Kawi2strokes.com Forum

I have been riding most of my 50 years, so I have been doing my own maintenance, repairs, and light mods along the way. However, I have not undertaken anything nearly this big and have not had a two stroke since I was a teen mercilessly flogging the most faithful 90cc endure ever to suffer the antics of a would be Evel Knievel! Needless to say, I will have a steep learning curve and know I’ll need and greatly appreciate all the help I can get!

Anyway, to the bike… or at least the story I got: When I picked it up, I was told they it had been bought new and turned into a race bike straight off, raced a few years and then sat in a barn untouched until a few years ago when a lady – barn owner of some unknown relation to racer – sold it and it bounced between owners, each doing little or nothing until the last “guy and buddy spent a few hours and got it running”. Photos below.

I have not tried to start it and am in the process of educating myself to begin this project. According to the resource page, the frame & engine are a 72 and within 100 of each other, so “original”, right? Some of the other bits do not appear to be, but you guys can tell me more on that. The front disc brake and exhaust jump out as from a 73 or another bike entirely - is there a way to tell which one they are and what all else is one original? I have read the Triple Buying Guide and was going to check the compression and crank seals, clean the oil screen, and etc. before trying to start it. Then based on some words of wisdom from some of the local guys from this forum, I was thinking I’d rebuild the brakes and replace the cables before ridding it for a month or so to get a feel for how it runs, pulls, brakes and handles. Then pull the engine, rebuild it, paint & polish the parts, rewire/upgrade the electrical (reliability is important to me), do a few reasonable mods to improve handling in twisties (street, not track - there are a few here), and make it uniquely mine since it is nowhere near stock.

After having gotten it home and looked at the electrical rat’s nest, stuck clutch, dry rotted rubber and rusted pretty much everything, I am starting to think I should just go ahead and strip it down now and start from the ground up – am I over reacting? It is biting off an awful lot – is it just plain too much and fool hardy to do for a first time, full on build? I would like to get input from all you experienced hands and would appreciate all the help I can get, along with all the friendly ribbing I am sure will come along with it!

Thanks, Phil

Welcome!

First of all it's S3, 400. Another thing, is to pull the carbs and with a syrenge with a tube on the end suck out any oil that might have drained into the crankcases. If there is loi in there it could hydrolock and bend a rod.

And we all started somewhere. You have some of the the best triple guys in the world here, we gladly will help you through the process. Best to ask first about what to do,or you can get in trouble.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

The cylinder heads don't look like S2 but look like S3, maybe the cylinders are S3 also. The tank looks S3. A number of people who have multiple triples say the S2 & S3 (updated S2) are the best triples they ever made. I have an S2 project to go with my H1 and H2, I will let you know next spring. Joe

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Using a poorly conceived idea along with bad mechanical practice is not an upgrade but rather a recipe for disaster.

yup. thats an s3 allright. nice intakes on the motor.... that should be a VERY fun bike.

(speaking of which, nice speed triple in the background. buddy of mine has one of those, stupid fast, and my wife has a 675-r)


I would def plan on a refresh on th emotor.. they dont tend to sit too well. luckily, they are really easy to work on.

Congrats. I say if you have the time and funds take down to the frame. You put your mind to it you can handle the task. Don't ask me how I know. You can do it and when finished you and the bike will be the better for it.

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Iron On The Bayou.

Thanks everyone. I was going by the engine serial number - see photo. So could he have put 400 cylinders & heads on a 350 bottom to get a bit of an advantage in his race class? Also in the photo, in addition to my duct tape air inlets - you can make anything out of duct tape - you can see the carbs appear to be bolted to an adapter plate to change the angle and maybe use different carbs?

Looks like a grind off and re-stamp cheater to me...... You have to bore the cases to get 400 cylinders to fit 350 cases.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

So I guess I'll have to pull the cyclinders and mic the cases to see if they did that, or have CSI do a analysis to raise the micro-structure deformation of the original serial part number for proper identification?

oh, and M in SC, yeah the Speed Triple is a blast - I've been out ridding it all day instead of getting to it on the S2.... errr S3. Which is iconic, since the Triumph guys refer to the Speed Triple as a S3 for short.

I just looked, the S series have flat number stands, so maybe they did bore the cases......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........