was no reason to make any costly changes for their 87 models.

In 85 Honda “flipped” their bore/stroke on the atc 250r also which was the same for the 86 trx250r, so I guess one could ask them the same question.


HONDA BORE/STROKE

Cr250 84 66x72 atac

Cr250 85 66x72 atac

Cr250 86 66.4x72 pv

Cr250 87 66.4x 72

Cr240 88 66.4x72

atc250r 84 70x64.4

atc250r 85 66x72

atc250r 86 66x72

trx250r 86 66x72

trx250r 87 66x72

trx 250r 88 66x72

Hope this info helps.

[NOS_350X]

PLEASE tell me nobody belives this guy, Also im willing to bet i have more pro racing under my belt than this guy.

[just ben]

PLEASE tell me nobody belives this guy, Also im willing to bet i have more pro racing under my belt than this guy.

why not? everyone knows that they went to a 70mm bore for the kx in 87,so he must know his chit

[falloutboy]

the I've been there, done that, designed the t-shirt attitude is starting to annoy me...jus' sayin'