Looking for the Kawasaki Chopper of Old

THIS is the Kawasaki 900 chopper I built in 1981—82. If anybody knows the location of this bike now, or knows what happened to it, I would love to find out. The original frame was bent when someone did a right-hand turn in front me, so I asked Jim Brownly at Sonic Choppers to rake and stretch the frame.

I wanted to have the engine sitting at the same angle as stock, with six-inch-over forks. I moved the rear shock mounts back to the end of the swinging arm and fitted a set of Honda 350 shockers, with Sportster top mount covers.

We fitted a Mustang tank, a Fat Bob rear fender and new pillion foot peg mounts.

I put an ad on the notice board at Sonic Choppers for a H-D Low Rider seat. A few weeks later, a bloke rang and said he could sell me one. I gave my address and he came over the next night, on his new Low Rider. He took the seat off his bike, gave it to me, then took a small pillow out of his shoulder bag, sat it on the frame and rode off…

We then modified the frame to accept the new seat, which as you see, fitted beautifully.

The handlebars are from a Sporty as well. I had a mate ream out the top triple tree to accept the one-inch bars, as well as the stock brake lever and reservoir. The clutch lever and hand grips are also Harley items.

The bike went over the pits to get registered and I had to spread the rear indicators out a quarter of an inch and get the fork tubes stamped by an engineer and all was well with the rego branch.

It was painted a grey colour from the Fiat catalogue. I wanted to match a bike I saw in a very old Easyrider magazine, a chrome and grey Shovelhead.

The bike was put together over about an 18 month period in the lounge room of my house in St Kilda. There are a heap of other thing that where done, too many to list here.

The day I took it for its first ride, I had to put it into a hard left-hand corner, as you would a standard bike. It handled like it was on friggin’ rails. I had this stupid grin on my face and people where giving me very positive looks of appreciation. I was about 23 at the time. I’ve just turned 50 and will never forget the exhilaration I got from riding that bike.

Me, and the girl at the time, rode it up to Brisbane and back, over to SA and back and all over Victoria, for at least two years, until I sold to a mate. He rode it constantly for a couple of years then sold it to someone from Darwin, as far as he remembers.

I never had a photo spread done on it and only have a couple of pictures of it left. 
This photo was taken at the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier.

Any info about this old bike would be very much appreciated, and if the present owner wants to sell it, then I’m happy to talk about that as well.

OLLY DOWNIE