‘96 Kawasaki KE100
 

Anybody familiar with this bike? Really interested in buying one locally and just want to know if there are any known faults or issues to look out for before i go look at it. 1,200 miles and garage kept its whole life.

Pretty solid little bikes for the most part, and the only real mechanical issue that can be a problem for them is the oil injection system that they put on them to try and combat poor emissions. Most guys just eliminate it and premix.

oil injection can be an issue, never had any issues with my 01 in the 7k miles i put on it... biggest improvement i did was installed a Trailtech Vapor dash in place of the circa 1968 speedo... that added the ability to monitor head temps, as well as rpms... if you buy it, let me know, i will send you the service manual i still have, sold the bike 3 yrs ago, and the guy didnt want it...

thats a good way to cook the crank bearings though :tdown: if i remember correctly, the oil injection had passages that directly lubed the crank bearings on the KEs... cant remember if it was that or the 73 kawi F11 that i had that had those passages... :hehe:

Great bike. Had one for years. Go easy on the gear box. My novice shifting caused early wear on the shifter forks. It made shifting a little dodgy, but it held up fine.

I did forget about some of those systems doing direct bearing lubrication.

I wouldn't delete it unless it had already failed and I couldnt get the parts myself. Even if it did have the system to the bearings you can still premix, just gotta ride it like an old school 2 smoke and just make sure to not coast off throttle for extended periods withought giving it a throttle blip here and there.

So things with this bike didn’t work out. The photos were slightly deceiving and it had been (poorly) spray painted, seat was torn, tires were bald. But the real issue was a title in another owners name that remains unsigned. Just started to seem sketchy. Thanks for the input!

dang, that sucks.... they are fun little bikes for sure...

Sounds like it was wise to walk away from that one.