OWN A PIECE OF MOTORCYCLING HISTORY: 1975 Kawasaki Rickman CR900 up for AUCTION.

A rare Rickman CR900 Café Racer – powered by Kawasaki’s inimitable 1976 Z900 engine – is going under the hammer. And if you fancy getting your hands on this rare piece of motorcycling history, you better act fast.

Between 1974 and 1976, Rickman enjoyed great success with its frame kit for modern Japanese engines. In total, it’s assumed that only 2500 kits were sold – which is a surprisingly low number, particularly considering its widespread impact on the market. Craig Vetter, the US importer for Rickman at the time, suggests that only about 700 actually made it to the States – and the vast majority were fitted with a Honda CB750 powerplant. However, it wasn’t just Honda’s that were used – a slightly more exclusive proposition was to use Kawasaki’s Z900 unit. And that’s what we have here. It looks fantastic, doesn’t it?

The bike comes with a 1976 Z900 engine (Z1E 106121), which was “punched out” to 1015cc. There’s period Yoshimura “R” grind cams, with adjustable cam timing gears, 29mm Mikuni “Smoothbore” carbs with screened velocity stacks, a Dyna ignition system with low resistance wires – and of course, a gorgeous Kerker 4-1 exhaust system. The bikes original Girling rear shocks were replaced with Koni’s, and a period correct Cibie H-4 halogen headlamp was used to replace the US-mandated low output sealed beam bulb. 

It’s up for sale on ebay right now, with a ‘Buy it Now’ price of $20,000 (which is about £15,635). If you’re interested, you better act fast, because we can’t see it hanging around all that long. For more information, click HERE.