Boxerworks.com

Mel - over here those early Kawasaki W1 bikes are super rare - I'd have been pretty thrilled to have got that for small change.

I used to run a BSA A10, as an 18 year old, it seemed to shrug off my hamfisted attempted to maintain it, was relatively smooth, pretty good handling and could reach and maintain 105 mph on the motorway.

No real vices and a nice even spread of torque, some I like even today!

It sounded really sporty after I had fitted a pair gold star type silencers......

Doubtless the Kawasaki copy was an even better bike, but they were never sold in the UK, maybe the Kwaka was built under license from BSA?

Charles

chasbmw wrote:
Doubtless the Kawasaki copy was an even better bike, but they were never sold in the UK, maybe the Kwaka was built under license from BSA?

Charles

An exact copy of the BSA A7 (500cc) was made under licence by Meguro in the early '60s. That firm was subsequently taken over by Kawasaki and their 650 W1, although it looked like an A10, was in fact a very different machine, albeit one based on BSA design.

What might be true was the rumour that BSA rushed the truly awful A50/A65 into production because they had sold the manufacturing rights for the pre-unit twins to Japan. It was my misfortune to have an A65 for a couple of years and it was without doubt the worst motorcycle I have ever owned. I recall getting into a pointless forum conversation with a keyboard warrior on Wild Guzzi a few years back who explained to me that the problem with the A65 was one of careless assembly rather than any inherent lack of rigour in the design, and that A65s put together by him managed hundreds of thousands of trouble-free miles, but I believe that gentleman to have been somewhat delusional...

40 years after the demise of the A50/65 there are many fixes for the flaws of the bike and they can be rebuilt by an enthusiest to be a very reliable machine.

I bought a 1970 A65L when I was 16 in 1972, and it was truly awful. It vibrated, broke clutch cables on a timely basis, had more oil on the outside than the inside, and wasn't all that fast. I traded it and more hard earned $ for a 500 Kawasaki and was in heaven. It always started, and got me home again, and could pass anything in sight. The only problem was keeping petrol in the tank.

At $500 to $600 US, that bike would be a great source of real R90S parts. Do you guys know what that front fender is worth? $$$!!

OTOH, at the current bid level I'd be willing to let it pass, considering that a resto would cost the moon, there are only a few parts that make the "S" bike special and the block has at least one hole drilled in it.

Three or four years ago, R90S risers were selling for $90. This week, the asking price is $400!!

$250 ? I'd have had that like a shot. It would have been a lot more in Oz !

Sibbo wrote:$250 ? I'd have had that like a shot. It would have been a lot more in Oz !

I did research on A7s and A10s after seeing that pic and it seems that the Aussies and Brits are reimporting BSAs from the further flung bits of the former Empire. Curiously, Pakistan seems to be a steady source.

I found out the likely story about that W-bike. Seems there was a wrecking yard/used car lot by me, and I'd always seen interesting yet avoidable vehicles there--a 2 1/2 ton cab-over '46 Chevy with 4" I-beam frame reinforcements badly welded on for one. They also had a building that I never went in, but my local Airhead guy said he went in there once and the tweakers who ran it had between 15 and 20 of those Kawasakis completely disassembled. The guys who ran the place would get hopped up and they would have to have their hands moving, and it was a natural thing to take stuff apart. This bike was available with enough extra random bits that it had to be the one they didn't take apart, or a bitsa put together out of the pile when the yard was closed and the building torn down.

Pakistan ? That sounds like a good reason to travel! When I was in India 20 years ago there were Brit bikes
, old and very worn, everywhere. Under the stairs at the hotel, down the lane against the wall. Behind the shops. Mainly 350 singles and very few bigger. Not even many 500s. India sees a lot of Western tourist and I'm sure a few far more entrepreneurial people than I collected a lot of bikes there .

Pakistan on the other hand doesn't see many Western tourists at all.Their PR department doesn't work as well. It could be interesting and it's certainly a country that interests me .

KenHawk wrote: Three or four years ago, R90S risers were selling for $90. This week, the asking price is $400!!

They are still worth between ninety and a hundred twenty five dollars. The set to which you refer is NOS and only the tops, no the complete clamps. The seller lists lots of NOS things on IBMWR for very high prices. That is his schtick. That does not mean the parts go for what you so rightly called the "asking" price.

Chuey

If that was a single 40 Weber DCOE on that 90S I would think about it. I do feel like someone needs to save that bike though. The holes in the block could be welded shut and, with a little artistry, made to blend in to the rest of the block.
Poor thing.....Isn't there a "Humane Society" for the treatment of old motorcycles?