Kawasaki H1 - 500cc triple

[dangerous]

TWENTY THREE!!? Bloody hell man. Can i come round some time?
Any mirrors?

at a guess bout 46 I'd say... and ya proberly going to need a air NZ ticket to the states to get a look in

[Grumph]

I raced a blue drum braked one against Nudemetal's dad back in the day. Primary reason for going Mach 3 was how close I was coming to a heart attack starting the Manx I'd been racing....push starts back then.
Duckhams 20/50 in the forks and 3/8in spacers under the rear springs helped a lot as did clubmans bars to get as much weight up forrard as possible.
When they autopsy me to find just what killed me they'll find fingerprints on my ribs from where my then girlfriend grabbed when I stood it up on the Moorhouse Ave overbridge....
Used to test brake lining materials by going to the Sign of The Kiwi in my lunch breaks - if I still had brakes at the bottom of the hill those linings would do a 1/2 hour proddy race.
Only bike I've ever had that gave better fuel mileage on the track than the road - 8mpg around town, about 12mpg on the track...
Reinforced the clutch and was able to run a best of 12.4 in the quarter.

[Edbear]

The 70's were a great time! I had the T500 Suzuki, various mates had a number of different 2-strokes. I loved the Kwaka triples, even the 250, loved the RD350, the Waterbus... Sigh...

[cold comfort]

I (briefly) owned a H2 in the UK in the late 70's - I was pretty much talked into buying it by its' original owner, my CB 500 having just died. Being just 5' 4" and 9 stone wringing wet (then, not now ) I had issues handling it from the word go. We parted company - literally - on a wet Welsh Sunday morning heading south over the Rhigos (any ex pat Taffs remember the road?), got into a double ess, and gave the throttle a bit of a twist on the exit. Like Mixone said, the power comes on like you've thrown a light switch. The damn thing lit up and I ended up sitting in the grass on the verge with the bike pinwheeling in the middle of the road. One thing I always remember about the H2 was the frame feeling about as rigid as wet spaghetti - definitely not confidence inspiring stuff.

HaHa- managed to stay on mine but it was a short love affair!

[Bender]

I worked at Laurie Summers spares dept in the early '70s. There was a bent frame hanging in the roof.

I was told it came from the first H2 750 to arrive in the country. One of the sales people, who shall remain nameless (he is a well know racer) took off down Mt Eden Rd at high speed with the side stand down.

When he tried to take the left hand bend at the bottom, the bike went straight ahead into a concrete block garage. The rider was smashed up badly, the bike written off.

Gratuituous Eric Bone pic

[nudemetalz]

My old man used to love his one apparently, ..more than my mum so the legend goes......

[Kickaha]

Saw a bike pull out of a sideroad this morning on the way to work, not to long afterward it passed me on the inside as the traffic slowed down coming into Belfast, bit dark but was picking it was a mid 70s two stroke

Caught up to it at the lights at Johns road and it was H1, drum front brake model
Nice commuter bike

[kiwifruit]

Caught up to it at the lights at Johns road and it was H1, drum front brake model
Nice commuter bike

Good excuse to ride it every day, I'm envious!

[Grumph]

[QUOTE=Kickaha;1130085695]Saw a bike pull out of a sideroad this morning on the way to work, not to long afterward it passed me on the inside as the traffic slowed down coming into Belfast, bit dark but was picking it was a mid 70s two stroke

Caught up to it at the lights at Johns road and it was H1, drum front brake model
Nice commuter bike [/QUOTE

Pulling in to refuel already was he ?
Even in 1972 they were an expensive commuter bike to run

[Kickaha]

Pulling in to refuel already was he ?
Even in 1972 they were an expensive commuter bike to run

The S2 we had would do 15mpg if we hammered it

[roogazza]

Levin circuit hairpin 1973, I think ? Loved my H2.

[scumdog]

The S2 we had would do 15mpg if we hammered it

A guy at the works down here had a girlfriend in Ch-ch, his early Monday morning fang back down here had him doing 16mpg.

My old sidevalve V8 truck I was driving at the time got the same!

(And my present 7-litre truck get MORE mpg)

[cheshirecat]

I must admit despite all the cons of those 70's bikes, when you got out and did the 'ton' you really knew about it and remembered the event for eternity, wobbly knees and all. makes me somewhat circumspect running wild on todays machinery.

[slofox]

...makes me somewhat circumspect running wild on todays machinery.

I know what you mean...160 on a modern bike is here and gone before you realise you are even accelerating...(...course IIIIIIIIIII never do that...)

[Stylo]

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.....

Any stories or reminiscences? Would love to hear them.....

Actually had a mate who bought an H1R (racing version) to race in the US of A. He managed to seize the engine at full speed down the straight at one track......he said he gave up racing as he flew through the air but by the time the ambo arrived and he realised he wasn't dead he was reconsidering his decision.......

I was only a boy but remember the # 1 playing on the radio as I drooled over the H1 in the showroom, George Harrison - My sweet lord , awesome .....