I thought it would be cool to buy and restore every motorcycle I've ever owned. I grew up in a small town in central New Jersey where we had a Kawasaki dealer in town. I would ride my Schwinn stingray to that local Kawasaki dealer and sit on the mini bikes and motorcycles until the owner dismissed me.

My 1st mini bike was a 1970 Kawasaki Coyote at age 10. I bought it used and it did not run. I learned how to work on it and made it run so I could ride it.

In 2009 I found a 1970 Kawasaki Coyote and restored it to like new condition. That's when the hobby / obsession began.

Since then I have restored many of the motorcycles that I, my brother, and my friends had growing up.

The list goes like this:

1971 Kawasaki MT1 75cc mini bike
1972 Kawasaki G5100
1976 Kawasaki KX125A3
1975 Kawasaki F11-250
1976 Kawasaki KX250A3
1975 Kawasaki KX250A3
1971 Kawasaki F5 Bighorn 350
1973 Kawasaki F7 175

I bring them to many shows and they've even been at the international motorcycle show in New York city on display.

At one of the shows I attended someone approached me and asked if I had a 1968 Kawasaki A7 Avenger 350 in my collection. I did not. He told me he was selling one and we made a deal and I purchased it.

The bike was all there but in pretty bad condition. I started restoration in mid December 2015. I completely disassemble the bike down to the frame. All the original, bolts, nuts, washers, spokes, and springs got sent to a zinc plater. The plater makes them all look new again. All the chrome components first have the dents removed and then are re-chromed.

The frame and all related parts were sand blasted and powder coated black. I polished the hubs and brake plates. I disassembled the engine and replaced all gaskets seals. The outer cases were powder coated to match the original grey color. The cylinders were bored .050mm over size. The cylinders and heads were sent to Nor’easter BlastWorx. Mark made them look new again! All the body parts were painted candy red. The seat pan was badly rusted and needed some reinforcing. I welded metal to the foam side of the seat pan to replace the missing metal that had rusted away. I installed a reproduction seat cover with new seat foam on the restored seat pan.

I re-spoked the wheel and installed period correct tires. New old stock cables, controls grips, emblems were also installed. I disassembled the speedo/ tach, installed a new reproduction face plate decal, and turned the miles back to zero.

I try to cover every detail to make it look like it came off the dealer showroom floor in 1968.

Tony Desantis