Kawasaki KR500

Made a new photoset about a rather special bike the KR500, a square four two stroke with an alloy monocoque frame. The bike debuted in the world championship at GP of Nations 1980 (the circuit Misano Adriatico) with the rider Kork Ballington. At the end of the season the South African rider finished 12th in the standings. For the 1981 season the KR500 was improved, a new chassis was built which was stiffer and lighter, the bike got a magnesium crankcase and a fork with anti-dive. The season saw the KR500 get its first podium finishes with two third places (in Netherlands and Finland) with Ballington finishing 8th in the final standings of the championship. The main change before the 1982 season was switching to Showa suspensions. Ballington finished 9th in the championship, the best result during the season was a 6th place in Misano. At the end of the season the Kawasaki retired from the Grand Prix motorcycle racing.
For more pics see
Kawasaki KR500

For a very nice Youtube vid see
Kork Ballington explaining the KR500

Barton Phoenix and Buell RW750

Never thought that I would collect enough pics to make a set of the amazing Barton Phoenix and Buell RW750 square four twostroke engines. But thanks to Nigel and Chris that became reality! Barton (BARry Hart and TONy Ryan) used the design of the Suzuki RG500 engine but made it better and more reliable. Suzuki used Bartons design in later RG500 models. They wanted to race the bikes in the F750 class but that never took place. The bikes were used in the 1980 movie Silver Dream Racer. They were ridden by Roger Marshall. In the eighties Erik Buell bought most of the Barton Phoenix bikes and engines. He was planning to race them in the AMA F1 class just before they banned them for this class. The engine in the picture has cylinders with the name Armstrong on it, they were most likely been made during the period that Barry Hart was working for Armstrong on a 500cc twostroke triple engine.
For more pics see
Barton Phoenix and Buell RW750