NGC: For all of you who had/have two stroke Kawasaki triples....

[SteveAZ]

Wow.
http://ottonero.blogspot.ca/2015/08/vedo-doppio.html

[twhitaker]

Those bikes were pretty thirsty with just 3 cylinders.

[clubman]

Oh my! "Excuse me sir, could you help me adjust my carburetors?" 

[ponti_33609]

As a 16 year old trying to keep my triple running this phrase was perfect!

Oh my! "Excuse me sir, could you help me adjust my carburetors?" 


Then the dealer said to me "you really should have bought a Honda"

[skippy]

I had a 75 H1 Mach III and the only way I can accurately describe the acceleration is as "Raped Ape". The damn thing would lift the front tire at almost any speed in any gear. I can only hope that this machine would benefit from some extra weight on the front end.

Skippy

[elvisboy77]

I had a 70s vintage 500.  Omg the straight line performance! 

[lucydad]

Dude.
Seriously?
A double-triple?  Wow indeed.

Two inspirations for my current Triumph Street Triple R X:  Ski-Doo two-stroke Blizzard 797 racing machine from my teenage years (racing for dealer) and lusting after the Kawa Mach IIIs that would scream up from Farmington, NM to Durango, CO in a blue haze.  Always wanted a triple of my own, and I have Mary Anne. 

I wonder how the old Mach IIIs compare straight line to the Streety, or new Yamaha triple?  Mary Anne is damn fast, and I have not even come close to touching the high end, I simply run out of road and concern for losing my license.

[Idontwantapickle]

Holy Smokes!!!

But seriously, did y'all see the drum brake..............

Hunter

[davedel44]

Handled like a pig but wicked fast.  Sold mine for a loss, probably saved my life.  650 Yamaha was more my speed.

Dave
Galveston

[Silver Goose]

I had a 500, kept it almost a year. The bike was sold with only a few miles( less than 3000) and for a Southern Calif vehicle that was very low miles. As I remember the fellow that bought it was going to race it at Willow Springs Raceway. The bike was a great drag racer, but turning was a whole new ball game.
The fellow sold the bike after one season after wading it at Willow Springs.

As I recall the MPG was somewhere around 25 with three cylinders.

The workmanship one the bike pictured is great, I can only hope it is what he wanted.


 

[cwiseman]

Triple Jim here on the board has one and it will wheelie at 130 mph right when he shifts into 8th gear. It also has a huge steering rudder on the back to help it go through corners since the frame was designed by Kawasaki to be limp like a warm noodle.

Oh the stories of the famed widow maker

[canuguzzi]

Just a KAW 250 triple in my early teens. I really liked it until a few things happened. Bad condensers and having three sets of points to adjust didn't help. Ran like crap for months until the dealer found out there was an as shipped defect that got fixed.

Then right after they fixed that I rode it home. At a light that just turned green I was a little too heavy on the throttle and it bogged down. You've heard it if you're old enough, and BAAAA ummmmmmmmBAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA!

Well, what happens is that I am caught unawares the first time the bog hits and I lean forward as the bike slows as if the front brake hit and then immediately push back to avoid biting the speedo. Right about then the ummm turns into the big BAAAAAA and the front wheel comes up. Me, pulling back, help the matter greatly as I'm now shitting my pants and hoping the girls walking home from school don't figure out what is going on. I lean forward hoping that the slick shit doesn't let me slide off the seat and pray that I don't look like a monkey playing with a donkey at the show in Juarez. I manage to hang on, all is not lost and realize that the ever lofting front wheel is related directly to my grip on the right handlebar. I loosen my grip and suddenly understand the meaning of moderation. The nice word that means easy does it. My understanding is reinforced as the front wheel disappears from view because it is now descending at a rate exceeded only by a falling brick . It smacks the road hard but I'm still upright and although the gas cap and my nethers are now one I manage a look sideways pretending it was planned the whole time. No doubt about it, I fooled them because through all that I didn't travel through more than half the intersection.

The rest of the ride was uneventful until just after I left MickyDees and made a right turn and then immediately moved to the left lane on a four lane (two east, two west) street. Double lines and all down the middle but Mr, Sober had decided to make a left turn to cross that double yellow line because he wanted to, going where no one knows. Making that right turn with a nice lean and then a flick upright and over to get in the left lane I saw his trunk for an instant and the next was looking back the way I came. My beautiful Kaw was right where I left it, literally, embedded in the rear of his car the front end straight but the back end swung over to the left.

No sweat, I feel okay so I'll just slide down the way it appears I came. I remember smelling BBQ. Not the nice pork or beef smell but that sickly sweet smell as if the legs of my pants had caught on something as I slid down and my calves glided over the hot exhausts , yeah, that kind of smell. Looks like hot plastic. No way was I going to say anything let alone whimper or maybe scream. I walked across the right lane to the curb and sat, my head down trying to comprehend what happened. Someone asked me if I was okay to which I said, something stupid like "all good here". Mr. Sober came over and said he was sorry and I mumbled something about not stopping in the middle of the road to cross a double yellow. He asked me not to call the police because he didn't have insurance. Since I knew enough that impaling my bike into the back of a car wasn't going to win points I said ok, hobbled over and pulled the Kaw from his car. It looked rideable. Barely. It wasn't but the rest of the way home wasn't that far. With my pant legs rolled as high as they would go, that short push was a lot longer than it should have been.

A few weeks later and new fork tubes and it was ready to go again. It took me just a little longer and besides, there was this new Honda 350Four I saw and damn, I had to have one of those and have it I would.

[Doppelgaenger]

I lean forward hoping that the slick shit doesn't let me slide off the seat and pray that I don't look like a monkey playing with a donkey at the show in Juarez.

That was a good one... I'd very much like to ride one of these bikes at some point just to say I rode a widowmaker... And when I say 'these bikes' I mean the regular triples

Not sure if owning one would be a very good idea a this point, parts for them can't be that cheap.

[Penderic]

The Mach III was a beast!

Wonder what a 4 cycle two stroke would sound like?

 

[jabberwocky]

Can you imagine the work just in making a set of chambers to fit that thing?!

[sturgeon]

4 cycle 2 stroke  Must be a Canuckistan thing   

  Dusty

 

[Penderic]

Ooops!  Cycles, Cylinders, Cycles, Cylinders..... is there a difference?   

I better go for a drive and think aboot it!

 

[Kentktk]

They were fast for the time, but now any run of the mill 600 Sportbike would destroy one.

[canuguzzi]

They were fast for the time, but now any run of the mill 600 Sportbike would destroy one.

Nothing sounds like the wail of a 2 stroke triple though. You could be getting passed by everyone but once you opened the throttle and headed to red, that wail was enough.

Just listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJtkogKY-Q

[lucydad]

STRX

246 km/hour = 153 mph

But the sound of the Mach III is heaven...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD4FsAWAnmc

[steven c]

Nothing sounds like the wail of a 2 stroke triple though. You could be getting passed by everyone but once you opened the throttle and headed to red, that wail was enough.

Just listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJtkogKY-Q

 Even my GT380 sounded great, if a bit more slowly the the Kawasakis.

[Rough Edge racing]

 There';s a lot of BS about the H1 and H2....The H2 in the magazine road tests when they were new and tuned properly and ridden by experienced riders ran mid to low 12's in the quarter mile. At the drag in the hands of the average rider they were difficult to launch hard.  Brutal fast then ,middle of the road now, a modern 600 cc sport bike runs about 11 flat with far more top speed. I rode them when newer and they handled ok for sane riding, the power could get you into trouble of course if you were a numb rider. It was the first street bike I rode that wheelied unexpectedly  when I twisted the throttle in first gear. Cook Nielson the editor of  Cycle magazine felt they were dangerous when pushed hard in corners and did a demonstration . He pushed the bike harder and harder into a corner until it wiggled like a snake in a hot oven and threw him off. To be fair it wasn't the only bike of that era with dangerous handling at the limit. With the exception of Guzzi Sport, Ducati  750, Triumph and Norton, all the other big bore bikes had poor handling at the limit.
  They are a unique machine despite the flaws and deserve a place along side other memorable bikes.

[BMWDavid]

Even my GT380 sounded great, if a bit more slowly the the Kawasakis.

Ah...I had one those GT380's, really sounded great when on the gas. Man that was a long time ago...1975!

[canuguzzi]

Even my GT380 sounded great, if a bit more slowly the the Kawasakis.

Now there was a really nice two stroke. Civilized and if you weren't heavy, a capable middle distance bike with it's 6th speed. Nearly vibrationless with the rubber mounted engine I always wanted one, never got it.

[wymple]

Now there was a really nice two stroke. Civilized and if you weren't heavy, a capable middle distance bike with it's 6th speed. Nearly vibrationless with the rubber mounted engine I always wanted one, never got it.

The 550 triple from Suzuki was really nice as well. The torque band was very wide for a 2 stroke. I lusted after the 750 Water Buffalo, never had the money. Only one I got my hands on as an owner was the 500 twin. Great bike for anything but distance unless you were light, and it was as reliable as a stone bridge. Topped everybody's list as the best you could do for the dollar.