Kawasaki KMB 450 Retro Mountain Bike Frameset.
Some of you may have seen this before as I think it’s been through LFGSS, Retrobike and eBay before. It’s a really great and very uncommon steel mtb frameset from 1993/4, produced by Kawasaki, who made mountain bikes for just three years and sold them at Kawasaki dealerships. I assume the frame was built in Taiwan. It’s made of Tange MTB tubing, Japanese steel and often regarded as some of the best to ride, despite it not being one of Tange’s more premium tubing sets you at least know that it will make a reliable ride. No dents at all, however lots of signs of it’s good life. It has some superficial surface rust, and some decent scrapes and knicks, but no signs of any structrual damage of any sort. It has been recently checked over and given some love and a clean by the guys at Paradise Cycles, and when I acquired the frameset last year I had the bottom bracket rethreaded. I have been riding it for the past nine months, built up as 1x and I loved riding it, the frame is just too small for me - hence the sale.
It comes with a very cool RST 400 suspension fork. These were pretty uncommon in themselves. It’s a 1 ⅛ steerer tube. The suspension still works really well, and has had a clean up. The decals are a bit scratched and peeling on the lower legs but considerably well intact for being thirty years old and well ridden. It’s 100mm axle width at the front and 130 at the rear. The frameset also features Ritchey dropouts on the rear, and comes with it’s original Diatech headset. A neat headset that clamps to the steerer tube to stop it from falling when there is no stem attached. Steerer tube has a star nut already installed.
Sizing - the seat tube measures 17” from the center of the bottom bracket, to the center of the top tube. The top tube measures 21” from the center of the seat tube to the center of the steerer tube. I effectively think this equates to a Medium. Or would be a good size for someone under six foot tall. The shorter seat tube was common from the mid 90’s to create a tight triangle geometry, with generally a fair amount of the seatpost showing above. There's a photo below of it built up so you can see the geometry.
I can supply a seatpost for free, with plenty of height to it, at a 29.4mm diameter. However, this leads me to the only significant thing to flag with the frameset. As these old builds go, they always have their quirks, and for me it has been clamping the seatpost successfully. It was sold to me as taking a 29.2mm post - and one was provided in the sale - however this was too small and left a substantial amount of wiggle room between the tube and the post. My LBS tried fitting a 29.4 and a 29.6 in order to find the perfect fit for the frame, and the 29.6 did not fit, so they decided 29.4 was correct. Since then I have had problems with the seatpost sliding down over time and ended up shimming it with some aluminum can. My impression at this stage is that the frame really takes a 29.6 seatpost. I will supply you with a 29.4, just incase, but this is something that will need to be solved on your end, as I think with a 29.4 you might experience slipping as I did. Just trying to be as transparent as possible. That being said, I was still able to ride it for up to an hour without having to adjust the seatpost height, whilst using a 29.4.
That’s it. Looking for £100. Postage is possible, but collection much preferred. I live in East London (E9) I’d estimate £25 for a courier, but haven’t looked into it. Great chance to have a rare 90’s MTB frame, one with a story. It’s a frame you can build and ride hard, it will not let you down and it will always be a talking point for other cyclists and Kawasaki fans alike.
Some of you may have seen this before as I think it’s been through LFGSS, Retrobike and eBay before. It’s a really great and very uncommon steel mtb frameset from 1993/4, produced by Kawasaki, who made mountain bikes for just three years and sold them at Kawasaki dealerships. I assume the frame was built in Taiwan. It’s made of Tange MTB tubing, Japanese steel and often regarded as some of the best to ride, despite it not being one of Tange’s more premium tubing sets you at least know that it will make a reliable ride. No dents at all, however lots of signs of it’s good life. It has some superficial surface rust, and some decent scrapes and knicks, but no signs of any structrual damage of any sort. It has been recently checked over and given some love and a clean by the guys at Paradise Cycles, and when I acquired the frameset last year I had the bottom bracket rethreaded. I have been riding it for the past nine months, built up as 1x and I loved riding it, the frame is just too small for me - hence the sale.
It comes with a very cool RST 400 suspension fork. These were pretty uncommon in themselves. It’s a 1 ⅛ steerer tube. The suspension still works really well, and has had a clean up. The decals are a bit scratched and peeling on the lower legs but considerably well intact for being thirty years old and well ridden. It’s 100mm axle width at the front and 130 at the rear. The frameset also features Ritchey dropouts on the rear, and comes with it’s original Diatech headset. A neat headset that clamps to the steerer tube to stop it from falling when there is no stem attached. Steerer tube has a star nut already installed.
Sizing - the seat tube measures 17” from the center of the bottom bracket, to the center of the top tube. The top tube measures 21” from the center of the seat tube to the center of the steerer tube. I effectively think this equates to a Medium. Or would be a good size for someone under six foot tall. The shorter seat tube was common from the mid 90’s to create a tight triangle geometry, with generally a fair amount of the seatpost showing above. There's a photo below of it built up so you can see the geometry.
I can supply a seatpost for free, with plenty of height to it, at a 29.4mm diameter. However, this leads me to the only significant thing to flag with the frameset. As these old builds go, they always have their quirks, and for me it has been clamping the seatpost successfully. It was sold to me as taking a 29.2mm post - and one was provided in the sale - however this was too small and left a substantial amount of wiggle room between the tube and the post. My LBS tried fitting a 29.4 and a 29.6 in order to find the perfect fit for the frame, and the 29.6 did not fit, so they decided 29.4 was correct. Since then I have had problems with the seatpost sliding down over time and ended up shimming it with some aluminum can. My impression at this stage is that the frame really takes a 29.6 seatpost. I will supply you with a 29.4, just incase, but this is something that will need to be solved on your end, as I think with a 29.4 you might experience slipping as I did. Just trying to be as transparent as possible. That being said, I was still able to ride it for up to an hour without having to adjust the seatpost height, whilst using a 29.4.
That’s it. Looking for £100. Postage is possible, but collection much preferred. I live in East London (E9) I’d estimate £25 for a courier, but haven’t looked into it. Great chance to have a rare 90’s MTB frame, one with a story. It’s a frame you can build and ride hard, it will not let you down and it will always be a talking point for other cyclists and Kawasaki fans alike.
