Kawasakiav50: Weird & wonderful

Cruisers are all about humongous lazy engines and substantial presence... unless you’re fortunate enough to bob around aboard this tiny slice of mini-chopper cool

Kawasaki’s first V-twin was the VN750 in late 1984. Tagged the Vulcan, this 55˚ liquid-cooled V-twin joined the Yamaha Virago in the battle to be a better Harley-davidson than an actual Harley-davidson. It laid the foundations for a line of laid-back twins that’s still going strong 35 years later.

But the VN750 wasn’t Kawasaki’s first cruiser. Though they were also attaching high-rise ’bars to Z-LTD inline fours, the award for Kwak’s first true ‘factory custom’ surely goes to the fabulous and miniscule AV50, which had folk reaching for a tasselled jacket in January 1982. Though Honda are kings of the mini-bike, the popularity of their Monkey models caused many equally-diddy rivals from other firms. Kawasaki’s first attempt was the MB1 Coyote, little more than a 3bhp pull-start generator engine in a frame that looked like it’d fallen off a fairground merry-go-round. The second attempt was the chunky 75cc MT1 (later renamed the KV75), influenced by the Honda Dax and aimed at the dirt-loving (and mini-bike-mad) US market. Far and away the most wonderful scaled-down Kawasaki was the AV50, however. There was, and never has been, anything quite like it. The Honda-style horizontal 49cc single was Kawasaki’s first four-stroke 50, the overhead-cam unit producing five horsepower at 9000rpm. Attention to detail was high with megaphone pipe, polished aluminium wheels, plus a seat that could be moved back and forth by 40mm to accept wannabe Hells Angels of varying build. Tipping the scales at just 76kg and with a 10-inch rear wheel, balloon tyre, pulled-back ’bars and rear-end weight bias, the handling was... let’s say exciting. This probably had something to do with Kawasaki cutting power to 4.2bhp in November 1983 in order to limit the AV50 to 60kph (37mph). These days we’d question the demand for a micro-chopper, but the AV50 stayed in production until 1990. At the time of writing there’s a shiny one for sale at a dealer in Huddersfield for £2500. Quite a bit for a 35-year-old moped with ideas above its station, yes. But it’s way cheaper than a genuine Monkey bike – and far cooler too.