Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Yes they are Jim Lomas pipes. The new owner got them.He bought the bike when it was black with a 500 engine and then copied the chassis set up onto another bike, put the H1 in that and bought my H2 engine to put back in the bike. So only one set of pipes and two bikes. I was able to spend some quality time on it and it was interesting to see the difference between the pipes I made in 1990 for the 500 engine ( they were on the 750 when we raced it) and the newer design JL pipes. Lomas pipes are very nicely made, they made roughly 9hp more in the top end and revved another 700rpm. Quite a bit less power under 5500rpm, like 12hp less at 4500, which sort of surprised me a bit as they have nice tapered headers etc and a fatter belly. The ignition settings were a fair bit different to achieve best power. Engine wise the pipes are a resounding success. Laptime wise I think he will struggle to go as well, due to reduced ground clearance and less power under 5500. Especially at the Island where one needs to come off slow corners under 5K . With the overall gearing to allow speed on the fast parts, it is tricky coming out of MG in 2nd gear. This is a very important corner for a good laptime. All these comments are race bike related as it is only a racebike. On a streeter the pipes would be ace. They look cool, sound cool and are light.

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I am just a man working in a tin shed.

Thank for infos about the Lomas GP, rode Tartan's H2 with them but just a few miles with opened full throttle so didn't noticed the less power under 5.000 rpm.
Old Denco RR are definitively better.
Will try K2 tec pipes one day (on an other K triple) but still haven't a real view of the power range with them

So, I am working furiously on the H2 rebuild (!), but I thought I would continue with a bit of the old stuff. And things will get out of sequence, but what the heck, it is all good fun. First up a 3-hour production race in 1972, my mate Colin D. is on the Trident, and he is about to see me disappear into the distance.....(900metre straight coming up!) (we teamed up on the H2 for the '73 race) Note the safety padding on the outside of the corner, or not...! ( note I had the same Number as Yvon du Hamel, which is about where the similarities ended!)

And here is Nev. on the 500 at McNamara Park in South Aus, proving he doesn't need to be held up by 3 wheels.....

We did a lot of our early Triples racing on the 2.6Km McNamara Park circuit in South Aus. It is like a tight, twisty Go-Kart track,( only tighter) and what you can't see is the, err, interesting changes in elevation, like in about the middle of the straight, which would get your attention. (when people say the Triples handle like Crap, I have to differ.) Nev is still current on the side-car, my days are long gone...!

But a great track, and I managed to win a couple of races on a drum braked H1, which pretty much explains why I am like I am.... (great traction on that track....!)
And here is a picture of my 100,000 mile old H2 the day I bought it in 1972. Note the Registration disc on the High bars, both of which disappeared a few days later......... (not to mention the rear fender...)

...and I am not growing a lawn on the centre Cylinder, the vagaries of old film.......

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

Good old H2E 05758....

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

Great photos, Rod, thanks. It's interesting that you guys seemed to use the edges of your boots to feel the track in those days, rather than you knees.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

We tried using our elbows, and even helmets on the odd occasion, but it didn't really do much for the lap times................ We had this "cobbler" in town who would repair our boots on a regular basis, cost about ten shillings and sixpence to get 'em fixed.......

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

great pictures and as wrote Jim at this time was more by the edges of the boots than by knees we felt the track.
As I already wrote we touched knees for the first time on french production race on 1982 when Michelin put on his brochure some "road" tyres with very soft gum you could got only with a racing licence

Nothing like the electric "tingle" of your toes on the asphalt......

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

Saw something similar at RB last August... apparently thats how you do it on KV's also...

Keep the photos coming Rod, I enjoy seeing things from my pre-school years

I'm off to Mac Park again early March as you know Rod. It is a great track, some world famous names learned their craft there. One J Burgess, K Magee, G Porteous, Davo Johnson, the list is long I need to do research. The Trident Colin can you PM me his last name? I am reluctant ask in an open forum as you have not said. I reckon we used to race against him in the 24 hour trial. I competed at the last ever roadrace at AIR in 1989. I didn't mind the track, we knew the wall was hard and generally kept away from it. I felt it was safer than most of the public roads folk used to race on back then.

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I am just a man working in a tin shed.