Diff'rent Strokers

Classic Mechanics Show, Stafford, October 2011

Stafford, Oct 2011

We'd wanted to do this theme for ages.  Diff'rent Strokers was originally founded on a shared love of KR250's and we'd shown a variety of KR-1S's over the years too.  We didn't know anyone with the other related models though.

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But at Uttoxeter 3 months earlier, Andy Bolas had his lovely white AR80 on show with the VJMC.  Then someone turned up in a DS T-shirt, introduced himself as Shaun and proceeded to show us photos of countless mint AR125's.  Looks like we had a plan.

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As usual, Andy kindly agreed to lend us the 80.  Shaun took little persuading to take part in his first show with his green/white 125, even riding it to and from the event.  A post on the excellent KR forum asking for a KR-1 was met by a barrage of quick replies all saying the same thing : "you want Martin's bike".  He'd never shown a bike before either but was soon on board.  His bike duly turned out to be stunningly clean.

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We were spoiled for choice with KR-1S's but club stalwart Rob was selected.  His recent purchase of a rare KS-II 80cc 'gag' bike may have influenced that decision as we wanted that too !  It's not the same 250 that he showed last year either, check the photos and you'll notice the different paint scheme.  We had a few KR250's to pick from as well but Tim wanted to show his at Stafford for the first time.  He also brought his ex-Kawasaki Centre illuminated showroom sign for decoration.

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Top of the wanted list was a KR-1R.  There's only a handful of genuine ones in the UK but we didn't know anyone who owned one.  So Shaun did the decent thing and bought one !  He was keen to do a full restoration before he let us see it but we persuaded him to bring it anyway and it looked fantastic and had people gawping all weekend.  We thought we also had a KV75 'monkey' bike lined up but were let down at the last minute.

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We were very pleased with the display.  Our stand was smaller than we had been led to expect and we were tucked away at the very end of the balcony, but our fears of it being another quiet weekend were unfounded.  We stole a bit of extra space to put our 'shop' on anyway.  Naturally our collective efforts did not result in official recognition, but Rob's KR-1S deservedly received a 'highly commended' rosette.

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Thanks to Rob, Shaun, Martin and Andy for volunteering their bikes and helping us pull this one off.  We're also very grateful to Sara, Chell and Nic for all their help running the stand, not least the skills needed to integrate the Cadwell Park trackday video into the updated slideshow.  And it was great to see a large selection of club/forum members pop along and say hello too.  We intend to re-visit this theme in the future sometime, where there'll also be an AR50 and KR250S on show...

Stafford, Oct 2011 Stafford, Oct 2011 Stafford, Oct 2011 Stafford, Oct 2011



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