The year was 1969 and the Japanese were coming. The USA was opening up to become the largest motorbike market in the world and container loads of two-wheeled metal were shipping across the Pacific like there was no tomorrow.
Kawasaki was the latecomer to the party. Like a reveller without an invite, they banged on the door with a single can of beer known as the W2 650 4-stroke twin, an outdated design loosely based on the BSA A10 Rocket. After an unfavourable reception, Kawasaki staggered home and ordered more beer.
Rather than improve what they already had, the team just went for it; out with the old, in with the new. Stink wheels were the order of the day so a 2-stroke triple was hastily designed by all hands on deck. 500cc seemed a good round number and the whole lot was packaged in some nice racing paint.
The engine was tuned for standing quarter performance only – drag racing was all the rage in the US and the bike community were all up for something that could stuff a V8 at the lights.
The Kawasaki 500 H1 was a formidable performer in a straight line, but all the power was either on or off, which gained it a touch of bad press.
Enter the rebel: The Kawasaki H1 Mach III stormed in with 60bhp on tap all delivered in a whopping great thump. 6000 rpm, nothing, 7500 rpm all the king’s horses turned up at once. It was a straight-line rocket ship wrapped up in a lightweight frame – excitement on a stick.
But here was the rub – in a straight line the Kwacker was great, but if put into a tricky corner with its feeble frame, it was like wrangling a drunken camel.
Some went so far as to say the bike only handled well when standing still with the engine switched off. The hair-trigger performance was a frightmare to control, causing it to buck and lift the front wheel at the most hellish times.
After tipping riders into traffic a bit too often, the ‘Widow-maker’ started to appear in the press for all the wrong reasons.
A growing family
But still, everyone wanted one, so to cater for all budgets Kawasaki aimed to get the whole family down the party. Two more bikes arrived – the S1 Mach I 250 with a smaller frame, half the power and a factory steering damper it had better manners on the road.
The bigger S2 Mach II 350 was basically the same bike as the 500 but with smaller bores and smoother delivery. Both featured the new racing duck-tail, a simple bit of design fluff that has tidied up the back end of virtually every sports bike around the world since, even if it was only used as somewhere to store a bag of spanners and the occasional ham sandwich.
But even though they both handled so much better, they didn’t quite attract the same attention as their unruly big brother.
The big K was on a run of good fortune and there was some spare cash in the bank. The 500 had been track racing and although speed was good the bad press regarding the handling had smarted their eyes. They revisited the drawing board for more beer and eastern wisdom and conceived the H2 Mach IV 750.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing. If you meet one at the lights, don’t bother challenging. It’ll eat you for breakfast.
No room for idiots
It was a screamer – no stock vehicle at that time could touch its standing start quarter time of 12 seconds; this was a power-bike of the highest rank and the order books filled up nicely.
Although the handling was massively improved from the Mach III it was still a butt clenching moment to arrive in a corner on the power band, there was no room for an idiot on board.
The 750 could be a bit ‘Buckaroo – the delivery was a touch smoother than the old Mach III but with 74 horses on tap and Kawasaki’s tendency to mount the engine a little too far back in the frame, the bike resulted in being crowned ‘King of the Wheelies’.
The drag racing scene loved them and many were sold to riders who just wanted the bikes for status, not many can say they had true mastery in the twisty bits as this was really an unbroken wild horse.
A fine example of a late model KH250 featuring a hydraulic front disk brake. © Neil Effers
Taming the beasts
But every silver lining has a cloud, and the two bigger bikes ceased production in 1975 when emission rules and their terrible drink problems made it difficult for them to stay in the game.
The attractive renamed KH250 and now bored-out KH400 lived on until 1980/81. The upswept pipes, 2 one side and 1 the other, and deep lustre candy-apple paintwork make them rare collector’s items today.
There was a distinctive ring to the Kawasaki party animals which always made heads turn. If you saw a bike with a trail of swirling blue smoke it was probably the 250/350, if the bike was long gone it would have been the 750. But if it was sliding down the road in a shower of sparks, it was definitely the Mach III 500.
CW