moto magazine's Kurt Nicoll's 87 & 88 SR500 feature

[kwakman]

just got a copy of moto magazine issue 53, march 2010.there's an 8 page spread of these bikes in their current, mint, as last raced back in the day feature.over here, we get motocross action a month later than the issue date so i assume it will get to the us of a in 4 weeks or so.i dont got a scanner otherwise i'd put it up for you,and i've just checked the website, www.motomagazine.co.uk,(cant do proper links dont know how but im sure the kxriders tooth fairy(ies) will make one appear)but there's no sign of it yet. it's a good read, and one of the most interesting pieces of info says
 'and while the crankcases look like stock items, they've been machined to accept double main bearings'. it goes on to talk about the usual factory frame and tapered swingarm, two different pipes and two different powervalve setups,using different valves to give different powerband characteristics.(this is about the 87 model)Kurt came second in the world championship that year to georges jobe,(the guy the 87 SR500 had originally been built for)winning the last GP in the season,and won the british championship on it too.it goes on then to do a simillar piece on Kurt's 88 SR500, and a page on the ill fated Dave Thorpe/perimeter framed SR500 of 1990.dont know if any of the other guys on here who live in england can get a copy and scan it up?or keep checkin moto w/site.K.

[RoostDaddy]

come'on Kwak, why you teasing us.  Sounds pretty interesting hopefully someone can scan it for us. 

Below is a link that I've seen a while ago, but still interesting if you're into the true "works" bikes.






http://www.vintageworksbikes.com/1988KawasakiKX500.html

[Larry Wiechman]

Kurt came second in the world championship that year to georges jobe,(the guy the 87 SR500 had originally been built for)winning the last GP in the season,and won the british championship on it too.

Georges Jobe at work.

 
And that's about all there is to say about that....
 
Larry

[kwakman]

jobe using 84 sr5 as the good lord intended.i wasnt trying to tease you,(much)i was just makin sure you lot in yankland are aware its on its way and dont miss it.jobe really should of won in 86 and would have if he'd had better luck.it does say (WRONGLY) that he snapped his 86 frame clean in half at one race but it aint so.he was using lightweight factory triple clamps,and the bottom one shat itself(after seeing him at work in the above pic, its not hard to see why, is it?)effectively snapping the beast in half.I'll go down to the library on monday and if their scanner is operational i'll bang it up.For those of you that cant wait.........

[kwakman]

roost, its the same bike.although i will say that there are probably more than one from that year,as it says in the mag feature that the featured bike was built for the last 3 races of the season with new frame, engine and god knows wot else...and it says the owner is a guy called gary senior, yet on youtube there's a vid of a walkround of the same 88sr5, but owned by dave king,so i dont know how many there are about.it says the guy is also awaiting an 86 sr5 clearing through customs, yet a guy called lee jackson owns Jobe's 86, so who knows?
I'll try and get it scanned up...

[kwakman]

just been looking at my dismantled,semi polished(im workin on it,just waitin for new fingertips to grow back)cases, and if Kawasaki managed to get 4x 6306 crank bearings into 'standard cases',im a godd**n chinaman.anybody got any thoughts? the cases in the feature dont look any wider, so the only conclussion i can arrive at is that they had thinner width bearings in order to double up,but unless that increased the total bearings surface area,(more durable,more area to spread the load but also increased friction)i cant see the point unless they were suffering mains failures.
this should be good....

[bike_boy_england]

i, as the stories on this site go, have a 1990 dave thorpe engine in my supermoto. i will post pics when i find out how! (useless with confusers) any info any1 has would be greatly appreciated. i have noticed demographic has posted info nd pics!

[kwakman]

welcome aboard.has it ever been at the barbon hill climb? would like to see some pics of that.K.

[ToomanyKaws]

If its the same Dave King from Vegas.  My uncle has been a friend for 30 years.  Owned a flight service to the grand canyon for years.  Uncle used to tell me to meet him as he was into bikes.   Never met the guy ever.   Fast forward to now.  A buddy met him on street bikes one day.  Went to his house to see his dirtbike collection.   Guess he has a s**tload of rare bikes.   And reportedly a few Kaws....

[bike_boy_england]

thankyou! yes, that is the one! i bought it last november. i have always wanted a 500 motocross, road legal. it started with me buying my mates 1992 bike in bits which he had for 10 years. that was 'going' to be my motard then i seen this bike on the bay. i had to have it. i didnt know anything about the bike until i started searching on this site. for some reason the powervalves have been pinned fully open which leads me to believe i only have bits of thorpes engine, it goes like a rocket ship tho! i now have nearly 4 kx5's! once i start i cant stop! i have fully rebuilt the 92 engine, replacing every worn part in the process, not cheap! but its the way to go if u want reliability. this is my spare engine. this site has been a wealth of knowledge for which i am very thankful! i have been a member since november but have not posted til now (reading and learning b4 i open my mouth)!. the bike is now black, everything is new. i will be taking it back to the brittish hillclimb scene at some point in the future, i cant wait! demographic, u know about this machine! i am a geordie, we should meet halfway some time!

[kwakman]

im in nottinghamshire.i think theres a pic of the thorpey hill climb bike up in the gallery,saw it somewhere last nite.
TOO MANY KAWS,yes thats the guy.if you go to youtube and look up kurt nicoll sr500,one of the vids from the same uploader is a wander round his garage. theres EVERYTHING.70's suzooks and yam's,more 80's green than any one man should be allowed to own and god knows wot else.think donny schmidt's yz250's there too i think.i cant find it for you at minute though cos youtube my end aint having it.bloody computers.

[kwakman]

the same magazine runs a feature called precious metal, where they feature a factory bike from days gone by.if there's enough interest, i'll scan them up too.theyre only a couple of pages each.there are;
Dave Thorpe's 85, 86, and 89 RC500's ***
Georges Jobe's 84, and 86 SR500's
Jean Michel bayle's 88 RC125*
Donny Schmidt's 92 YZ250
Roger De Coster's 72 RM370*
Paul Malin's 91 perimeter framed SR500
Andre Malherbe's 81 RC500*
Brad Lackey's 80 KX500
Jonathan Wright's 81 SR250
Mk3 Rickman Metisse (4stroke jawa lumped 60's brit thumper)
* World Championship winning bike.

[kwakman]

Not been able to get near an operational scanner to upload the feature, but you DO NEED to check out the above mentioned garage tour of the bloke who owns all the factory tackle.if your not drooling afterwards, you're already dead! Go to youtube and search 'clives factory 70/80/90s mx bikes by dave king'.must learn how to do links.enjoy.

[kwakman]

i count 1 x malherbe, 2 x noyce, 3 x jobe, 2 x nicoll, 1 x schmidt, 1 x puzar, 1 x lackey, 1 x wright, 2 x thorpe and that isnt all of them.they were ALL FOR SALE at this time.anyone want to put a guess on wot this guys garage was worth, and im not including his 'parts loft'?