Click either image for larger composite view.
Images © Back Street Heroes Magazine, used by permission.
IT’S KAWASAKI WEEK!
Featuring a different Kawasaki street bike each day.
| The last entry of each month diverges from our focus on mass-produced, obtainable bikes to feature one unique creation as our Custom Of The Month. |
| Custom Of The Month: Kenny Harley's 'BSAki' |
|---|
Who would have guessed that grafting a 1980’s Kawasaki four-cylinder engine and disc-brake front end onto a vintage BSA could look so right or appear to be so easy? (The creator assures me it wasn’t.) I’ve included this as a part of Kawasaki Week because the casual observer would have no idea that continents and decades once separated the components of this bike; in most talk of ‘classic bikes,’ Japanese fours are often left out. This bike proves that UJM motors (well, at least some of them) have a classic beauty, too. If I’m gushing, I mean to; I love this bike. It’s unique, even weird, but it all fits together so incredibly well! It remains my benchmark for hybrid engine swaps, or ’specials’ as the Brits call them.
The Bsaki is the handiwork of Kenny Harley, of Fife, Scotland, who does this sort of engine swapping fairly often. I first saw these photos of the ‘Bsaki’ in the British custom bike magazine Back Street Heroes way back in 1993 and I clearly recalled this bike many times over the next 13 years. I’d long since passed on my BSH issues to others, so tracking down these photos was a daunting task. I had only my memory for reference. Emails far and wide yielded nothing. Finally, British bike builder Chris Ireland of ‘Desperate Dan‘ fame helped me locate these photos in 2006. My thanks to Blue and the folks at Back Street Heroes for allowing me to publish them on the web.