Surfing through the local Craig's List I found two nice vintage Kawasaki dirt bikes for sale. Same owner and 20 minutes away.....too good of a deal to pass on.

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The smaller one is a 1972 Kawasaki G5 100cc. I actually got it cranked when I picked it up but didn't ride because it didn't want to idle or accelerate. Overall it's in pretty descent shape to be 40 years old. Needs the usual TLC and wear and tear stuff replaced. Front brake needs some work.
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The second one is a 1974 Kawasaki F7 175cc Enduro. I was most excited about this one since my 1st bike was a new 1972 F7 Enduro. Still have the pieces and plan on restoring it too. Now I have the beginnings of a Kawasaki museum!

The owner said it was down for the count. Broken spark plug wire was evident and hadn't been ridden in some time. I spliced in a short piece of plug wire with a plug cap, cleaned the spark plug, dropped some gas in the cylinder, kicked on the kick starter (1st time in 30 years that I've done that!) and voila....it fired and ran until the gas in the cylinder was gone. Spent the next hour pulling the carb and doing a cheap cleaning job, put it back together, kicked on the starter and voila....it cranked and ran and ran and ran. Pumped up the front tire and proceeded to take a ride until I realized that the clutch didn't want to disengage. So I cranked it, got it moving by pushing, jumped on, clicked it into first and away we went...WHOOOPIE. Still got a lot of work to do but it makes for cheap therapy.

Here's a link to a short video:
1974 Kawasaki F7-175 Enduro on Vimeo

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Nice!! looks like you got a couple nice bikes, pretty good shape for their age.
Dan

 

Just watched your vid. The soundtrack had me laughing. Do you have a link to the 2 smoke track part (beat boxer)?

 

I'm doing the same thing, perusing kijiji and Craigslist looking for old, cheap rebuild projects. I've never rebuilt a bike and am pretty curious to give it a whirl.
Those look to be in awesome shape.

 

My first bike was a KE125 that looks just like those. Same goofy rotary valve setup with the carb on the side under a cover. I broke a gear in it and had to do a full rebuild at 14YO. Not a bad bike really. Oil injection. Distinct sound.

 

I love old bikes. Old anything, cars, whatever. My Dad has two Evinrude outboards from the 60's (not running) and a drill press and a band saw from the 30's that still run fine.

 

I remember the Kaw 175. It had a reputation for being a powerful 175 and was in high demand by 17 year old young men. Only issue was lack of local dealer.

 

ol' klx-er...
Sorry I can't find the link. I've had this downloaded for a long time. I tried to zip it and attach but the forum file size limit got me. Send me a PM with your email and I can send you back the mp3 file.

As far as the bikes go I think Kawasaki was way ahead of everyone in the early 70's with the rotary valve. I did some pretty extreme modifications to the valve and cylinder porting on my F7. Added an expansion chamber and hi compression head. Laced up a 21" aluminum front wheel. Couple the extra HP with the light weight and it went ....well, how shall I say....ring ding ding ding pretty fast. Motocrossed it a few times before I realized I was better at building and fixing bikes than racing them.

 

PM coming your way. Thanks!