I went to work for Kawasaki dealer in 1975, triples were the bike back then went on to purchase dealership in 85 and still owner after 46 yrs, same location
Went to work at a Kawasaki dealership in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 70's. Bought 3 motorcycles from him, a 1975 KX400, a 1974 Z1 900 and a 1972 S2 triple. Loved the Z1 the best but loved the sound of the S2 also. Sounded like 5 angry bumblebees in a tin can.
This nearly made me weep, as I had to part with my beloved H1 F recently due to financial issues ! I have owned 7 H1 Kawasakis including one of the first H1 A's in Australia, which I rode for many years, for hundreds of thousands of Kms, with the only modifications being stronger rear shocks, and clip-on bars; to the immaculate H1 F that I bought over 40 years ago. They were known in Australia as "The Widowmaker" because of the number of riders who lost their lives on ( off ? ) them, but I have only good memories of mine - incredibly fast, but with an amazing wheel-standing acceleration when the power band was reached !
Gotta love a Kwaker triple. My S3 has the most amazing mix of induction and exhaust sound when accelerating and is very smooth too. So glad I found a clean unmolested example before prices got crazy and it is a true keeper.
Fantastic Christmas gift, thanks Jawa Tino. The sounds still thrill me and take me right back to the 1970s. The 500 and 750 sound so thrilling on the road!
I'm looking for a two stroke now, to add to my vstrom and ducati diavel. But I will probably get either a Suzuki gt750, 550 or 380. A 500 titan would be ok too. Happy new year to you.
Had the 350 but loved my freinds 380 . I so miss the rice burners but took them for granted back then . Now i have 2stroke bicycles w 43cc Zanoah and 63cc Kasei engines on Staton friction dr kits and ride em for exercise and enjoyment . And have several unsung heros in the hi performance world w razor sharp throttle response torque and power and w muffler mods or piped sound awesome , the Chainsaw
Love the screaming sound of the triples, in particular as you can hear from 2:04 onwards, though I never had a chance to ride one myself so far... the trace of smoke when accelerating is pretty impressive - great Video, thx for sharing! Take care & have a fantastic new year 2021!
I had an h2 750 when I was 19, back in 1985. It had Basani chambers, rear sets, clubmans, nerf filters, all the typical add-ons. My landlord used to describe my 6:00 a.m. departures to work as "a maniac howling and throwing trash cans around". She hated me.
Here are beautiful jewelry for Christmas. They are beautiful these good old 2 stroke! I personally have the models that followed these, I have a Kawasaki (K) Z500 B1 and a Kawazaki (KZ) 250 C single. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021. ✌🏻👍🏻😎
They say God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh, this is untrue, he made Kawasaki two strokes on the seventh! Let the good times roll!
We had a worked cafe H2 in the Kawasaki shop where I worked. I rode all the Z series, Katana 1100s , Honda 900s and 1100s but never started that H2. Looked and felt like a death trap.
S1 and S2 fantastic handling and performance, braking no and that applied to every bike then. I have a best friend how owned RD 200, 250, and 400 we used to swap bikes and do say 100 mile trips, the thing I hated about his RDs was front suspension dive. Apparently this can be fixed by overfilling the oil in the suspension we didn't know that back in the 70s. Loved the RD 200 and 400 engine's . My best friend bought nothing other than Kawasaki after his RD 400, he's now changed to aprilia, but he's still loves Kawasaki.
Jawa Tino... I hope to find you well, a Happy New Year to you. Kawasaki triples sounded pretty timid in stock form, but boy are they a sleeper... I have heard that the H 750 was the only bike to give the Z1 900 a real run for the money. I rode a 69 & 74 500, (there were two bikes in 74 green & brown) the brown bikes were supposed to be for 75 until the NHTSA (USA) stepped in & told K to detune the bikes for 75, as they put out too much Hp for the weight of the bike. So they took all of the bikes already made and put them out as a 74 model, detuned the engines & started building again for 75. I personally think this was the 1st step of them trying to do away with 2 stroke street bikes here.
FYI,in 75 the H1F was still rated at 59hp (only 1hp less then earlier H1’s) by Kawasaki and it was 1976 when the h1 500 was changed to a KH500 that the motor was detuned by Kawasaki & rated at 52hp. I know this to be true 1st hand from owning 71,72,74 H1’s (all rated 60hp) & a 75 H1F (rated 59hp) . Other then the 75 H1F rated at 59hp weighing a bit more the motor still felt like it had approx as much punch as my 72 & 74 h1s did with only 1hp more but when I worked on & test rode a 76,kh500 for someone I knew it did in fact feel weaker then my 75h1f in the 6k-8k rpm range vs earlier 500’s. I have also seen dyno runs on a stock 75h1f with carbs dialed in better the stock is that dyno’d 59.8 & 59.6hp on 2 back to back dyno runs. I currently have a 75H1F I am going thru the motor on top to bottom due to the 45+ yr old crank seals leaking & hope to having up & running again by end May or early June 2021. I also owned a 73 h2,a new 76 kz900 (traded in in new 77 kz1000) & then new 77 kz1000 (sold in 2016 in great cond and later bought a different low mile/2,500 76 kz900 too. Happy Motoring!
@@scottwheaton9689 Thanks... I'm open to learning as I know everything I have been told over the years isn't true or completely true. Thank you for the added information...!!!
@@scottwheaton9689 The 1973 H1D was rated at 59 hp also. I bought a new '76 KH500 and reversed what Kawasaki did to detune them to 52 hp. Kawasaki added the restricted air silencer to the top of the air canister that choked it down to breath thru only a 1" hole so I removed that and changed the main jets from the 75's from the factory and installed 95 mains and that thing ran as hard as my '73 H1D . I installed a set of Denco chambers rejetted and that KH500 went 13.17 with me on it (210 lbs) all stock except for the chambers .
I had a '69 H1... You put the key in and when you turned it to "ON", the CDI "B" unit would whine. This let you know that things were about to get serious.....
I owned the orange one back in the day, but I was pissed off that it had points ignition instead of the CDI which would rev to the moon without missing a beat. A new set of points would only work well for about 2000 miles before it would start missing at high revs. Years later the 2-stroke bike I regret not buying at the time was a 1984 Yamaha liquid cooled 350 with full fairing. Stupid me.
Yip i had the 500. In blue. It had terible vibrations so bad it would turn the innition key and put the lights out . The lights were activated by turning the key into position 3. Drive with lights some bike flat out on a country road at nite and all of a sudden it went black.
They made the S2 350 for only 2 years 1972,and 1973, never made a 1971S2, and the S3 was first to replace the S2 in 1974 look it up,, i own one of each ,along with all the years if the H1 except 1969, includung the 1976KH 500, wich came with a longer swingarm, and more beefier front end, KH (kawasaki highway) you should verify before you post stuff lol
My Stock '72 H1 would exceed 120 mph without hesitation. 100 is almost instant on it. It's not like you can look at the speedo when you do that. Don't if you want to live. This freaked out Honda CB750 riders I let try it. They say they did 120 before they chickened out and it's not their bike and stuff . In hindsight, I should never have let anyone else try that bike. Anything could have happened. Somewhere, some envious fool said 115 mph for the 500?. That's very wrong. Even the Ninja 400 does that top end and that's only a four stroke. The H1 may hit the 5th gear redline at 124 mph but if you are a light weight rider, You need lower Bars and much higher gearing just to keep the frond end on the ground. You don't hear the exhaust when you're riding anywhere near as much as you delight in the Turbine like sound of the intake to the carbs. That was not expansion chambers in the rear view video. That's Stock. The H2 750 was just a bit heavier than the 500 due to it's larger cylinders. Anybody that says the 750 could only do 120 is Nuts! What was that it says here the 750 is 464 pounds Dry? That would be awfully heavy Wet. think about it.
The standard pipes sound like a rattling outboard to me, they only sound good with expansion chambers like the one they were riding in the clip but never see. They same can be said about all the 2 strokes of this era. They banned the production of 2 stroke engines because of the pollution they cause.
Sorry , but the Suzuki's were better . A bit Tamer , in standard trim , but NOT that much . Easier to live with . Better handling , more comfortable , less frightening , BETTER BRAKES by a Shitload , Etc . If you took an H-2 Triple and a GT-750 and went , OK , No Port work , just Chamber and Carb Tune for " Go very Fast " , I don't believe you would notice much difference at all . The Suzuki would be LESS apt to wobble though . Frame was Way better . An H-1 and a Titan are a Different argument . Triple vs Twin . S-2 and GT-380 are kinda comparable . S-1 and X-7 not comparable . I LOVE Two-Strokes . And I fully believe the Suzuki Product was better . Yamaha persevered after the others had given up , and they built the BEST in the end . The RD/RZ series were the end of Commercial Two-Strokes . Legislation basically BANNED them . You can still own an Antique , however .
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I worked at a Kawasaki dealership as mechanic during the triple era ,test rides were EPIC !!! 😁😋😇🇨🇦🇨🇦
I went to work for Kawasaki dealer in 1975, triples were the bike back then went on to purchase dealership in 85 and still owner after 46 yrs, same location
Went to work at a Kawasaki dealership in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 70's. Bought 3 motorcycles from him, a 1975 KX400, a 1974 Z1 900 and a 1972 S2 triple. Loved the Z1 the best but loved the sound of the S2 also. Sounded like 5 angry bumblebees in a tin can.
I worked at Nellis Honda in 77. Changed a lot of seized pistons in Kawasaki two strokes. That 400 you had was quite a good bike, ditto the Z1.
This nearly made me weep, as I had to part with my beloved H1 F recently due to financial issues ! I have owned 7 H1 Kawasakis including one of the first H1 A's in Australia, which I rode for many years, for hundreds of thousands of Kms, with the only modifications being stronger rear shocks, and clip-on bars; to the immaculate H1 F that I bought over 40 years ago. They were known in Australia as "The Widowmaker" because of the number of riders who lost their lives on ( off ? ) them, but I have only good memories of mine - incredibly fast, but with an amazing wheel-standing acceleration when the power band was reached !
The kwaka triples scared the life out of me,..widow maker
I'd the S2 350 back in the 70s and even though I love my modern triple (Street Triple R) I still miss the sound and smell of the strokers.
Hard to beat the sound of those expansion chambers on the two-strokes! That 750 @6:00 sounded like a Formula I car taking off ... brilliant.
Gotta love a Kwaker triple. My S3 has the most amazing mix of induction and exhaust sound when accelerating and is very smooth too. So glad I found a clean unmolested example before prices got crazy and it is a true keeper.
I have a kawasaki s2 350 triple to restore. Can't wait to get started.
My bike since 1974❤
Fantastic Christmas gift, thanks Jawa Tino. The sounds still thrill me and take me right back to the 1970s. The 500 and 750 sound so thrilling on the road!
I'm glad you liked it. I ride a 2 stroke even today.😉
I'm looking for a two stroke now, to add to my vstrom and ducati diavel. But I will probably get either a Suzuki gt750, 550 or 380. A 500 titan would be ok too. Happy new year to you.
Had the 350 but loved my freinds 380 . I so miss the rice burners but took them for granted back then . Now i have 2stroke bicycles w 43cc Zanoah and 63cc Kasei engines on Staton friction dr kits and ride em for exercise and enjoyment . And have several unsung heros in the hi performance world w razor sharp throttle response torque and power and w muffler mods or piped sound awesome , the Chainsaw
Thank's for showing ;-) Hope you're having a blast X-mas
There no sound like to H1s miss shifting while seeing who’s faster . Great video, I miss my 1975 H1 until I go into a corner . Cheers
Love the screaming sound of the triples, in particular as you can hear from 2:04 onwards, though I never had a chance to ride one myself so far... the trace of smoke when accelerating is pretty impressive - great Video, thx for sharing! Take care & have a fantastic new year 2021!
Great Video I have a 75 H2 and 76 KH 400 with Denco Chambers!
Shame they never put their 4 cylinder 750 into production, that would have been very interesting.
Those were incredible bikes!!! It was like having your own nest of angry hornets right beneath you!!! Thanks for great video!!!
Also great for fogging mosquitoes lol
@@charlesdudek7713 you can lease them out for county mosquito abatement... Make some money and haul a*s!! Lol
@@michaelmurphy6869 Sounds like a plan. LOL!
I had an h2 750 when I was 19, back in 1985. It had Basani chambers, rear sets, clubmans, nerf filters, all the typical add-ons. My landlord used to describe my 6:00 a.m. departures to work as "a maniac howling and throwing trash cans around". She hated me.
Happy Holidays!🎄 Good video!👍
Absolutely brilliant . Beautiful bikes
Kawa, the best of the best !
Ahhhh the memories of a great time in my life !
Here are beautiful jewelry for Christmas. They are beautiful these good old 2 stroke!
I personally have the models that followed these, I have a Kawasaki (K) Z500 B1 and a Kawazaki (KZ) 250 C single.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021.
✌🏻👍🏻😎
Thank you and I wish you all the best!
Love those triples. I have the whole collection 250 - 750
Man that orange / gold 750 triple at the end of the video…. Awesome…
They say God created the World in six days and rested on the seventh, this is untrue, he made Kawasaki two strokes on the seventh!
Let the good times roll!
We had a worked cafe H2 in the Kawasaki shop where I worked. I rode all the Z series, Katana 1100s , Honda 900s and 1100s but never started that H2. Looked and felt like a death trap.
It was
Jiiaaan apik-apik, weleh welehhh jos tenan paklek👍salam ko wong jawa timur Indonesia, salam semprong 4 😃
Thanks a lot for a nice video! I own a -72 S2, which I restored long ago but still runs perfect. Even if it's only a 350 it is ANGRY!😁
S1 and S2 fantastic handling and performance, braking no and that applied to every bike then.
I have a best friend how owned RD 200, 250, and 400 we used to swap bikes and do say 100 mile trips, the thing I hated about his RDs was front suspension dive. Apparently this can be fixed by overfilling the oil in the suspension we didn't know that back in the 70s. Loved the RD 200 and 400 engine's .
My best friend bought nothing other than Kawasaki after his RD 400, he's now changed to aprilia, but he's still loves Kawasaki.
Happy Christmas to you and your family 🎅🎅🎅 Keep safe and make more great videos in 2021 👍👍🛠️🛠️👍👍
Thank you very much! Happy Christmas!!!
Got them babies lookin nice !
Top !
I still have a KH400 👌🏻😎
Jawa Tino... I hope to find you well, a Happy New Year to you.
Kawasaki triples sounded pretty timid in stock form, but boy are they a sleeper... I have heard that the H 750 was the only bike to give the Z1 900 a real run for the money. I rode a 69 & 74 500, (there were two bikes in 74 green & brown) the brown bikes were supposed to be for 75 until the NHTSA (USA) stepped in & told K to detune the bikes for 75, as they put out too much Hp for the weight of the bike. So they took all of the bikes already made and put them out as a 74 model, detuned the engines & started building again for 75. I personally think this was the 1st step of them trying to do away with 2 stroke street bikes here.
Thank you very much and I wish you all the best in the new year!
FYI,in 75 the H1F was still rated at 59hp (only 1hp less then earlier H1’s) by Kawasaki and it was 1976 when the h1 500 was changed to a KH500 that the motor was detuned by Kawasaki & rated at 52hp.
I know this to be true 1st hand from owning 71,72,74 H1’s (all rated 60hp) & a 75 H1F (rated 59hp) . Other then the 75 H1F rated at 59hp weighing a bit more the motor still felt like it had approx as much punch as my 72 & 74 h1s did with only 1hp more but when I worked on & test rode a 76,kh500 for someone I knew it did in fact feel weaker then my 75h1f in the 6k-8k rpm range vs earlier 500’s.
I have also seen dyno runs on a stock 75h1f with carbs dialed in better the stock is that dyno’d 59.8 & 59.6hp on 2 back to back dyno runs.
I currently have a 75H1F I am going thru the motor on top to bottom due to the 45+ yr old crank seals leaking & hope to having up & running again by end May or early June 2021.
I also owned a 73 h2,a new 76 kz900 (traded in in new 77 kz1000) & then new 77 kz1000 (sold in 2016 in great cond and later bought a different low mile/2,500 76 kz900 too.
Happy Motoring!
@@scottwheaton9689
Thanks... I'm open to learning as I know everything I have been told over the years isn't true or completely true. Thank you for the added information...!!!
@@scottwheaton9689 The 1973 H1D was rated at 59 hp also. I bought a new '76 KH500 and reversed what Kawasaki did to detune them to 52 hp. Kawasaki added the restricted air silencer to the top of the air canister that choked it down to breath thru only a 1" hole so I removed that and changed the main jets from the 75's from the factory and installed 95 mains and that thing ran as hard as my '73 H1D . I installed a set of Denco chambers rejetted and that KH500 went 13.17 with me on it (210 lbs) all stock except for the chambers .
Recently, a Japanese comedian bought a 350SS and posted it on TH-cam like a remodeling diary.
Nice to see the kamikaze still lives
love evil 2t sound
I miss my H2:(
HOT DAMN . Love the sound .Baby/H2B / will be back on the road in 2021 , fear and adrenaline and the love of God
I had a '69 H1... You put the key in and when you turned it to "ON", the CDI "B" unit would whine. This let you know that things were about to get serious.....
Changing seized pistons was a regular thing with these bikes.
Where are you guys from?
They lived on in US production a couple years under the KH designation.
I loved my H2 so much if it can't make your blood move man you are dead.
I owned the orange one back in the day, but I was pissed off that it had points ignition instead of the CDI which would rev to the moon without missing a beat. A new set of points would only work well for about 2000 miles before it would start missing at high revs. Years later the 2-stroke bike I regret not buying at the time was a 1984 Yamaha liquid cooled 350 with full fairing. Stupid me.
The 750 was the ultimate Kawasaki two stroke street bike. A little over a minute on it? Maybe next time cut a little chunk out of the 350 time.
Next time I will make a whole video about this bike. Don't worry. ✌😉
My motorcycle budd back in the day bought one of these... he said it handled poorly. He sold it after a season.
давненько видосов не было
Had one it demanded respect .
i had a girlfriend who had a KH250,then got a Z900!
❤
Lean that oil pump out a bit. It will run better and smoke less. 👍🤓
3気筒は、最高だね！
Does anyone have a 73 H1D cable routing scematic?
4:45 OK, now Lean Back. . .
Yip i had the 500. In blue. It had terible vibrations so bad it would turn the innition key and put the lights out . The lights were activated by turning the key into position 3. Drive with lights some bike flat out on a country road at nite and all of a sudden it went black.
Иж Юпитер)
No S1??????😢😢😢😢
Why are testers so reluctant to let the revs go to redline? Let them eat!
1.35 the enging is making lots of connecting rod and piston ring sounds gone this bike
Not a single wheelie?? Shame! LOL...
2:22 Sound of Metal on Tarmac! Doesn't look more than 20 degrees of lean angle! Yikes!
Ser 0:59 0:59
They made the S2 350 for only 2 years 1972,and 1973, never made a 1971S2, and the S3 was first to replace the S2 in 1974 look it up,, i own one of each ,along with all the years if the H1 except 1969, includung the 1976KH 500, wich came with a longer swingarm, and more beefier front end, KH (kawasaki highway) you should verify before you post stuff lol
My Stock '72 H1 would exceed 120 mph without hesitation. 100 is almost instant on it.
It's not like you can look at the speedo when you do that. Don't if you want to live.
This freaked out Honda CB750 riders I let try it.
They say they did 120 before they chickened out and it's not their bike and stuff .
In hindsight, I should never have let anyone else try that bike. Anything could have happened.
Somewhere, some envious fool said 115 mph for the 500?. That's very wrong.
Even the Ninja 400 does that top end and that's only a four stroke.
The H1 may hit the 5th gear redline at 124 mph but if you are a light weight rider, You need lower Bars and much higher gearing just to keep the frond end on the ground.
You don't hear the exhaust when you're riding anywhere near as much as you delight in the Turbine like sound of the intake to the carbs. That was not expansion chambers in the rear view video. That's Stock.
The H2 750 was just a bit heavier than the 500 due to it's larger cylinders. Anybody that says the 750 could only do 120 is Nuts! What was that it says here the 750 is 464 pounds Dry? That would be awfully heavy Wet. think about it.
The standard pipes sound like a rattling outboard to me, they only sound good with expansion chambers like the one they were riding in the clip but never see. They same can be said about all the 2 strokes of this era. They banned the production of 2 stroke engines because of the pollution they cause.
Sorry , but the Suzuki's were better . A bit Tamer , in standard trim , but NOT that much . Easier to live with . Better handling , more comfortable , less frightening , BETTER BRAKES by a Shitload , Etc . If you took an H-2 Triple and a GT-750 and went , OK , No Port work , just Chamber and Carb Tune for
" Go very Fast " , I don't believe you would notice much difference at all . The Suzuki would be LESS apt to wobble though . Frame was Way better .
An H-1 and a Titan are a Different argument . Triple vs Twin . S-2 and GT-380 are kinda comparable . S-1 and X-7 not comparable .
I LOVE Two-Strokes . And I fully believe the Suzuki Product was better . Yamaha persevered after the others had given up , and they built the BEST in the end . The RD/RZ series were the end of Commercial Two-Strokes . Legislation basically BANNED them . You can still own an Antique , however .
too muck smoke ... and drunk