72 Kawa mach 111 h1 Chopper! Winter wake up call..

[Triple Jim]

One of the guys on the triples board, Dave Crussel, still races a TZ750, as well as H2s and various other 2-strokes.

[Rough Edge racing]

 I think the stories  about the H1 and H2 bikes are only exceeded by the horror stories of old British bikes...And the hate for the Kawasaki's is only exceeded by the hate of Harleys....90 percent of these  terrible bike stories are from those who may have never thrown a leg over the bikes ...
 Cook Nieslon often stated  that the first big Japanese bike that had really stable handling handling was the Suzuki 750...

[Triple Jim]

Yes, you're right.  There are quite a few visitors who stroll up the parking lot at Deals Gap during the meet, admiring the old 2-strokes.  Occasionally there's one who starts explaining to us how an H2 can do 5th gear wheelies, and they have hinges in their frames, and all the other folklore about them.  I rode my H2 to the local motorcycle dealer a few years ago, and a guy in the parking lot told me about the time he was doing 170 on some motorcycle he owned, and his buddy on an H2 flew past him like he was standing still.  The only thing I could think of to say was "Must not have been stock."   

An H2 was one of the fastest things on the road at the time, but it was rated 74 hp at the crank, so about mid 60s at the rear wheel at best, and weighs in the mid 400 lb range wet.  Even midrange motorcycles today, like a Yamaha FZ-09 are lighter, more powerful, and run a quarter mile quicker.

That's not to say you can't hop up an H2 and make it very fast.  The non-supercharged 750 drag record is still held by an H2.  Larry Smith's H2, driven by Brian Pretzel, ran it in 7.776 seconds at 170 mph.

[oldbike54]

 Pretty sure Cook was referring to the GS Suzuki , not the Water Buffalo .

 Dusty

[Rough Edge racing]

Pretty sure Cook was referring to the GS Suzuki , not the Water Buffalo .

 Dusty

 Yes, Suzuki's first 4 stroke big bike....Cook after road testing the new 1000 or what Suzuki in the late 70's admitted it could cover a high speed mountain course faster than his beloved Ducati 900SS... But he said the Ducati was far less threatening to ride fast, he called it "laughing in his helmet" when pushing the Italian to it's limits compared to faster Japanese bikes...

[Triple Jim]

We unloaded on the pier and the excited sailor mounted up and promptly wheelied off... right into a chain link fence.

The rumors began right there that the machine was a death trap!

Ha, I guess any motorcycle is a death trap to the "right" rider.     There are a couple retired Kaw dealership owners on the board who have told stories of someone buying a triple and crashing it on the way out of the parking lot.  Better for the rider to get a good scare there, than later in traffic, I suppose.

It's hard for me to imagine that kind of rider on a modern literbike that will do 180 mph stock.

Here's one of my favorite YouTube videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvc79aBy0e0