Top 10 interesting Kawasakis you might not know about

TRAWLING through Kawasaki’s history turns up an interesting point – the firm’s back-catalogue is relatively short of notable flops or little-known rarities.

Instead it’s packed with machines that have enjoyed incredibly long production runs and often spark fervent support from fans.

But we’ve dug deep into the darkest nooks of Kawasaki’s history to turn up 10 machines that you might not be so familiar with. If you’ve got better suggestions, please add them in the comments below.

10. MT1 (1971-75) and KV75 (1976-80)

While the Honda Monkey has survived for decades and remains in production today, back in the 70s it was just one of many similar takes on the same theme – and this was Kawasaki’s version. As with most Monkey rivals, and unlike the Honda, it’s a two-stroke. At 73cc it’s bigger than most of its rivals, although 4.3bhp still isn’t much to write home about. Weighing under 60kg and with folding bars, it could be easily picked up and chucked in the back of a car. An interesting alternative to a Monkey if you’re looking for that sort of thing, they occasionally turn up for sale, often as imports from America.

9. AV50 (1983-90)

A mini-bike with a fat rear tyre, spindly front and chopper-inspired looks, the AV50 looks like a slice of the 1970s. Which makes it even odder that it wasn’t launched until 1983 and remained in production until 1990. With the rider’s seat directly over the rear wheel, we’d suspect the handling will be familiar to anyone who’s ridden a Raleigh Chopper. Even with just 5bhp, wheelies are probably on the agenda – perhaps involuntarily if you’re heading up a steep hill… Probably fun, provided you like being stared at and pointed at. And maybe laughed at, just a little.

8. Eliminator 900 (1985-86)

Recipe: Take one superbike engine. Insert it into cruiser/drag bike style machine. It’s worked remarkably well for Ducati with the Diavel over the last few years, but Kawasaki’s ZL900 Eliminator was much the same idea, way back in 1985. In fact, it was a response to the Yamaha V-Max, a bike that itself garnered an enthusiastic following, but while various other ‘Eliminator’ models followed, the Kawasaki never managed to quite hit that same vein of fandom. The original 900cc bike is arguably the purest of the breed. The 1000cc version that replaced it after just two years had softer stying, losing the exposed rear wheel and sissy-bar-mounted number plate in favour of a more sensible rear mudguard, and even later models transmuted into fairly straightforward cruisers, albeit inline-four-powered ones, rather than road-going drag bikes. With 105bhp from its GPz900-based engine, it was scorchingly fast for its day. In a straight line, of course.