Jonathon Wright’s 1981 Kawasaki SR250
February 15, 2007
WORDS BY ROB WALTERS | PHOTOS BY PAUL BLISS
The 1981 Kawasaki was groundbreaking in it’s day, as in 81 there was a couple of the 125’s which were watercooled production bikes but no 250’s or open class as they were all aircooled, and don’t forget the disc brake, this wasn’t to become production for another three years. The SR250 (the SR meant Special Race) Kawasaki was full factory in the true meaning of the word, only the front and rear mudguards from a standard bike would fit on the factory machine, this bike was several years ahead of its time.
The pilot was young Brit Jonathan Wright who was the big news at the time, he rode the bike to the 1981 British championship and in a guest appearance at the British GP he finished a very credible 4th overall. Jonathan is now back on the scene as manager to the newly formed Suzuki Swift team. The bike was based out of Kawasaki UK’s Slough workshops which was the hub of the factory Kawasaki efforts for Europe at the time, the manager was the legendary Alec Wright with his son, Colin Wright as mechanic. Alec is now retired and Colin runs one of the biggest teams in world superbike.
The bike really was something special, the radiator was mounted high on the frame and though the radiators had handmade fibreglass shrouds Jonathan decided to leave them off to race as it was unnecessary weight and they really didn’t do much, the petrol tank is also fibreglass and handmade. The motor was exceedingly strong and the most powerful 250 Jonathan had ever used, and he was used to the full factory machinery as Kawasaki’s wonder boy at the time, in fact the British press christened him “the kettle kid” when he rolled this bike onto the start line. The advantages of having watercooing is to keep the bike at a constant temperature and thus not getting any of the power fade issues associated with aircooled powerplants, although Jonathan never really noticed, it was simply very, very fast.
The frame actually had breakage issues as it was found to be too stiff, it worked very well but if they left the head stay in place it would stiffen the chassis up too much and cause a breakage, thus you can see the head steady was left off for this purpose.
The suspension was also groundbreaking with its technology. The forks were a massive (for 1981 remember) 43mm diameter, with the mounting for the radial disc brake. The rear shock actually has dual flow oil and gas chambers as well as dual high and low speed compression adjustments which didn’t see production until nearly twenty years after, now that is ahead of it’s time!
The handmade swingarm used eccentric chain adjustment which actually ensures the correct alignment between the rear wheel and the front sprocket, another thing which never made production as it’s simply too expensive to mass produce for sale, though these issues don’t affect the factory budget.
Jonathan was very confident with the bike, it was groundbreaking technology and he felt invincible when he rode it, though the mechanics had more issues with the watercooling system. At one race in Twelstown in early ‘81 they took the bike out of the race transporter on a particularly frosty morning to find the bike completely frozen! It took a few trips back and forth to the camper with hot kettles of water to un-freeze the bike ready for practice, it was a learning curve for everyone and the note for the day was “antifreeze!”
This bike was way ahead of it’s time with the emerging technology in motocross, it was at the forefront of the new wave of watercooled disc braked bikes we now take for granted, it was a true factory bike which is now an era gone but not forgotten.
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