Kawi2strokes.com Forum

True enough, Dave, but the truth is often too late!!!

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

Rod, very true about that, no doubt at all.

Remember the Suzuki T350 (315cc) that won the Bathurst 6 hour?

That was Joe Eastmure in the Castrol 6 hour production races in '71 and '72, at the now defunct Amaroo park circuit ....an amazing effort regardless, but he was disqualified in controversial circumstances, and the bike was not exactly stock. Still an amazing story, tho!!

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

I have a T350 sitting outside, waiting to get reborn.

I would assume that a Kawasaki, that is liquid cooled, has a six speed transmission, is a piston port two stroke, and has three cylinders.......ISN'T a triple, from what I have read here, because it ISN'T air cooled, 5 speed, and an H or S series engine. I'll have to delicately explain that to my KR750, then. I am sure it will be very disappointed to hear that, indeed.

Seems someone in Europe is actually reproducing KR750 boat anchors. I can't imagine the cost though.......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

I've heard you call the KR a boat anchor elsewhere as well... Is it because the KR doesn't even stack up against the H2R or just because they didn't make any attempt to keep pace with what Yamaha was doing?

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http://kawatriple.com/wtf/

good guy: I let him copy my genuine frame, swing arm, exhausts, tank and radiator and he gave me a repro gearbox. So now have nearly all parts twice and it will be time to rebuilt.
Nobody has a whole clutch for KR 750

Not sure what Kawasaki was thinking, for their last hurrah. They asked Hurley about what to do with the new engine, he said no water cooling, but they went ahead anyway. The H2R's stayed reasonably competitive because of their lighter weight. The Kr motor is freakin heavy, (yes, I have picked them up myself) Thick assed castings along with water and radiator. Still piston port, so an antiquated design. They did get the KR's kinda competitive but it was basically too late.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Only two things I saw that were still "dicey" with the KR were it was still a piston port engine, and it still had way too small transfer ports. The TR Suzuki's had virtually the same "twisted" transfer port layout, and they ran well, were piston port engines, too.

I can only imagine the problems that would have been caused by building the KR750 with air cooled cylinders. H2R's distorted so bad in the first 3 laps, they lost significant piston ring seal, and power.

As far as engine weight, the KR was significantly lighter than the TR's, and Honda CR's, and the vaunted TZ700/750. When done correctly, only a very well prepped TZ7 would out run one.

The 4 cylinder 500 engines of the day were also slightly heavier. All those ran well enough to 'carry the weight load'. Apples to oranges, some might say, but performance is performance. Suzuki actually offered a case material option for their RG500 square 4 rotary valve race engines, because they were way heavy. Ask Hurley about the "magnesium case option", only issue they had was seizures, from the porosity air leaks that couldn't be plugged up in the magnesium.

The KR's could have been worked with for better output, transfer ports could have been updated, as could the inlet ports to utilize reeds. and, yes, I have lifted, by hand, more than a few of all these engines, NONE are light.