The Kawasaki 'W1R' that took seven years to build

The bikes that are revealed on these pages are usually hot off the press. The shoot is finished, the images are graded and an email lands in our inbox within a couple of days. This amazing Kawasaki, however, first surfaced two years ago at The Quail Gathering. And it’s only just been shot properly. But that’s okay, because the bike took master builder Mike LaFountain seven years to complete—and nearly broke him in the process. Mike has created a stunning replica of the ultra-rare W1R, which was Kawasaki’s late 1960s equivalent of the legendary Matchless G45 production racer. “Years ago,...