BUYERS’ GUIDE: KAWASAKI 500 TRIPLES
How to get the best possible example of Kwak’s super stroker
AKawasaki triple won’t suit everyone – they’re too idiosyncratic to be an everyman’s bike. But if you’re looking for an iconic Japanese classic with a huge dollop of attitude, style and performance, an H1 is well worth considering. It’s the original bad-ass triple and helped create Kawasaki’s performance-led reputation when it appeared in late 1968. Need to bring a little excitement into your life? Try one out...
Get a good H1 wound up to around 6000rpm and, as slightly later Kawasaki advertising copy recommended, you can really ‘Let the good times roll’. Acceleration is what the H1 is all about and, with a claimed 60bhp on tap and a commendably trim 173kg to push along, that’s what it delivers. It still feels rapid today, so just think what it must have felt like 51 years ago.
This was Kawasaki’s first ‘big’ bike. Their rotary-valve two-stroke twins, the 250cc Samurai and 350cc Avenger, had laid down a performance marker with impressive top-speed and excellent build quality. But Kawasaki wanted more. The design brief for the next step up was to build the best bike in the world – and for Kawasaki, best meant fastest.
The H1 might not have been the outright fastest machine on the road in 1969, but it was up there. US magazine Cycle World managed 119.14mph and their competitor, Cycle Guide reeled off a standingstart quarter-mile run in 12.72s. It was impressive stuff.
Behind that performance there’s some impressive engineering, too. The three-cylinder piston-ported engine has a 120° crank with six main bearings and it’s conventional but strong. The quirky gearbox with its all-up shift pattern works well and rarely causes problems.
To ensure the H1 didn’t suffer from plug fouling at lower revs, Kawasaki also adopted electronic ignition technology (for the first time on a road bike) from their exotic 125cc V4 works racers. Using thyristor switching enabled them to boost ignition voltage to around 25,000-30,000 volts to give
a much more powerful spark at low revs and allow the use of surface discharge plugs, which were much less prone to fouling – even if they did revert to conventional points ignition for some markets.
Even half a century on, that engine still delivers. Expect a 115mph-plus top speed (if you can bring yourself to be so insensitive with 50-year-old machinery) and free-fall fast acceleration. The H1 hasn’t gone soft in its middle age.
And, while the H1 swiftly acquired a reputation for evil handling back in the day, the reality isn’t quite so alarming. Replacing the original shocks with decent aftermarket units improves things no end; modern tyres help a lot, too. The H1 is never going to handle like a Featherbed-framed Triton, but it’s nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests.
The engine parts supply situation is pretty good for the H1, too – buoyed by a strong cult following for Kawasaki triples. Around 110,000 were built in various incarnations (including the final KH500 model), so used parts should be plentiful, too. That’s just as well, because some cosmetic and cycle parts – especially for the early models – are getting pretty hard to find now. Look for a complete and original bike when buying.
There’s a disc brake from 1972
Above: The 1969 H1 Mach III, like the one raising Gez’s heart-rate in the shot above, is the original and one of the most desirable of Kwak 500 triples
(except on some of the semimythical C models), a one-piece exhaust from 1973 and a conventional one-down/four-up shift pattern on the final KH500. Early models are more collectible, while the later ones are a touch more practical. All are characterful, quick and quirky.
THE RIDE
There’s no getting away from it, the H1 is a fairly sharply-focused tool. A great all-rounder it isn’t – despite the fact that I know one owner who used to make regular trips to Germany on his. Riding an H1 is all about getting into that 2500rpm-wide power band and staying there. Do that and the ride is an exhilarating rush of dragstrip acceleration, a hovering front wheel and a soul-stirring crackle of exhaust. It’s a feelgood bike, rather than a particularly practical one.
Get the revs dialled in and the fun starts at around 6000rpm. It’s hard to believe this is a 50-year-old bike when the revcounter needle flicks round so eagerly and the H1 flings itself at the horizon with the urge of a much younger machine.
That up-all-the-way gearbox is positive and the clutch light and progressive. Slowing for 30mph limits reveals just how well Kawasaki made their first big twostroke behave at low revs. There might not be much power to speak of while pottering along in fourth
gear at 3500, but the bike behaves in a perfectly civilised manner when it has to. If it wasn’t for the manic nature of the power delivery once you wind it on, it’d be hard to imagine why the H1 was labelled as something of a hooligan’s ride.
The handling really isn’t bad, with modern tyres and shocks fitted. The forks work pretty well and it’s only stopping power – or rather the lack of it – that lets the side down. But who cares if the front drum (and even the later single disc) isn’t really up to the heart-pumping acceleration and top-end rush? You can’t really expect perfection from a 50-yearold bike. But what you will get is a ride that leaves you feeling alive. What’s that worth?