Drop of a hat . . . 1999
Amidst all the excitement of this years
events I have been reminded that my tales of "Drop of a hat ‘99"
went un-finished. If you remember I had been to Michigan to look
at a "shop" full of 1960’s & 70’s Kawasaki New Old Stock when it
became apparent that I could not strike a deal with the vendor I
started looking for other stocks of N.O.S. bits, I was told of a
dealer in Canada that may have a few bits left over. Now when I
think of Canada I think of John and Ted up in British Columbia
which in my crude geographical brain is a few hundred miles
north of California, which in turn was thousands of miles away
from Michigan! That was until I looked at a map and saw that the
dealer in Toronto was just three hundred miles away: through
Detroit, over a bridge and hey presto Canada!
A call to the dealer informed me that he
would let me look over his parts and he would be willing to sell
some if not all of them. A pleasant drive down through the
Michigan winter sun and I was ready for an overnight stop near
Detroit before I entered Canada.
Going through the tunnel was pretty
uneventful apart from a customs officer who asked me "What kind
of a job is that ? Trawling the World for old bike parts?" The
Canadian entry system is the same as the British "Dartford"
crossing, you enter Canada through a tunnel and you leave Canada
on a huge bridge. Within yards of being in Canada I was
immediately struck by how clean it was. The further into the
country I went the more I liked it, passing through towns like
Tilbury, Chatham, Kent, London it just brought home how much of
an influence the British must have had on the country. If my
initial impression was good then I can only say it got better!
There are no scrap cars on driveways, there is no rubbish in the
street, no smashed bus shelters, no ripped out phone boxes in
fact to coin one of the locals "This is Gods country"! ( I would
tend to agree). After a long drive along the shores of Lake Erie
I finally found my destination just outside of Toronto.
I met the property owner who told me that he
was one of Canada's first Importers of Kawasaki’s, I had a root
around his basement and was surprised to find a sectioned H1
engine exactly like my own but this was from a 1974 H1 and the
sectioning was painted in green. Next to this engine was a Two
stroke motor out of a Coyote! Further along were a few Z1 pipes
and a N.O.S. Z1 front end. The actual Kawasaki stock was not
that great, there was about a good sized transit van full of new
1970’s parts. I filmed most of it for future reference and went
back upstairs to meet up with the owner – John.
He took me outside to a range of barns and
pulled the door open to the first one, I think the word shocked
may be a understatement! I was immediately looking at a full
sized Cessna airplane, to the left there was a row of 20 bikes,
brand new Flat Track Harleys and lots of British stuff. There
were restored T Birds, Motor homes and Tractors! Restored static
farm engines, a brand new MGB GT and right at the bike was a row
of 6 Kawasaki’s. A new 90, KX125, W2TT, and finally TWO Black
Z1r Turbos!
One with 400 miles and one with 800 miles. We
left the first barn and went to the next, there were many
smashed bikes including some H1’s, there were also a few
tractors and T-Bird Cars waiting for restoration. John took me
over to a crate marked Kawasaki as he pulled a panel away a
BRAND NEW Z1r Turbo was revealed, sitting on top of this crate
was another small crate with TWO brand new KV75's in it. John
left me alone with the bike and I got two fingers under the seat
and pulled out an envelope with the warranty disclaimer and the
owners hand book in it, and YES I did put them back again! A
short while later John collected me and we went for a short ride
to another barn that had around 25 smashed up bikes inside, a
few were triples (H2 & H1’s) most had been there many, many
years.
As
we drove alongside of Lake Erie John told me how, as a lad in
winter he use to have to go out on the lake and cut out huge
blocks of ice that were then taken back to the barn and laid on
beds of straw for use all through the summer. The temperature
hits the high 90’s in summer so that must have been one huge
block to stay solid for months with no refrigeration.
I found a bed for the night and realised
that I only had two hours in the morning to try and strike a
deal with John over some of the parts before I had to head back
to Chicago for my afternoon flight.
Back at the shop the next morning I was
greeted with the news that John had gone to the auctions and
would not be back, but I was to "make myself welcome" and look
around. I wandered out to the Z1r in the crate and took a few
more in depth pictures, I then climbed into a roof void and
found several brand new H2 pipes . . . that were rusty! There
were a few new Z1000A1 tanks, new H1a tanks, a new H2c purple
tank and around a hundred Z1r posters. I also came across a pile
of used stock, various 1970’s Kwack engines, tanks, grab rails!
I made a short list of parts that were of interest and gave John
a call on his cellphone. Once the language barrier was out of
the way ( I used an interpreter J ) I managed to get him to
agree to sell a dozen different grabrails, a full Euro H2 rear
guard, a new H2 silencer, and some nuts and bolts. As I was
struggling for suitcase room I found a box and had about 20 mins
to pack it and get it dropped off at a post office. Luckily that
all went well. I drove back through Detroit to Chicago and vowed
that one day I would be back to spend more time in this
beautiful country.!
