KAWASAKI A7B
Steve Cooper with our buyer’s guide!
MODEL DIFFERENCES
Early bikes had a fixed seat, later examples have a hinged seat – easy to miss when you’re close to making the deal.
IGNITION
USA market CDI units are now 50 years old and may need attention. UK bikes remained as points and coil.
ELECTRICS
The generators are strong units and well made, but the insulation of the windings is first generation epoxy so may now break down in use.
Is it really coincidence that two Japanese motorcycle companies launched disc-valve, 350 stroker twins in 1967? Was there collusion? Did a disgruntled employee swap sides early on in the development of either the Bridgestone 350 or Kawasaki’s A7? Is it purely happenstance that two independent companies launched such similar machinery at the same time?
In all honesty the reason is probably more down to serendipity than industrial espionage. Disc valve strokers were the in thing back in early to mid1960s Japan, and before Yamaha launched their conventionally piston-ported YR1 they too had seriously dallied with the twin- cylinder disc- valve induction concept.
The set up offers substantial benefits of conventional piston-ported engines with significantly better control of the incoming fuel/air mixture and back then Japan was selling performance orientated machinery by the boat-load around the world. The A7 350 (and its 250 A1 kid brother) was marketed for the 1967 model year, even though some machines were available to the press in late 1966. The 350 (it’s really only a 338cc motor) was launched with a quoted power output of 42bhp and immediately began to embarrass owners of British 500 and 650 twins. For the period the A7’s power delivery was searing making the bike hugely potent
on standing quarter-mile times; 13.8 seconds was the quoted figure. In America it was those 440 yards figure that sold motorcycles and not top speed, even if the bike could touch 110mph! On paper, at least, the Bridgestone 350GTR had the edge on the Kawasaki A7, but the latter scored in terms of dealer sales simply because of its lower price and larger number of dealerships.
Initially the bike was rather conservatively styled with silver side-panel and oil tank, and a bulbous candy red or blue tank with a cream white lower band. Shrouded rear shock and rubber gaitered forks, chromed tank panels and rubber knee pads completed what was a rather conservative look. Two years later in 1967 the bike received the same tank, but with large white centre panel, exposed chrome shock absorber springs and twin clocks rather than a combined unit in the top of the headlight. Also on Stateside bikes the ignition became CDI operated. 1970 saw the bike subtly rebranded as the A7A and utilised a more angular tank.
The bike’s final year, 1971, saw the use of the same paint skin for all the panel work in the rather captivating pearl ivory as per our bike in camera. Throughout its short life the bike’s engine didn’t change much other than revised materials for the disc-valves and drive cogs to the alternator/ignition unit mounted behind the cylinders. In the key USA market there was also a comparable range of SS (Street Scrambler) models with a pair of exhausts mounted high on the left-hand side.
As with the likes of Yamaha, Kawasaki used their 350 as the basis for a race bike and the A7R proved to be a serious piece of kit. With a 10% hike in compression ratio and opened up to a full 349ccs, the bike was delivering 53bhp and was phenomenally successful at the Bathurst TT in Australia where it won the 350, 500 and Unlimited events. Over in America another similarly tuned A7R was timed at just under 145mph at Daytona, which was pretty impressive stuff for a road-based, air-cooled stroker.
Half a century on, the bike – marketed globally as the Avenger – still remains something of an enigma outside of the cognoscenti. Sold in dramatically larger numbers, the equivalent Bridgestone (which is reckoned to have never topped 9000 units), the A7 is something of a Cinderella bike in the UK, probably because so few were sold here. In the early 1970s the brand wasn’t well established, spares support was parlous and the bike was often perceived as being overpriced.
However, should you be fortunate enough to be offered a ride, grab it and be prepared to be seriously impressed. An A7 is a singularly different machine from anything else (other than a 350GTR obviously) and will consistently impress its rider. The amount of instant drive off the throttle has to be experienced to be believed and the way the bike makes progress totally belies its age.