I finally found a 67 A7

[johnnyc14]

I've been looking for an A7 for a few years now. They are very rare in the west. I had an A1 when I was a kid and it was the best of my early bikes. This one runs and is very complete. Another project for a future winter.

[bolly]

dunno abouit those but looks like your 44 year old spokes aren't even rusty!!

[johnnyc14]

Yeah it is in amazingly good shape. It has been sitting in the same barn since 1975. I poured a little gas in the carbs, hooked up a battery charger, 3 kicks and it started right up.

[Deleted]

Glad to see you got what you were after.

[bake]

Nice find, now how about getting parts?

[johnnyc14]

Some stuff is shared with early H1's. There's quite a bit of stuff on e-bay and I'm very patient. ;)It took me 5 years to collect all the parts to finish my Honda CL450 but it got done.

[gord]

Nice find,I'm currently restoring a 1970 A1 Samurai,just about ready for paint and decals.If you don't know,Reproduction Decals has some nice stuff for these bikes

[kawajockey]

Nice find, I have a high pipe version of this bike that I picked up a few years ago. Looks to be in great shape.

Kawajockey

[Deleted]

Nice find Johnny, damn this hobby is addictive. lol


Are those engines rotary valve?

[johnnyc14]

Thanks guys, I know most of you can understand an obsession to find a certain model of bike you enjoyed in your past. My second bike was a 70 A1 that I got when I was 17. It was only 1 year old and I worked at a summer job and saved every penny to buy it. It was a great bike and I rode the wheels off it. Since I sold it a few years later I have never seen another one except in a museum display. A very cool engine, rotary valve engines were quite unusual as they are more expensive to produce than the piston port ones. Quite heavy compared to a Yamaha or Suzuki twin of the same vintage but much better engine performance. My A1 was much faster than an X6 Suzuki or a Honda CB350 and was pretty even in acceleration with a Yamaha 350. My wife is starting to doubt my sanity as I'm up to 5 bikes in the garage now.

[North]

Awesome John!! I'm sure I'll get to see it in person sometime soon ;D ;D

[dickjny]

johnnyc14,
- Nice. I had a 1968 Kaw A7SS from 1969 to 1972 and put about 8000 mile a year on it. Unfortunately it went thru the flood of 1972. My brother took it all apart and cleaned everything and I rebuilt the engine but then had a friend who needed and engine and ended up selling it to him. Years later I went looking for it and found it in a junk pile with several other A7's. I also bought a 1971 A7 with a bad connrod for $100 but sold the CDI to a guy in PA who had a A1 (showroom condition) that wouldn't. It did the trick for him. You should stick with the point ignition. I sold one of the points plates to a guy who converted back to points after looking for a CDI unit for years. He's happy to be riding his bike and says after some tuning it runs great.
- I have lots of parts. Nothing stored very well; but, let me know what you need. I responded to you request for knee pads in your ad. Let me know if you need anything else.
... Dick J. - NY ... [e-mail] ...

[johnnyc14]

Well since winters coming I decided to get a start on the A7 project. I found 2 very rough A1's (a 70 and a 71) at a bone yard and picked them up cheap for parts.

Check out the pipes on this one!! ;D




The tank on the A7 is in really good shape, hardly any rust. The paint under the chrome panels is like new and will make a great reference for matching the color. Dick Jamieson from New York had some good rubber knee pads and they are on their way to me in the mail.







The engine is in remarkable shape. It really just needs cleaning up and new rings, gaskets and seals. These rotary valve twins must have been much more expensive to manufacture than the piston post 2 strokes. Lots more parts and machine work involved.













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Lots of spooge but not too bad considering its 44 years old.


The frame is ready for sandblasting and I have already glass beaded the cases, cylinders and heads




Lots of nights in the garage ahead. Sure beats spending all winter watching TV.

[jacko]

looking good, I had a 70 350 upswept pipes not sure of model, black chrome tank rode it for years. never had any problems great bikes. maybe I can find a pic of it and put it in my profile. J

[johnnyc14]

Some more progress on the A7. I couldn't find a good stock air filter so I had get creative.
I did some research on the K&N filter site and found a filter that is just a little taller than the original but will still fit into the original housing with a minor modification.
The original filter has a metal base glued onto it that fits tightly into the base of the filter housing bottom. I soaked the bottom of the original filter with solvent and removed that metal base.









I used my die grinder to remove the depressed center of the original top housing to add about 5 mm of height and make room for the K&N filter.





I bought a K&N RX-4010 air filter at a local auto parts store for $50. I guess the tuner car guys use them because they had lots in stock.







I used a utility knife to remove the rubber flange from the K&N and trimmed it so it will fit into the original base of the paper filter.






I test fit the base to make sure it will fit the original filter base, then cleaned both surrfaces with acetone then glued them together with good quality RTV silocone sealant.











Then I let the silicone set up for a few hours. It fits perfectly and should flow better then the original.















Here you can see that the top of the filter element breathes too unlike the original. I'll have to be careful when washing the bike!