Look I know this is Superduke.net and you all hate Japanese two strokes but...

My H2c has just been made bike of the month over in the United States on the triples owners site over there. This is a big thing for me because there are a lot of triples and owners in the States and there's some fierce competition!

Grats Bic! That's a lovely picture, the background works well with your accent colors on the bike.

Nice!

very nice. there's something about a two stroke street bike that just appeals to me. too bad we only had a few models over the years. would love to have an RZ350 in the proper colors (sorry, colours) some day but given the performance of todays bikes I'm sure I'd be disappointed with the performance. but it's a great bike. love the color on yours!

Speedy. These power-mad two stroke bikes would not exist except for the USA market in the late sixties and early seventies. I think in the UK we like to think of those times in terms of what the Japanese were doing to sell bikes to Europe but the reality was they has their eye on the US market and the volume of sales potential there.

By 1970 the Honda 750 four was the bike to have and the power-race was on. The US obsession with quarter mile times dictated what was hot or not and this bike was designed to obliterate the competition in a straight line. Handling and any other factor was secondary and after the success of the 500 H1 bikes the 1972 750 triple ruled the drag strip and traffic light competitions for years.

But ironically it was the Californian environmental laws regarding exhaust emissions that killed these bikes and by the mid '70s they were consigned to history with Kawasaki putting all it's efforts into the four stroke Z900.

Mine is the last of the triples and 1975 was the last year they were ever made.

(To compare I think that there were only a couple of thousand H2s sold in the UK but over a two hundred thousand in the US)

Beautiful bike Bic and is a credit to you.Not surprised though after the way you look after the SDR,the best looking superduke on the forum but just needs a little of rim tape to high light the wheels.Cheers

Good on mate! I love two strokes just wish they would make a two stroke with today's tech it would be awesome!
Still wish I had my old RG500

@SpeedyR I haven't looked recently but there was a small but dedicated group that had updates for the RZ350. Good brakes, upside down forks, etc. They are essentially Banshee (race quad) motors which didn't get discontinued until the late-ish 2000's so parts are still very available. It wouldn't necessarily be a cheap project, but if you bought one you could have a blast unless you prefer the modern bikes. Nothing like going ring-a-ding-ding-ding!

This keeps getting posted on the triples site in the States...

I'd buy one, maybe not purple though.

Have you ever seen this one... H2 1000 Custom
The engine was modified from a 750cc triple to a 1000cc 4 cylinder
It was modified and owned by a collector in Southern California.
I just saw his collection of over 100 bikes, and this was one of about 8 various Kawasaki triples

My old Blue meanie.
My 1st bike was a 90 cc Kawasski. 2nd bike when I turned 16 - old blue H2.

OMG. look at the tyres on that thing. It went 120 mph every day I road it.

Nearly every Kawasaki triple I knew when I was in my teenage years was immediately converted with clip-ons and chambers. No one rode around with those US spec high bars and standard exhausts.

^^^ True. I think keeping my weight forward helped eliminate the tank slappers. That bike wheeled easier then this 1290. Wirges expansion chambers. Loved the sound of that motor with those pipes.
Velocity stacks?? I cant remember if I had velocity stacks on mine or was it K&N filters. I know I did remove the stock air filter system & was was trying to invent some sort of a air ram system. Dam I wish I had more pics of that terror. I do recall having the shop install reed valves & they polished up & ported the motor. The motor seized shortly after that. Was never the same after the rebuild. Ran like shit. I moved onto the 900 Kawi briefly, 2 -1100 Yami's(one was a special), then 3 - 900 SS Ducatis. I sure wish I had all them old bikes now.

Compliments on such a fine piece of motorcycle history.

Nice.. my uncle had a Kwaka Z9 that got me into road bikes

1978 was the year when the Big Four all fired their cannons at once. Introduced were the GS1000, XS11, Z1R and the CBX1000 (as a 1979 model in July 1978). It was a great time to be into bikes. The two stroke of choice at the time was the RD400, followed by the RD350LC in 1982. King on the track was the TZ750.

Yeah I remember wanting a RD250/350LC when I was at school. Thought it was the coolest bike ever (within my reach anyway).
Never ended up riding one. I did test ride a RZ250 once though.
My current boss has a RZ500 (and an RG500 as well as a Zero S).

By gum, the '70s, bendy frames, shite suspension and brakes, loved every minute of it.

I bought a Z900 (green) in 78, friends had Jotas, one had a YR5s with TZ expansion chambers and no stingers, holy cow that hurt your ears.

There were more cops on the roads, but being pulled over often resulted in a ticking off followed by ‘on your way son, take it easy’ and no ticket.

Ee, it were reet good in Yorkshire int '70s.

Michael: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.

Graham: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier, eh Josiah?

Terry J: You're right there Obediah.

Eric: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier?

Michael: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

Graham: A cup o' COLD tea.

Eric: Without milk or sugar.

Terry J: OR tea!

Michael: In a cracked cup, and all.

Eric: We never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

Graham: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

Terry J: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

Michael: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."

Eric: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.

Graham: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing and we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!

Terry J: You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor!

Michael: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!?
Hmph.

Eric: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpolin, it was a house to US.

Graham: We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!

Terry J: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in a shoebox in the middle of the road.

Michael: Cardboard box?

Terry J: Aye.

Michael: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down the mill for fourteen hours a day
week in week out, for sixpence a week. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

Graham: Luxury! We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, work twenty hour a day at the mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us
to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

Terry J: Well of course, we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

Eric: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, , and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

Michael: And you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

All: They won't..

This brings back memories...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HESIjHvOjtw