10 Of The Rarest Kawasaki Motorcycles Ever Made (And What They’re Worth Today) – SlashGear

With experience in the 250 and 350 classes during the 1970s, Kawasaki decided to extrapolate what made the KR250 effective into the 500cc class. Engineers laid out blueprints and began building the KR500 -– a two-stroke four-cylinder –- in 1979. While it shared some design qualities with baby brother, like rotary valves, the alloy monocoque chassis differed from the older bike.

The KR500 never achieved the success of the KR250. Maligned as too heavy and unable to compete with the technological innovations of Honda and Yamaha, Kawasaki managed to score a few podiums before withdrawing from GP racing after 1982.

The KR500 only had half the production cycle of the KR250, making it even more difficult to find an authentic race bike. Only four are believed to have survived the era: one in a private collection in England, one in the Kawasaki museum, one in the United States, and one in the hands of former Kawasaki rider Kork Ballington, who personally raced it.

As you might imagine, finding one of the four for sale is challenging, but a 1982 Kawasaki KR500 recently went to the auction block with a price estimate of $76,000 to $100,000.

[Featured image by Rainmaker47 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 4.0]