1969 KAWASAKI W2SS 650 Twin BSA A10 Clone UNRESTORED RUNNING Original SURVIVOR!

1969 Kawasaki Other

Price: US $4,750.00
Item location: San Jose, California, United States
Make: Kawasaki
Model: Other
Year: 1969
Mileage: 4,437
VIN: W1F08105
Color: Red
Engine size: 624
Vehicle Title: Clear
Contact seller: Contact form
Description

OK, have been accused more than once a being a bit wordy with my eBay listing descriptions... Guilty as charged, bviously I must have no life and nothing better to do with my time! For the benefit of you eBayers who may be in a rush, am offering a condensed version of the listing here: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: ULTRA-RARE Bike here, n EXCELLENT running condition and UNBELIEVABLY NICE cosmetic condition! If you're pressed for time, top here, ake a quick look a the pics below, then scroll back up to the "Place Bid" button and hit that thing! A lot!!! On the other hand, f you have 10 minutes to spare, comfortable sofa nearby and a cold beverage at hand, it back and enjoy the "rest of the story" on this very cool vintage scoot! Offered here is a 1969 KAWASAKI W2SS 650cc twin, n VERY GOOD, ERY COMPLETE and (almost) 100% ORIGINAL RUNNING condition! This VERY RARE bike is GORGEOUS and RUNS GREAT! A very interesting piece of Japanese motorcycle history here - the W2SS is the dual-carb successor to the earlier W1, aunched in 1966, awasaki's first entry into the 4-stroke "big bike" market... Why Kawasaki chose to enter the market with a near dead-on copy of BSA's A10 pre-unit 650cc parallel twin - a design that dated back to the 1940s and had gone out of production years earlier in 1963 - is anyone's guess! You can only imagine that when the project began they looked at the worldwide market for large capacity motorcycles - at the time completely dominated by 650cc parallel twins from Great Britain, ith BSA the world's largest manufacturer - and just said "hey if it works for them, t should work for us too"... In retrospect it is more than a little amazing that Kawasaki was manufacturing (and trying to sell!) this bike in 1969, he same year that Honda launched the CB750 - the bike that changed the motorcycle landscape forever... A few years later of course Kawasaki finally got it right with the Z1, nd in the meantime the H1 and H2 two-stroke triples kept the motorcycle division in business, ut needless to say they didn't sell too many of the W1 & W2 models... Making them rare as rocking horse poop 47 years down the road! The degree to which Kawasaki stayed true to the obsolete BSA design is mind-boggling: non-unit engine & gearbox, hain-driven generator on the front of the engine, characteristic A10 "Y"-shaped timing cover and pre-unit domed primary case, gearshift on the right (how many motorcyles made in Japan in 1969 had the gearshift pedal on the right???) - they even had Mikuni come up with special carburetors (to my knowledge unique to the W1/W2), with a "tickler" button, ust like the Amals BSA used! And from the visual perspective, ith the chrome tank panels, eat profile, xhaust pipes & mufflers and the overall lines of the bike - everything about it just says "BSA" loud and clear! Fortunately when it came to the engine internals Kawasaki's design engineers decided maybe "The BSA Way" was not the best thing afterall, nd replaced the woefully inadequate bronze bush (used by BSA since the beginning of time on the timing-side crankshaft) with a proper ball bearing, s well as using a massive roller bearing for the drive-side main and one-piece conrods with caged roller bearings, esulting in a much stronger - in fact pretty much indestructible - bottom end. Overall the engine is beefier all around, ooking for all the world like an A10 on steroids! Mechanically, his bike is truly in EXCELLENT condition, ot really all that surprising considering the low mileage - currently 7,105 showing on the odometer, ut look closely and you'll see it's a KM/hour speedo, eaning this bike has done less than 4500 miles from new! It could have originally been imported directly from Japan by a GI, r?? The only thing I know for sure about it's history is that it was in storage for quite a few years with the previous owner, ast registered in 2006 but not ridden for a lot longer than that. I've had it for 7 or 8 years, ust this year got around to working on it, nd the biggest - really the only - problem I had to overcome was the petcocks, hich had stumped the previous owner and were the main reason the bike hadn't run in so many years... The original petcocks are a bizarre one-off design, s far as I know ONLY used on the W1 & W2 models, ith a bunch of interal rubber o-rings and gaskets, ll of which had dried up or disintegrated - and, s it turns out, ll of which are either unique or unusual sizes or for some other reason unobtainable! I tried for several months to find and/or make replacements, ong story short, ave up and managed to find a couple of very similar NOS Kawasaki petcocks that look like the originals, it properly and most importantly don't leak (originals included, long with a ton of spare parts). With that problem solved, verything else came pretty easy - compression test showed 155lbs+ on both cylinders, dded clean oil in the engine and fresh gas in the tank, t fired right up! The dual 32mm Mikunis were then professionally cleaned, ebuilt, orted & synched (THANKS Kathy C!) and this bike is a first kick starter, ot or cold! Note that the choke slide is missing from the left carb, ut the choke is not needed - just "tickle" the carbs and cold starting is no problem. Idles nicely, ulls cleanly all the way up the rev range, O smoke or funny engine noises, akes a beautiful very BSA-esque noise, specially when you get the slides up near the top of the carbs! Pulls like the proverbial freight train - Kawasaki claimed 50+ horsepower for this engine, nd the seat-of-the-pants test definitely feels like it has more power and torque than any A10 I've ever ridden... Transmission & clutch both work great, rakes & suspension add to the BSA experience, hich is to say they're not great, ut hey this is a 47 year old motorcycle! Fresh fork oil would probably help, aven't gotten around to that yet... Finally, o complete the BSA mystique, t will even mark it's territory with oil spots on the garage floor - it has a couple of small oil leaks, ne at the rocker box joint and another at the oil junction between the engine and gearbox. Just like a real BSA! Again, here are NO known mechanical issues with engine or drive train, am riding this bike daily, nd - I have to admit, ven as a long time BSA/Triumph/Norton rider - having more fun with it each time I take it out! The tires are both Japanese-made Dunlops, uite possibly the original factory tires given the low mileage. Tread is good, O dry rot or cracking, ut they definitely have some years on them, riginal or not... Hasn't stopped me from riding it pretty hard and pushing it through the twisties in the backroads around south San Jose (it's a very sweet handling bike by the way, licks through the corners effortlessly), ut conventional wisdom - not to mention a more sober-minded owner - would probably call for some fresh rubber... The gauges are a bit wonky - they both work, n terms of responding to input from the cable, ut the tach seems to hover between 4 & 5K RPM regardless of actual engine speed, nd the speedometer needle jumps all the way around the gauge to 200+km/h as soon as the rear wheel rolls forward, ut back the bike up and the needle goes right back to zero... They will need some attention to work properly, ut at least they are not dead or locked up, nd the good news is the odometer works correctly (trip meter reset button is missing). The only other thing to report on from a functional standpoint is the electrical system, hich is 12V, egative ground (Kawasaki decided not to follow BSA's lead with the positive ground electrics common to most vintage British bikes). The generator puts out good current, he charging system works great, nd - except for the horn - all the electrics are working, ncluding headlight hi/low beam, aillight & brake light, ven the turn signals! I have tested the horn and it is known to be good, t is just not getting juice, here is a new old stock wiring harness for the horn in the spare parts box, o this should be an easy fix as well... So let's wrap up this novella with a few words on the cosmetics... Please look carefully at all the photos below to see for yourself, nd yes it does have some cosmetic flaws, ut when all is said and done, his bike is an absolute stunner, ands down! Chrome on the tank is gorgeous, riginal candy red paint on the tank is as good as you could possibly expect after 47 years, riginal badges & kneepads are like-new, O dents or dings, beautiful original paint also on the battery cover with the original "Special 650" metallic sticker, aint on the oil tank (sticker missing) and headlight shell have some sun fading. Original seat cover has NO holes or tears, owever the foam has started to dry out a bit. Chrome on the headlight rim, andlebars, ork ears, ront fender, ront wheel rim, xhaust pipes & mufflers and rear shocks is GOOD to VERY GOOD. Right fork ear is dented, ront fender has some scrapes on the front edge and a small crease, ufflers have some stains but NO rust damage. Front Takasago rim is near-perfect! Chrome on rear rim has some fading and pitting, ame for the air filter covers, likewise the chrome on the rear fender and chainguard definitely shows its age and will need re-doing at some point. Rubber fork gaiters are in great shape with NO cracks, an't say the same for the dustcover on the steering damper. Clearcoat on the primary cover has started to come off in spots (as usual for vintage Japanese bikes), iming cover and gearbox cover look good, ill polish up nicely. All engine castings in EXCELLENT condition, O cracks, O gouges, O chipped or broken fins. Frame is straight, 00% intact, riginal paint still looks good. Except for the petcocks, fuel lines & spark plugs, can say with near-certainty that this bike is nut-and-bolt original - even the handlebar grips are factory original!!! If you've been looking for one of these rare early Kawi 4-stroke twins, seriously doubt you could ever find a more original, etter running example than this one! Just back from a 40km ride through on the back roads here, hat an absolute BLAST, ike did not miss a beat, roduces massive torque right off idle, rd or 4th gear roll-on out of fast sweepers is an instant adrenaline rush, nd oh the sound it makes! I can feel the seller's remorse coming on already! In the next day or two I'll shoot videos of cold-starting the bike and running it down the road, ill post the links below.. 

Sold with clean California title in previous owner's name, roperly signed off, alid Non-Op registration - NO penalties or back fees to re-register in California! OFFERED HERE WITH ADMITTEDLY HIGH RESERVE! (which I hope is a fair reflection of the value of this rare and unusual bike) I almost forgot! Check out the last couple pics for some awesome bonus items including an original W2SS Owner's Manual, riginal factory W1 Service Manual (identical to the W2 except for the single carb) AND the August 1966 issue of Cycle World magazine, ith the cover shot and road test of the newly-launched W1. WOW!!! If that doesn't push you over the edge, ow about the box of spare parts, hich includes both unobtainium original petcocks, air filter elements, NOS oil filters, NOS gas tank rubber buffers, NOS passenger footpeg rubbers, sets of NOS points, OS horn wiring, unch of NOS gaskets, ashers & o-rings, NOS front brake shoes, ear brake pedal, instrument lighting harnesses, ight-hand tank kneepad, lasher unit, enter stand spring, enuine Kawasaki rear view mirror, ach cable, clutch cables (one with lever), hrottle cable, rake lever, lutch lever and more!!! NICE!!! Payment by Paypal (NOTE: Buyer pays Paypal fee), aypal eCheck, ank transfer, ash on pick up or email me for other Ebay-approved payment options. LOCAL PICK-UP IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA PREFERRED! However I will work with winning bidder to arrange shipping by trucking company or private party of your choice... LOW COST international shipping can also be arranged - email me for more info!

SEE MY OTHER LISTINGS for more vintage motorcycle goodies... 

 

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