Giving my Kawasaki KB100 a visual makeover

I'm also looking to do some performance mods so that I've enough power for doing decent highway speeds & smoking 200cc & below motorcycles.

BHPian TorqueMonster recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So far, the readers have only seen a bike that is still being resurrected from scrap. The bike, even when running was not looking at its best. There is rust, broken panels, peeling paint and broken plastics everywhere. At one stage, it looked less like a bike and more like a wasteland abomination seen in something like Mad Max. So in the end, a decision was made to paint the bike and get it stickered.

The bike is painted in black itself, but instead of going with the standard gloss black, the bike is currently painted in metallic black. Secondly, with respect to the stickering, I have gone for a slight OEM + look for the bike, with the sticker designs taking huge inspiration from SE Asia Market Kawasaki Commuters and the GTO being sold in Pakistan. The sticker design will certainly anger the purists and I would like to apologize in advance. I have stock badging and stickers for a later time when I eventually get bored of the present design.

Presenting to you, the KB100 in its new avatar:

These are a few photos that I've managed to take post painting, will be putting in better photos and other aspects soon. There are slight few issues to take care of, but overall the bike is almost as good as new.

The next major changes would be in for performance mods. I do not aim to create a drag race monster out of my bike, I just want enough power to do decent highway speeds and smoke 200cc and below bikes, if needed. It would be certainly helpful if Bhpians would have suggestions for mods which I could make ideally and how much it would cost me.

Here's what BHPian sandeepmohan had to say about the matter:

Smoking a modern-day 200cc motorbike is going to be a challenge. As you know, modern motorcycles are equipped with fuel injection that can very quickly adapt to a situation as throttle and conditions demand. This is not so easy to do with a carburettor based motorcycle. You can get a bigger jet, allow for more airflow, however, in the end, it's still going to respond like a carb-based fuel-air supply system. There is always going to be some lag on the throttle. This is my limited knowledge. Folks with experience can speak about better solutions.

For improving highway performance, I can only think of a 5-speed gearbox. I am not sure if one was ever made for the KB100, in India or sold like this in other markets. I imagine the stock 4-speed box tends to keep revs quite high. While the engine may run fine, you'll be burning through a lot of fuel and oil in the process.

Well done on restoring this motorcycle. The Kawasaki Green sticker job is also well-executed. This was one Japanese motorcycle that did not quite gain the popularity of a Yamaha or IND-Suzuki. I thought it was just as dependable and had a unique exhaust-intake note. It was different to the other two Jap motorcycles.

Here's what BHPian justin.das had to say about the matter:

Your efforts are paying off, the bike looks sweet and the sticker job really blends with the minimalistic theme. I would personally recommend you to source the original stickers which come on the engine side covers which will make it look even better and period.

Import a 5-speed gearbox, look for KB 125 cylinder and head, a friend of mine recently told me about a scrap condition KB 125 lying near his home (Trivandrum).

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.