My interst in learning about keys began when I got a parts bike that the seller wouldn't give me the keys for. He'd forgotten to bring them with the bike, and once I had the title and he had the money his interest in getting the keys to me, or even responding...waned.
I needed the filler cap assembly off the bike to paint for my other bike, so I proceeded to study the lock. After an hour or so I'd figured out how to pick the lock and get the filler off the tank. Once I had the lock cylinder out of the cap and disassembled it was fairly easy to determine how to make a duplicate key. Along the way I figured out many details, including the cut coding scheme which uses only four depths of cut for each wafer position, and that all six positions are used for the seat, helmet, and ignition lock cylinders but only the last five are used for the fuel filler cap.
Here's the thread where I posted detail information on the keys:
http://forums.ninja250.org/viewtopic...ghlight=wafers
This post is about key blanks for the pre-gen bikes. When I cut new keys for the parts bike (by hand with a file, it wasn't hard) the blanks I got from the local locksmith were plain metal, and for the parts bike I was fine with that. However, for my bike I wanted the OEM style with the black plastic-coated head. The local dealer wanted $14 for one blank
, quite a bit more than the $2 I spent for the aftermarket blanks I got from the locksmith. I started looking at blanks and ran across a lot of confusion about what aftermarket blanks would work and which wouldn't.
I bought all the blanks I could find that were listed for the Ninja 250 including genuine OEM Kawasaki for comparison. I also bought some other blanks that were mentioned in various threads about the subject on various forums. After I measured and compared the different blanks and their features I arrived at several conclusions, which I'll detail in this article.
The "gold standard" blank is, of course, the OEM Kawasaki, number 27008-1173. Dealers typically ask well over $10 for these. You can find them cheaper at places like Bike Bandit and Ron Ayers, but with minimum shipping charges they're about the same as the dealer, perhaps even a bit more. The OEM key is nickel-plated brass (as are all the other keys mentioned here) with a plastic-coated head.
I found aftermarket blanks in two different brands. Ilco is perhaps the best known in the industry, and the other brand is Silca. In the Ilco line the officially listed blank is the X103, which is also marked as the KA14. One note here: There are two Ilco lines that I've found in locksmith shops, Ilco USA and Ilco Italy (also marked ORION). What makes things really confusing is that the Ilco Italy brand also has a key marked KA14, but that key is not even remotely related to any Ninja 250 Key I've ever seen. I also looked at the Ilco X41 which I'd seen mentioned in a post somewhere, but it's identical to the Ilco Italy KA14
The Silca blank, marked KW12BP, has a black plastic head like the OEM key, but is 3mm longer at the top. Unless you held it against the OEM blank you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The KW12BP can be cut the same as the Kawasaki blank as for all intents and purposes it's identical. The Silca blank is hard to find; after unsuccessfully calling several locksmiths in the metropolitan Fort Worth/Dallas area I ended up having to order them from an online supply.
The Ilco USA X103/KA14 is slightly shorter overall and is all metal, with a head profile signifantly different in shape than the OEM key. The length reduction is in the head end of the key. The portion of the key shaft that inserts into the lock cylinder measures the same as the OEM blank. Cost on these varies quite a bit depending on how friendly the locksmith is. Online quantity purchase price is typically around a buck or less.
The other Ilco blank that I'd seen mentioned elsewhere is the X266, also marked KA16. This blank is not listed for the Ninja 250 specifically that I can tell. This blank is also all metal, but in profile is identical to the OEM key. The main difference is that there is a small ridge on each edge that prevents the key from being fully inserted into the Ninja 250 lock cylinders. The amount of interference is fairly small, less than a millimeter, but that is enough to cause problems. Without a minor modification to the key a X266/KA16 blank cut to fit the ignition/seat/helmet locks will not work in the fuel filler cap.
Here's a closeup of the ridge in question:
And a lock cylinder (seat lock in this case). See the small ramped area at the top right of the slot? (Also at the bottom left, hidden from this angle):
You can see where the ridge interferes with the tip of the ramp, preventing full insertion:
The modification of the blank is to use a file or other tool to remove most of the ridge on each side:
In conclusion, I found that the critical dimensions of all the aftermarket blanks were virtually identical to the OEM Kawasaki blank, with the exception of the ridges on the X266/KA16. Aside from the thickness and width dimensions of the portion of the shaft that inserts into the lock cylinder, the length from the tip of the key to the shoulder step, 20mm, is most important. The reason for this is that the ignition, helmet, and seat lock cylinders rely on the shoulder stop to determine insertion depth, whereas the gas cap has an internal stop such that only the end five of the six tumbler positions are used. If that 20mm length were to change then a key cut for the other three lock cylinders would not work for the gas cap, and vice versa.
Hopefully this information is helpful to those looking for other options in getting keys cut for their pre-gen Ninja 250.