Kawasaki H1 - 500cc triple

[vfxdog]

I rode a few of these when I was working at Lawton & Boyle in the late 60's. They were the TLS model and all had CDI with surface gap plugs. They could throw a mean spark- used to do interesting things with certain remote-operated garage doors on a number of Wellington streets we rode down- repeatedly.

Hairy as hell on the street but some brave character from Auckland- Phil Richards was his name- roadraced a fairly stock one and pretty much cleaned up, even against proper racebikes. I particularly remember him as he wore white leathers and a white Bell full-face helmet which was quite something in those days of black leathers and manky pudding-basin lids.

Do a search for Dale Wood in Kiwibiker and you'll find a neat shot from 1969 of one of the bikes I used to ride being beachraced at Otaki.

[dangerous]

Who remembers the original H1? "The Widowmaker" as it was fondly called.......

At one point in time the scuttlebutt was that half of the initial owners in a certain south island town had been killed on them....dunno if it was true or not but there were plenty of stories about flipping them over backwards due to the super spiky powerband.....

Im to young to remember them things LOL, Yes that story was in Chch too 1st 7 in the country killed 5 riders and IIRC Aussie banned them... was the Widowmaker the 750 or 500 tho?

Is in Christchurch. We have all (or most) of the Kawa triples in the group. From the 250cc up to the 750cc H2. From the first year to the last year.

heres some...

[slofox]

Yes that story was in Chch too 1st 7 in the country killed 5 riders and IIRC

Yeah - Christchurch was where I was referring to.....that's where I met them for the first time although I didn't ever ride one......

[GrayWolf]

Reading the posts placed here by those who did own and/or ride the beasts is that we now have bikes that are far more powerful and we all have the experience of years of riding such as well as increased roadcraft skills.
If we think back to the stuff we had around then for learners RD's, CB's, S1's and the 'venerable' Hustler and GT250's. The average young turk leapt off one of these onto a 500-3. I went from an RD400 and it still scared me.
The re-visit I did a few years ago, the power isnt that shattering it is just delivered in a very 'raw' manner; its the handling and brakes that sucked. Also please remember what the best tyres were in those days; Avon Speedmaster, Dunlop TT100 etc. I'd hazzard putting modern rubber and designs of tyres on them has a marked improvement on things.

Re riding a Z1000 was an interesting flashback (no I never owned one sadly). Remembering the power and performance for the day, the reports of "this is overkill". In reality the Z1 family motors are quite low powered by todays standards and would be considered 'tourers' at best.

[Madmax]

check this guy out

have a look at his house tour

my kind of dude

http://mojokawasaki.com/

http://mojokawasaki.com/photos/housetour.html

[MVnut]

[QUOTE=GrayWolf;Also please remember what the best tyres were in those days; Avon Speedmaster, Dunlop TT100 etc. I'd hazzard putting modern rubber and designs of tyres on them has a marked improvement on things.

QUOTE]

The newer tyres are worse, you actually need to be able to get the frames flexing to go real quick and get that extra ground clearance

[Motu]

The first person in the world to sort the H1 out and ride it with any success was Ginger Molloy - 2nd in the 1970 500GP Championship behind Agostini.He came 7th at Daytona that year on the bike...in a field of 750 bikes and stopping too much for fuel.

I've ridden with Eric Bone on the road,he's no slouch on the purple 750.He races the bike at times - I was looking at his TT100's with the rubber all rolling up like a slick,and asked him how the race compound TT100's were working.....''Nah,these are just my street tyres,it's not worth changing them for one day at the track.'' I've never seen TT100's look like that.

[dangerous]

Gotapost this up.. its KBer Karbonblack from emoto chch... on his Mach III in 1972.

[SPman]

I've ridden with Eric Bone on the road,he's no slouch on the purple 750.He races the bike at times .

This one.........

[ratusratus]

i had a H1a and B and man i loved em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Motu]

This one.........

That's the one,and those are the road TT100's he races on.Eric says a 500 has never tossed him,but the 750 has a few times....Paeroa a few years ago for sure.I thought that was strange considering the powerband of the 500 - he says he knows about the powerband so has no worries....but the 750 will step out at any traction issues,and then it's all over,the classic 2 stroke highside.

[dangerous]

Eric says a 500 has never tossed him,but the 750 has a few times....Paeroa a few years ago for sure.I thought that was strange considering the powerband of the 500 - he says he knows about the powerband so has no worries....but the 750 will step out at any traction issues,and then it's all over,the classic 2 stroke highside.

So what ya saying is the 500 was actually the "widow Maker" as in it was the harder to ride and not the 750?

[Motu]

Eric Bone doesn't find any Kawasaki triple hard to ride - but the 750 catches him out more.

If you ride any bike with a powerband (and there were a lot of them back them,not just the H1) IN the powerband,then you don't have any problems hitting the powerband mid corner....coping with that power is a different matter....

[Ixion]

So what ya saying is the 500 was actually the "widow Maker" as in it was the harder to ride and not the 750?

The 500 was the bike dubbed the "widow maker". I never heard that term applied ot the 750, which came along much later. And, I think, buyers/riders of the 750 were much more circumspect , knowing the reputation of the 500. The 500 caught folk out, it was "only a 500", and people who bought it came either from safe(ish) predictable Briddish 650s, or from Jap 250 two strokes, which were too small to be vicious.No-one had any experience of a bike with the characteristics of the 500 (apart from the race track , maybe)

[dangerous]

If you ride any bike with a powerband (and there were a lot of them back them,not just the H1) IN the powerband,then you don't have any problems hitting the powerband mid corner....coping with that power is a different matter....

I know that well as I race a 250LC and a worked 350LC