Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Here's a picture of my 69 A7RA in the Power Research Racing Team colors. We purchased the bike, along w/ numerous spares in 1977 @ our Kawasaki shop @ Lake Tahoe (Tahoe Sports and Cycles). We had it in our barn for 30 yrs until a freind talked me into bringing it to the CJMC show in Auburn on July 22nd 2007. I entered it into the racer class which it won. I also contacted Dave Crussell and told him about the bike, and he was very helpful in tracking down specs on the bike. He sent me copies of the factory tuning specs, dyno sheets , and the team timing sheets from the 69 daytona 200. He also informed me that Martin Carney had raced the bike for Power Research(PR) thru the 1971 AMA season. I later noticed that PR paint was cracking near the chin pad on the tank and it looked like Kawi green underneath, so I used some paint thinner and carefully stripped the tank to reveal the original Molly paint. I also tried to strip down the fairing anf seat , but there was crash damage, so I just stripped them down far enough to be able to see Molly's masking lines and I repainted them with a custom color to match the original paint on the tank.

[img][IMG][IMG]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad127/tomrj_photos/4806163003_589d454746_b1.jpg[/img]here are a couple of pic's of it in its current state, After I rebuilt engine#01 . I had the crank rebuilt by John Proto of performance cycle, using one of tuners lab seals(works great Dave), John also honed the cylinders for me and I installed new pistons, rings, seals, gaskets and plugs. I also cleaned and rebuilt the carbs. It runs real strong

Great you made it over!

Dave is a welth of information on the Kawi racers, and is FAST on these old bikes. (not to good lookin though.... )

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Kawasaki showed up @ the 1969 Daytona race with 6 A1RA's(for Hammer,Rayborn, Araoka, Baumann, Fulton & Simmonds) and 2 A7RA's (for Hammer and Araoka).All of these bikes were painted(for the 1st time ever) in Kawasaki Green by Molly. As you know, in 69, Kawasaki had just come out with the new H1, and a couple of racers (Simmonds and Manley ,who finished in 17th and 19th places)entered them into the 200 expert race. The A7RA's qualified in 9th and 26th place, but during the race Hammer siezed on the 1st lap and Araoka holed a piston on the 2nd lap. After the race Kawasaki made the decision to race an H1 based racer, so they sent Hammers frame (F-1001(minus the engine and spares)) back to Japan to be adapted to hold the H1 motor and that was the beginnings of the H1R, which they raced thru the 71 season in various forms. The remaining A7RA (frame #1002)along with Hammers eng and spares, were sold to Chief Galbraith of Goleta CA. He ran the backdoor Kawasaki team," Power Research Racing Team" and had Martin Carney as their rider thru the 71 season. As far as I know this is the only original A7RA in existance and I have Hammers eng in my office. I hope you enjoy the pics and history ,Tom

That particular bike was actually the very first green and white "team" painted bike, from what I understand from Bob Hansen years ago.

The story goes that one day after a race, where journalist J. D. Putterman had attended. Not long after that race, Hansen was at lunch with Putterman, at the restaurant right next to the paint store in Santa Ana, just up Main Street frm the Kawasaki race ahops and R&D facility. Putterman said something to the effect of "How do you tell one bike from another, they are all painted differently?". Hansen asked him what HE'd do to make 'em stand out, so they could be identified easily. PUtterman took him next door to the paint shop after the lunch, and, as they were walking through the store, Putterman picked up a can of Ditzler #2115, AMC/Rambler "Big Bad Green" paint, and JOKINGLY/SARCASTICALLY said "NOBODY WILL MISS SEEING THIS COLOR", COMPLETELY AS A JOKE.

Kawasaki race bikes have been green for many years now, right after that very lunch. I wasn't at that lunch, I was still humpin' it all through the boonies and jungles in So. East Asia. I didn't get my eyes assaulted by BBG until late 1971.

Putterman has profusely apologized for decades, for being such a joker/kidder that day, for picking up that particular can of paint.

The rest is history.

Glad the center seal is working well for you.

BTW, it is not widely known that Hammer's first name was Richard, and we used to use the regular "nick name" for "Richard" in all sorts of connotations for Mr. Hammer, It's a good thing "Dick" Hammer had a great sense of humor, especially when we kept tellig him he had to sign in last name first, first name last. Think about it, you'll chuckle too.

thanks for the story Dave, I've attatched a pic of the top of the tank, and if you hold it just right, you can still see where "Paint by Molly" was just behind the chin pad. I'll also try to post a picture of the belly pan, in which you can see the burgandy color from Japan, then the Molly green, covered by the Power Research blue

Rollin Sanders (Molly) has since left us, our great loss. He was a very advanced design painter and innovator. I lived in Whittier when I worked for Team Kawasaki, and Molly's place was in La Habra, the next town over, on the route I took to and from work every day, and I spent many happy hours at Rollin's place, fumes and all.

A couple of true stories about Rollin. He was into fast cars and bikes, and did the painting so he could be a giant part of all of them in the Los Angeles area, NOBODY didn't know Molly back then.

I helped him build an old Helm's bread delivery truck into a street rod he traveled to shows with, had one of the first Boss 429 canted valve V8 crate engines Ford ever sold (I think he didn' get to buy it, it was a "gift" from Ford for a job well done on some special project), along with a C6 automatic, and that truck was just plain FAST, and loads of fun. It was the ONLY real, live 150 mph bread truck I ever saw and drove. (My dad was a Helms truck driver in the 1950's, and that was before the box trucks like Rollin had. We lived in Pico-Rivera then, and dad did the San Diego runs every week).

Another Molly project was a Checker cab. A little different, it was TWO cabs grafted together in their middles, on one chassis/frame. Molly had two fairly nice cabs given to him when one cab company went broke, and couldn't pay him. A bunch of us worked on this cab. The bodies were cut at the rear of the front doors, each, then, one front was put on the right way, to the "front of the chassis, with the engine in it, then, the OTHER body was reversed, and installed on the REAR of the SAME chassis, facing "backwards". When the entire sick mess was done, you had to really look to see just which end was the front, andrear, as both enhds LOOKED exactly the same, steering and dash, seat, everything. Of course, it only drove "forward" in one direction, but it was a challenge if you didn't spend time with it every day.

The rears of both cabs were also in great condition, but we never did get the trailer Molly had planned doing the same with the rears of the cabs grafted together, done. It would have been more than medium specatcular to see a cab with two fronts, pulling a trailer with two rears, looking like the whole Big, Yellow Cab Ringling Brothers Circus disaster was going in both directions at once.

Rollin drove it around for a few years, deciding to sell it the day he finally got into it, and couldn't get the engine to fire up, becaue he was in the REAR of it, NOT THE END THAT HAD THE ENGINE AND STEERING IN IT. NOTHING any of us could say stopped him from selling it.

Molly's was a great place to be back then, and, Rollin knew EVERYBODY, first name basis.

I remember Rollin had given the 'Kawasaki Racing Green' paint color his own nick name for it......"Gaggin' Green".

Some of you may have noticed that on some of the pictures, my A7RA had #16 (Hammers) on the front and part number 26 (Araoka) on the sides. The reason for that is , @ that point the bike still had Hammers eng. in the frame (as we aquired it) while I was in the process of tracking down parts to rebuild eng. part number 01 (Araoka's). After it was rebuilt , I install eng.#01 back into the frame. I have Hammers eng. in my office , while I try to locate a pair of wiseco 147 P4 piston kits for it(could even use 147 P6's).

very interesting topic, thanks both A7RAA and H2RTuner

Thank you, sir, glad to be of service.

A7, I do believe that the main outer hub and other parts of the A7R dry clutch are same as H1R/H2R, and, that you should make good friends with Dave Crussell.