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Our son had a 2000 65. The 65's were way cooler than the KX60's. They looked more like full sized MX'er without the outdated plastic, funky one sided radiator shroud and seat strap on the 60's. He got 1st place in his first ever "Real" race on that bike. The only other option at that time was a KTM 65, they more capable but physically quite a bit larger, and more $. Plus he was coming off of a KTM Pro Jr that was a money pit. We nicknamed it the ATM
, I wasn't exactly pro ktm after that experience so KX it was. It was a good little bike he rode the living shit out of it. Not easy rides either, beside getting raced that bike went on long dusty desert rides, got held wide open in the sand for hours on end, constantly being dropped in the sand and over doing 12,000 rpm or whatever they redlined at for minutes at a time haha.
That would make almost 40% of all 1985 CR125s worldwide sold in Australia? That’s actually pretty surprising. It’d be interesting to see how many 1985 CR125s were sold by country for the rest of the world, because if 50% were sold in the US, then all the other countries combined would have accounted for 10%.
The numbers were based on frame VINs, but I messed up, the same VINs were reported for Australia and Europe
USA - JH2JE010FC600001 - JH2JE010FC608237
Australia - JH2JE010*FCFC600037 - JH2JE010*FCFC608930
Europe - JH2JE010*FCFC600038 - JH2JE010*FCFC608931
Not sure what proportion of those VINs were sold in Australia.
It looks like total global sales in 1985 for the CR125 were 17,131
Sounds more reasonable. Where is the graph from though? That shows about 27,000 global CR125s.
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The graph is from the same VINs, I should check the data and redo it.
How much would it cost for a parent to build a decent KX65 for a child to race vs buying a new KTM?
I stand corrected!
2022 they did as well you know the rest.
Well I attend many "off road" events and the tides have changed
At majority of and amateur off road race youll see an average 50/50 split of japanese and the austrian brand. and youll tent to see your local AA riders on yz 250's because they are still competitive and cheaper to maintain,
on more of a grand scale of the gncc series, yamaha won the xc2 class last year and in the extremely competitive 250A class Kawasaki has been collecting up the wins this season.
Dont get me wrong the kx65 needs some love but the japanese has some very competitive bikes. honestly it comes down to the rider.
I don't know Kawasaki's specific reasoning, but I'd bet it goes something like this:
"We sell 250 KX65s each year and lose $400 on each one. It's worth it to keep those riders on a green bike, and our research shows we sell, on average, 200 more KX85s, 100 more KX250s and 50 more KX450s because of it."
-Compare that to the stats on the proposed "new and improved" KX65:-
"We spent $1.8 Million on developing the new KX65, and now we lose $400 on each of the 275 we sell annually (that's 25 more bikes though!), plus the amortization of the $1.9M. If we roll that out over the next 20 years, it means we lose $727 on each bike we sell. I sure hope we can continue to sell 200 more KX85s, 100 more KX250s and 50 more KX450s because of it."
They fall behind in suspension and the lack of a powervalve makes them much more difficult to ride in comparison. I looked hard at them, talked to a few prior kx65 owners and my suspension tuner, and decided to go Austrian.
Plenty of top end power, seem to be reliable. If Kawi just updated the suspension, Id think the conversation would be closer in 2024
I dont know how many team green riders there are on 65’s anymore but if they did a major overhaul l think lots of parents would be standing in line to get one.
After Yamaha came out with their YZ 65 I really did expected Kawasaki to fire up the design engineering department for something with more than BNG
Next kids Kawasaki bike will be E-powered.
Unless your kid doesn't plan to race and just wants to mess around as a trail bike don't waste your time/money. I built one for my son who couldn't touch on an Austrian 65 yet, I did race tech emulators in the fork and revalved the shock which helped slightly. The motor was ok for him at that stage the problem is the ergos. Unless your kid is tall and you can put a tall seat on it they are like riding a kx500 with the old school banana seat. Really hard to teach them proper modern technique. Was night and day once he got on a husky 65.
Especially now you can find a used one for cheap. My sons is for sale for way less than I want to sell it for, fully dialed in with a spring conversion, pipe, fresh motor etc etc and I haven't gotten any interest. I'm sure you can find a good deal. Around here at least there are barley any yz's doing well at the bigger races. It's all Austrian 65s.
Bitchin looking bike though.
This seems like it’s probably the most likely scenario.
I've got to be careful, I'm just commenting to the op. If your 10yr old is bad fast and winning, there is no question. But maybe Kawasaki is on to something?
Pit Row
To hell with careful! If you got an eleven year old snot nose kid, you make him practice on a piece of shit. Stuff him off the track...roost him! When he starts mowing the lawn...or gets a job... Starts showing some character, then ask him what he wants to ride
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