The Kawasaki H1 in perspective

So, what’s so special about a Kawasaki H1: after all, on paper at least the figures aren’t much to shout about. Sixty horses and an all up weight of almost 190kg doesn’t sound like anything potentially special when compared to more modern tackle. It’s in the same ball park as Yamaha’s XJ600S Diversion for crying out loud! The one key word here is context; look at what the 1968 H1 was up against and you can readily see what a game changer it was. Similar mass to Suzuki’s then new Cobra but 14bhp more powerful, the H1 was in a league of its own. Triumph’s almost new T110R was 20kg lighter and handled like a dream compared to the Kawasaki but the latter had 33% more power. And the 500cc offering from the still then-all powerful BSA giant was even worse at just 33bhp! Period road tests acknowledge that the H1’s handling was lacking but even when likened to a drunken cow on roller skates the two-stroke triple was the bike to have. The fact that its launch in September 1968 was some nine months ahead of Honda’s 750/4 well and truly got Kawasakis on the biking map. It’s unlikely the two machines ever really directly competed for customers yet together they shone out like beacons in what was fast becoming a sea of mediocrity. Unlike British, European and American motorcycle manufacturers, Kawasaki had listened to their sales teams in the States who wanted a bigger, faster machine. Project Blue Streak commenced in 1964 with the sole aim of delivering the quickest quarter mile machine possible and if it also happened to be the fastest then that would be a bonus. Two teams worked on separate designs, a disc valved twin and a piston

ported triple; the latter team even looked at an L-shaped triple as per DKW’S postwar racer. Eventually the twin was parked up and the two triples were shortlisted for further development. Using technical input from Osaka University it was concluded that while the L engine offered slightly better cooling the inline engine was still commercially viable. The other deciding factor was that Kawasaki was nervous of the L’s configuration in terms of customer acceptance. The H1’s legendary handling (or lack thereof) was an artefact of all the research put into the new engine. With a now restricted budget, huge assumptions were made leading to a derivative of the A1/A7 chassis being used. Even the first prototypes had the test riders shaking their heads at the wayward nature of the bike so the engineering team came up with the expedient fix of adding both hydraulic and friction steering dampers to tame the worst of the H1’s unrestrained behaviour. What hit the streets in late 1968 was typical of the Japanese approach to motorcycle design; powerful and supremely reliable engines, so-so brakes and compromised chassis. The thinking was, even if you had the sweetesthandling frame in the world, it was pointless if the bike regularly broke down or was a complete slug. The compromises Kawasaki made with the H1 clearly struck the right note with the most important people; the customers. Yet even when faced with such successful machines, every manufacturer outside of Japan failed to grasp the significance; performance and reliability were key to sales – not oil leaks, bad electrics and mechanical failings augmented by a decent chassis!