From 1971 through 1975, Kawasaki offered a nice-sized on/off bike with enough power to get you to the trails on paved roads, and enough off-road power once you got there. This 1972 Kawasaki F7 175 Enduro can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Princeton, Wisconsin, and the seller is asking $1,800. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
I love that opening photo with the flags; even if this is a Japanese motorcycle, it’s a great image. A person can own and drive a Japanese vehicle and still love America; just to get that out there into the cyberworld. And for the 1970s, there weren’t a ton of options for American-designed and American-made on/off-road motorcycles in this range or size to choose from.
You can see the nice condition that this 175 appears to be in, and that extra buddy seat is a fantastic bonus, even if it does say Yamaha on it, ha, ouch. They are fairly rare to find, and it makes this one even more desirable, in my opinion. Would I ever carry a passenger on this one? No, but it’s great for vintage motorcycle show duty if nothing else. I guess a person could try to redo that with Kawasaki instead of Yamaha. We saw one almost a year ago here on Barn Finds for the same price.
With 4,496 miles, this 175 has been used, but that’s only an average of 83 miles a year over the last 54 years – crazy. I don’t see many, if any, major flaws anywhere on this bike, do you? I know a 175 isn’t big enough for a lot of people, but for a guy who rides a couple of 49-cc bikes around a storage facility regularly, this is big enough for me. The 1971 F7 175 came in yellow; the 1972 bikes were red, and in 1973, you could get orange or blue, followed by silver and blue in ’74, and finally green or brown in the final year of 1975.
This scratched cover is about the only real flaw I see on this entire bike, and that’s an easy fix. That’s likely from someone’s boot from using the kick start. This engine is Kawasaki’s 174-cc rotary-valve two-stroke single, which was rated at 21.5 horsepower and 15.4 lb-ft of torque, according to this brochure page. Backed by a five-speed manual, the seller doesn’t give much info at all, just that it runs and has a clear title. I guess that’s probably enough for such a good-looking example. This looks like a winner to me, have any of you owned a 175 on/off motorcycle?
Never a Kawasaki 175 Enduro, had a ‘69 Yamaha 175 CT1 that was the epitome of the perfect bike at the time. A 175 2stroke had all the umph needed to travel between towns back then with 2 lane highways being the norm in the state.
This one looks to be a gem, Scotty and another great find by Lothar..
Probably a good thing it’s not closer.