The Technicals of the 305 CSR

The Kawasaki KZ305 CSR is a rather rare bike in the U.S. It never gained much popularity here because of its small size. It was fairly popular in various parts of Europe. None the less, the age and rarity of this bike makes part sourcing a bit of a challenge. Also, when I say small bike, I mean small. It is quite hard for me to get comfortable on it... mainly because I'm 6'3" tall. I have to sit on the rear, passenger, part of the seat.

Onto the more important stuff. The first 305 CSR was made in 1981 and known as the KZ305 A-1. Also, in '81 Kawasaki made a KZ305 CSR C-1. The only difference was that the C-1 had mag wheels, where as the A-1 had spokes. Otherwise, both bike had 306cc parallel twin engines and were chain drive. The little 306cc produced a whopping 30hp at 9,000 rpm, and a pitiful 18ft-lbs or torque at 7,000rpm. It has a redline of 10,000 rpm. The KZ305 engine is essentially a bored out version of the Z250 engine. The CSR engines used a "points" ignition system and had compression ratios of 9.5:1.

Next we have the 1982 KZ305 CSR A-2, C-1, B-1, and D-1. The A-2 is idetical to the previous year A-1, and the C-1 is identical to the previous year C-1. Now the B-1 and D-1 were quite different as they were fitted with a belt drive system. The difference is that the B-1 has spoked wheels and the D-1 has mags.

All of the KZ305 CSR bikes were equiped with 6-speed transmissions, dual carbs, dual individual exhaust, disc brakes in the front, drum brakes in the rear, and bent back "ape-hanger" style handle bars. Also, all the bikes had a dry wieght of roughly 270lbs.